This recipe for apple spice cake is extremely easy to make from scratch and uses fresh apples, homemade apple sauce and to keep it super moist a fresh light syrup drizzled over the cake when done baking.
It's a delicious sweet snack for breakfast or light cake for Afternoon tea. It's versatile and can easily be made into a layer cake, apple cupcakes or a loaf cake.
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This recipe might look very similar to my famous carrot cake or spiced pumpkin cake, and that's because they use the same base cake batter. This one is made with fresh apples and apple sauce, almonds replace walnuts or pecans.
That's a big win for your cake recipe collection by the way. One base recipe for three deliciously moist cakes.
What does it taste like
In this apple spice cake recipe, the apples are grated and evenly distributed throughout the cake.
We end up with a moist yet fluffy, light texture, full of apple flavour and hints of warming cinnamon, nutmeg, and the gentle crunch of flaked almonds.
The apple sauce and light syrup keep this apple cake extra moist and boost the apple flavour even more.
Best apples for baking
Suitable apples to make apple cake with include the following varieties.
- Granny Smith - Tart, sweet and intense My favourite.
- Gala - Sweet.
- Honey Crisp - Slightly tart.
- Braeburn - Sweet.
- Pink lady - Very Sweet.
Useful equipment
Spring Form Cake Pan
Drum Sieve
Electronic Kitchen Scales
Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
Ingredients
If you put your hand over the screen. These all fit into one hand.
One of the secrets to making a moist apple cake is to use apple sauce in the recipe as well as making a lovely light syrup from apple juice.
- Apples - The best apples for apple cake are the ones you love most. I used Golden Delicious but you can use any type of apple for this recipe because we grate the apples and the texture is not that important. You can also use a mix of apples like Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji or Honeycrisp.
- Sugar - Brown sugar is best for the batter and then you can use powdered or confectioners sugar to dust on top if you like.
- Flour - Just plain white flour.
- Eggs - Large organic whole chicken eggs.
- Raising agents - We use a combination of baking powder and baking soda.
- Fats - Neutral oil in the cake batter and then butter to rub the cake pan with. You could also substitute the oil for olive oil or melted butter.
- Nuts - Untoasted Flaked almonds.
- Spice - Cinnamon and nutmeg. You can use good quality ground spices or grind your own from whole spices.
- Extras - Apple sauce. You can use homemade apple sauce, store-bought or even replace it with sour cream or yoghurt.
See recipe for amounts and substitutions.
How to make it
- Wash 2 apples and grate them skin-on into a bowl. You should have 400 grams or 3 cups of grated apple from two apples. Lightly squeeze out some of the juice so that the apples are not sitting in their own juice. Reserve the juice as we will make a syrup with it. You should be left with 300g (2 ½ cups) of grated apple plus the juice.
- Place 100g(½ cup) of juice along with 25g(2 tbsp) brown sugar and the juice of ½ a lime into a small saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil it.
- Turn the oven to 170°C or 340°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and also cut a circle of baking paper to put on the bottom. Then butter the paper too. Trust me and just do it.
- Prepare two large mixing bowls. One for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ingredients.
- Sieve the dry ingredients apart from the sugar into one bowl and add the flaked almonds. Give it a good whisk so that everything is evenly distributed.
- Mix together the wet ingredients, brown sugar, and grated apple in the other bowl. Mix well so that it's homogenous and even.
- Fold the flour mix into the wet mix little by little.
- Mix it gently until you have a uniform even cake batter.
- Pour the mix into the buttered springform cake pan.
- Place into the oven and cook until a thermometer placed into the centre reads 90°C or 194°F. This can take anything from 40 minutes to an hour depending on your oven, so keep an eye on it and don't just let it be. Otherwise, tears may follow.
- When done, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack, still in the cake form. Stab some holes all over the top with a wooden skewer.
- Warm up the syrup and drizzle all over the cake making sure you get it evenly spread out.
- Let the cake cool down completely before removing, placing on a flat plate or cake stand and then, finally and optionally, dusting with icing sugar.
This apple spice cake recipe is extremely versatile and you can use it in different ways for various occasions and change things up to your liking. See next section.
Variations
This apple spice cake recipe is extremely versatile and you can use it in different ways for various occasions and change things up to your liking.
- Layered apple cake - Cut the cake in half horizontally and level the top. Make a simple cream cheese frosting and spread in the middle layer, top and sides. Store in the fridge.
- French apple cake or Sharlotka - Cut the apple into large pieces but sliced 3mm thick. You will have juice some apples or use store-bought natural apple juice to make the syrup as you won't have juice coming from sliced apples.
