Caramel Apple Trifle

We had a get-together with a bunch of people who used to (or still do) live in Fort McMurray. We were supposed to bring a salad or dessert. So - naturally ;) I chose to do a dessert. This recipe was originally pinned from the Taste of Home website...

Doesn't it look delicious!?!

I changed the way I put the cake in, used less pecans (and didn't toast them), and less caramel sauce (I didn't mean to - I just did it until I thought it looked good). Other than that, I stayed pretty darn close to the recipe. There was one other thing I changed.... I put it into 2 nice pretty bowls, still fairly large ones, instead of a punch bowl.

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix (just the normal sized ones)
6 cups cold milk
3 packages instant vanilla pudding mix (again - normal sized ones. I think they are about 120g each)
1 teaspoon apple pie spice (couldn't find this anywhere so I just used cinnamon powder to taste)
1 bottle caramel ice cream topping (it was 428 mL - i probably only used about half of it)
100g bag chopped pecans
2 cans (21 ounces each) apple pie filling
1L Cool Whip, thawed

Directions:

Prepare and bake cake according to package directions, using 9x13 baking pan. Cool for 10 minutes before removing to wires rack to cool completely.
In a large bowl, whisk milk, pudding mixes and apple pie spice (or cinnamon) for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. (mine was fully set before I used it.)
Cut cake into four. Crumble 1/4 into bottom of each bowl; gradually squirt the caramel topping over cake. Sprinkle with 1/6 pecans (on each) and spread with quarter of the pudding mixture on each one.
Spoon half a can of pie filling over pudding layers; spread with 1 cup of whipped topping on each.
Top with remaining cake and repeat layers. Drizzle with remaining caramel topping and sprinkle with remaining pecans. Refrigerate until serving.

It went over pretty well at our get-together. One person mentioned that it could use a little more spice and that apple pie spice is the same as pumpkin pie spice (or a mixture of allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves would be good too). Since it made two bowls of it, I now have another dessert for a different get-together tomorrow night too!