Rich gets emails from the nice folk at Betty Crocker, and, when he sees something particularly interesting, he sends it on to me.
This was one of those recipes; a poke cake, wherein you bake a cake from a mix, then poke holes in it to drizzle in some extra something or other – in this case salted caramel. This recipe also called for stirring a can of apple pie filling into the cake mix before baking, but I opted to using fresh apples and my fave spices to make my own, mebbe more better, spiced apple cake.
INGREDIENTS
Cake:
•1 white cake mix
•1-1/4 cup water
•1/3 cup veggie oil
•3 eggs
•1/4 cup caramel sauce
•1 tsp sea salt
Apple Filling:
•5 apples, peeled, cored and sliced
•1/2 cup sugar
•1 tbsp flour
•1 tbsp cinnamon
•1 tsp allspice
•1 tap ginger
•1 tsp ground cloves
Toppings:
•1 (8 oz) container whipped topping
•Caramel Sauce
•Butterscotch chips*
•Seasonal sprinkles
*Note: I love butterscotch, but thought these a bit too much for the cake. Feel free to leave these off and mebbe just add some seasonal sprinkles.
Heat your oven to 350º and apply cooking spray to the bottom of a 13×9 inch baking pan.
Toss the apples with the flour, sugar, and seasonings to coat well and set aside for ten minutes or so, until the sugar has begun to 
break down the apple pieces a bit and the powdery sugar and spice coating is more like a thick syrup clinging to the apples.
Nicely macerated.
Beat the cake mix together with the eggs, oil, and water in a large bowl with an electric mixer for two minutes on low speed.
Add the spiced apples and beat for one minute more before turning the batter into your prepared 13×9 inch pan.
Bake as directed on the cake mix box (about 30 minutes), then remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 20 minutes on a rack.
Combine the caramel sauce with the sea salt in a small bowl.
Using a straw or the round handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes every inch over the cake, taking care to only poke the holes halfway into the cake.
Pour the salted caramel over the top of the cake, allowing it to soak into the holes.
Spread the whipped topping over the cake, then drizzle with additional caramel sauce and, if you choose to, top with the butterscotch chips and any other seasonal sprinkles you may have on hand.
Cover the cake and stash in the fridge until ready to serve.