This perfectly moist apple cake recipe has a lovely apple flavor and the perfect amount of spices. Perfect for serving with great coffee to good friends. I also serve this recipe with a side of decadent vanilla pastry cream!
This Easy Apple Cake Recipe is just one of the baking recipes that my friend Kit shared with me.
When Kit brought this cake recipe over she brought it with a side of her Vanilla Pastry Cream. This Apple Cake Recipe is really delicious all on its own. But this pastry cream is next level! I seriously could have just eaten it from the jar.
This Old Fashioned Apple Cake is a traditional Scandanavian cake that is made with fresh apples and nuts. It's typically served with coffee and vanilla pastry cream.
Why you'll love this Apple Cake Recipe
- One bowl: This cake is a one-bowl cake. Just mix the batter up in one bowl.
- Apple-y goodness: The fresh-baked apples in this cake add a warm apple cinnamon loveliness to the cake.
- Beautiful: This cake looks adorable in a non-pretentious way!
Recipe Notes
This might be the BEST apple cake recipe you'll ever have! Warm homemade apple cake is best shared with a group of good friends and a great cup of coffee.
However, all bets are off on the vanilla pastry cream. This stuff is so good you may have to fight a family member to get your fair share.
Ingredients For Apple Cake
- Dry Ingredients: all-purpose flour, sugar, baking soda.
- Spices: cinnamon and sugar
- Apples: I like a crisp red apple for this recipe, like fuji
- Eggs: Let the eggs come to room temperature before baking.
- Butter: Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
- Almonds: Slivered almonds for decorating. You can use any nuts that you like. Pecans and walnuts are also a good choice.
How To Make Apple Cake
- Prep the apples: Peel and core the apples. Slice the apples into wedges. Toss the apples with cinnamon and 5 tablespoons of sugar. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar: Beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs: Beat each egg in one at a time.
- Add the dry ingredients: Sift in the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Prepare the cake for baking: Pour the batter into a parchment-lined springform pan. You can also use a greased and floured cake pan. Place the apple wedges into the top of the cake to form a spoke pattern.
- Bake: Bake the cake for about 45 minutes at 375℉
Apple Cake Variations and FAQs
You probably have a favorite apple that you use for baking. If not, here are a few suggestions.
Granny Smith Apples: Granny Smith Apples are very tart, crisp, and have firm flesh. They are the traditional apple used in apple pie. Because of their firmness, Granny Smith Apple holds up well to baking.
You can bake them for a long time without them becoming too mushy. This is important for recipes like Apple Pie. When you bite into Apple Pie you want to have a firm, sweet, bite of apple.
Pippin Apples: Pippin Apples are another tart and crisp apple. Pippin apples are sweeter than Granny Smith Apples but they hold up to baking without getting too soft.
The flavor of pippin apples reminds me of a crisp apple cider. Because of this, they are one of my favorite apples to use in baking.
Fuji Apples: Fuji apples are crisp and sweet. I like to sometimes mix fuji apples with another kind of apple when I am making a pie.
I like the contrast of the super tart apples and the sweetness from a fuji apple.
Yes, Gluten-free flour works very well in this cake recipe. One of my personal favorites is King Arthurs One-to One Flour. This gluten-free flour blend works well in most cake recipes that I have tried.
Store any leftover cake in an airtight container. The cake will be good at room temperature for a few days. If you want to keep it longer, store it in the fridge.
Yes, you can even freeze this cake. I used to not bake as much because I felt like my recipe would go to waste. Or I just didn't want all that delicious cake sitting around on the counter just calling my name. Then I found out that baked good freeze quite nicely. Because this cake has no frosting you can wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and then in a layer of aluminum foil.
This cake is perfect for adding different fruit. Stone fruit works especially well in this cake. You can replace the apples with pears, plums, peaches, nectarines. All of these fruits would be absolutely delicious in this cake recipe.
Here are more cake recipes to try:
If you haven't had enough cake yet, here are a few more of my cake recipes.
- Ultra Moist Chocolate Mocha Cake
- Fluffy Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Ultimate Vanilla Cupcakes
- Black Forest Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting (Glass Shard Halloween Cupcakes)
- Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes with Irish Whiskey Ganache and Bailey’s Buttercream Frosting
- Vanilla Pastry Cream
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Homemade Apple Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 apples cored, peeled and sliced into wedges
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon for apples
- 5 teaspoon sugar for apples
- silvered almonds for decorating
Instructions
- Wash, core, and peel apples. Slice into wedges.
- Mix cinnamon and 5 teaspoon of sugar together. Toss the apple slices in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. Set aside.
- Use a mixer to cream butter and 1 ¼ cup of sugar together until it's light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture one at a time, mixing in each egg before adding the next.
- Sift together baking powder and flour. Add to the batter mixture. Mix until combined.
- Pour the cake batter into a parchment-lined springform pan (or a greased and floured cake pan if a spring-form pan is not available).
- Stick the apple wedges into the batter, putting them in vertically (thick edge up) in a spoke-like pattern. (The end result should look a bit like the fins in a jet engine.)
- Decorate the top with a few slivered almonds.
- Bake at 375 °F until golden brown - approximately 45 minutes.
- Serve warm. Optional: top with vanilla sauce (recipe below).
