Apple Cake: the light dessert recipe made with crisp apple chunks

Total time: 60 Min

Difficulty: Low

Serves: 8 people

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By Editorial Team

This Apple Cake is an easy, light dessert recipe perfect for fall. It’s a great dessert to make if you’re craving something between an apple cake or apple pie. It’s easy to make (whip the batter up in one bowl) and even easier to eat!

The cake is soft, with a fluffy, moist crumb. The texture comes from the crisp apple chunks in the batter and the crunchy sugary topping. To make it, you will need eggs, sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt, flour, and apples. To make it you simply whip up a batter, and add it to a cake tin with chopped apples. Bake until golden and enjoy!

What Are The Best Apples For Apple Cake?

This apple cake recipe will work best with Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, or Royal Gala Apples. If, however, you prefer some tartness in the cake, you can also use Granny Smith.

Apple Cake Ingredients

Eggs – use large eggs that are at room temperature.

Sugar – use granulated sugar and vanilla sugar.

Vegetable oil – used instead of butter; creates a moist cake. You can also use unsalted butter.

Yogurt – vanilla yogurt adds flavor and sweetness, and also makes the cake moist.

Baking powder – it's perfect to make the cake rise.

Apples – use Granny Smith apples for tartness, or Gala apples if you like them sweeter.

How To Make Apple Cake

Make the batter. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with sugar, vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt. Slowly pour in the oil and continue to beat before whisking in the vanilla yogurt. Add the flour and baking powder and mix well until all the ingredients are fully combined. You don’t need to use an electric whisk. In fact, it’s better to whisk the dough by hand, so you don’t overmix it.

Now prepare the apples. Peel and cut the apples into cubes and sprinkle with lemon juice (this will prevent browning). Place the apple cubes in a cake tin and sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar. Gently pour the cake batter over the sugared apples. Bake until cooked through.

Allow the cake to cool for a short while before removing the parchment paper. Brush the edges with jam, and sprinkle with almonds and powdered sugar.

Tips For Making Easy Apple Cake

As a variation, you can add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and ½ cup of walnuts to the apple cake batter. Nutmeg or ground ginger will also work well with the apples.

You can also use butter instead of oil, but the cake might be a bit drier.

If you want more texture, you can make a cinnamon crunch topping. Simply mix together ¼ cup caster sugar, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, and 1 tbsp melted butter. Sprinkle the cinnamon crunch over the cake batter before placing it in the oven.

Make a sugar glaze to drizzle on top before serving. Simply mix together ¼ cup superfine sugar and 2 tbsp milk and stir until smooth. Drizzle over the cake before serving.

Make it vegan, by using coconut or dairy-free yogurt.

Serve the apple cake with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or a drizzle of maple syrup. This apple cake is best served at room temperature or warmed up just slightly. You can also serve the plain apple cake with vanilla custard.

How To Store Apple Cake

The apple cake will stay fresh for up to 3 days. Just make sure to store it in an airtight container in the fridge.

Can You Freeze Apple Cake?

Yes, you can freeze the apple cake! Simply divide it into slices, and wrap each slice tightly in plastic wrap (clingfilm). Thaw it in the refrigerator overnight, or heat it in the microwave for a few minutes.