Fall Harvest Spice Cake

1 pk Spice or carrot cake mix

1 c Water

3 Eggs

1/3 c Vegetable oil

1/3 c Apple butter

Maple buttercream frosting: 4 tb Margarine; softened

1/4 c Maple syrup

3 c Powdered sugar

2 c Walnuts; coarsley chopped

1/4 c Chocolate chips

1/4 c Almonds

2 tb Dried apricots; chopped

2 tb Dried cranberries; chopped

2 tb Raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Grease and flour two 9 inch

round baking pans. 2. Combine cake mix, water, eggs, oil and apple butter in

medium bowl. Beat on low speed of electric mixer until blended; beat at medium speed 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans. 3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until wooden toothpick inserted

into center comes out clean. Let cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove to rack;s cool completely. 4. Prepare Maple Butter cream frosting by beating

margarine and syrup in a small bowl until blended. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. 5. Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; frost top with

Maple buttercream. Top with second layer; frost topa nd side of cake with frosting. Press walnuts into side of cake. 6. Pipe chocolate onto cake to form a tree trunk. Combine

almonds, apricots, cranberries and raisins. Sprinkle on top of cake to form leaves. **If dried cranberries are unavailable use additional chopped dried apricots and raisins. -----