Desserts & Baking Festive & Seasonal

Halloween Toffee Apple Cake

A moist spiced cake studded with tender apple slices and finished with a glossy caramel drizzle. Perfect for Halloween gatherings, this autumnal bake brings together sweet toffee flavours and warming spices.

By Ricky Robinson Updated October 31, 2025

This Halloween cake takes the classic toffee apple and turns it into something you can actually sit down and eat with a cup of tea. The dried figs might seem like an unusual addition, but they add a deep sweetness and help keep the cake moist without weighing it down. You blend them with evaporated milk to make a paste that goes into the batter, and it gives the whole thing a rich, almost caramel-like flavour before you even add the actual caramel on top.

The fig and evaporated milk paste creates a natural toffee sweetness that keeps the cake beautifully moist for days.

The allspice brings warmth without being overpowering, and the apple slices on top soften as they bake, creating little pockets of tender fruit throughout. It is a proper autumn cake, the sort of thing that makes the house smell good while it is in the oven.

Halloween Toffee Apple Cake recipe image
Halloween Toffee Apple Cake

What makes this cake work for Halloween is not just the toffee apple theme, but the fact that it actually tastes good and feeds a crowd. You get 10 to 12 slices out of a 25cm tin, which is handy if you have got people coming round. The caramel drizzle on top looks impressive but it is just tinned caramel whisked up and poured over, so there is no faffing about with making your own.

The cake needs a good hour in the oven at a lower temperature, which gives it time to cook through without drying out. Once it is done, let it cool for five minutes in the tin before moving it to a wire rack. This stops it from falling apart when you turn it out. The caramel goes on once the cake has cooled completely, otherwise it just soaks in and you lose that glossy finish. A dusting of icing sugar at the end makes it look finished without being over the top.

Halloween Toffee Apple Cake

Apple Caramel Figs
Total Time 1 hr 50 min
Servings 10 slices
Calories 385 cal
Protein 6g

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

  • Food Processor
  • Whisk
  • Wire Rack
  • Free-Standing Mixer
  • Mixing Bowl
  • Saucepan
  • 25cm Round Cake Tin

Instructions

  1. 1
    Preheat the oven to 160°C. Grease and line the base of a 25cm round cake tin with butter and baking parchment.
  2. 2
    Add the figs and evaporated milk to a pan and gently heat. Once it comes to the boil, turn off the heat and let cool for 20 minutes. Transfer to a food processor and blend to a paste.
  3. 3
    In a free-standing mixer bowl, add the butter, sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, eggs, vanilla extract, allspice and fig paste. Beat together until light and smooth, then pour into the prepared cake tin. This can also be done by hand.
  4. 4
    Core and quarter the apples, then cut into slices. Arrange the apple slices on top of the cake batter in a circular pattern.
  5. 5
    Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the cake tin for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
  6. 6
    Whisk the caramel in a bowl to loosen it up, then drizzle over the cooled cake. Dust with icing sugar and serve.
Ricky Robinson - Recipe Author
Ricky Robinson

Home cook sharing delicious recipes with a focus on flavour and simplicity.

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Storage

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. The fig paste keeps the cake moist, so it actually improves after a day or two as the flavours develop.

Variations

Try using pears instead of apples for a different flavour, or add a handful of chopped walnuts to the batter for extra texture. If you cannot find dried figs, dates work just as well in the paste.

Halloween Toffee Apple Cake

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