- Different nuts - Replace the almonds with chopped hazelnuts, walnuts or pecans.
- Vanilla - Add vanilla essence or if you feeling fancy fresh vanilla bean paste.
- Apple cake drizzle cake - Mix 100g of powdered sugar with a teaspoon of apple juice and lime or lemon juice. Whisk and adjust the consistency to your liking. For a runnier drizzle add a few more drops of citrus juice or for a thicker drizzle add more powdered sugar.
- Spiced Apple cupcakes - Use the exact recipe here and just bake in cupcake forms. Make a classic cupcake frosting. For a little welcome surprise. When the cupcakes have cooled scoop out some of the centres carefully with an apple corer or spoon. Add in apple sauce and close up with some cupcake crumbs followed by frosting and sprinkling some more crumbs on the frosting for decoration.
Tips for success
- Always use scales and metric measurements when baking any cake. It's much more accurate than cup and spoon measurements.
- Heat your oven before you start.
- Prepare your baking tin or mould before you mix the batter.
- Sieve dry ingredients and mix them with a whisk to make sure it's evenly distributed. The same goes for the wet ingredients.
- Always add dry ingredients to wet and gently fold until well combined without over mixing.
- If using butter instead of oil make sure it's not too hot. Just melted.
- Whatever shape you use to bake it in make sure that you leave ½ the volume free for comfortable rising in the oven without it overflowing.
- Use a temperature probe to measure the doneness. Inserting a toothpick can be used but just like cups and spoons, it's prone to failure. Especially with cakes that contain fruit.
- Always store airtight as cake left open will dry out.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, apple cake keeps well and can be made ahead of time. You can leave it covered airtight at room temperature for 24 hours or store it in the fridge until you are ready to decorate or serve it.
Always store airtight. It will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days or it can easily be frozen for up to 3 months.
Always add your dry ingredients to your wet ingredients and gently mix the batter. Over-mixing will result in gluten formation and the cake losing its fluffiness.
Yes, to make a plain apple cake simply remove the spice from the recipe and bake as usual.
Other baking recipes
If you like baking cakes and making bread you will love the following recipes:
- Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
- Cherry and almond tart
- Russian honey cake
- Borodinsky dark rye bread
- Wholewheat flax sourdough bread
- Pumpkin bread
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Recipe
Moist Spiced Apple Cake With Almonds
Ingredients
- 2 (2) apples - grated, skin on - note 1
- 250 g (2 cups) flour - all purpose - note 2
- 12 g (3 teaspoon) baking powder
- 4 g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
- 2 g (1 teaspoon) cinnamon - powder
- 2 g (1 teaspoon) nutmeg - powder - note 3
- 2 g (½ teaspoon) salt - fine
- 100 g (¾ cups) flaked almonds - note 4
- 120 g (½ cups) oil - note 5
- 200 g (4 whole) eggs - 4 large eggs - note 6
- 225 g (1 cups) brown sugar - note 7
- 100 g (⅖ cups) apple sauce - note 8
Instructions
- Wash 2 apples and grate them skin-on into a bowl. You should have 400 grams or 3 cups of grated apple from two apples. Lightly squeeze out some of the juice so that the apples are not sitting in their own juice. Reserve the juice as we will make a syrup with it. You should be left with 300g (2 ½ cups) of grated apple plus the juice.
- Place 100g(½ cup) of juice along with 25g(2 tbsp) brown sugar and the juice of ½ a lime into a small saucepan. Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Do not boil it.
- Turn the oven to 170°C or 340°F. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and also cut a circle of baking paper to put on the bottom. Then butter the paper too. Trust me and just do it.
- Prepare two large mixing bowls. One for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ingredients.
- Sieve the dry ingredients apart from the sugar into one bowl and add the flaked almonds. Give it a good whisk so that everything is evenly distributed.
- Mix together the wet ingredients, brown sugar, and grated apple in the other bowl. Mix well so that it's homogenous and even.
- Fold the flour mix into the wet mix little by little.
- Mix it gently until you have a uniform even cake batter.
- Pour the mix into the buttered springform cake pan.
- Place into the oven and cook until a thermometer placed into the centre reads 90°C or 194°F. This can take anything from 40 minutes to an hour depending on your oven, so keep an eye on it and don't just let it be. Otherwise, tears may follow.
- When done, remove from the oven and place on a wire rack, still in the cake form. Stab some holes all over the top with a wooden skewer.
- Warm up the syrup and drizzle all over the cake making sure you get it evenly spread out.
- Let the cake cool down completely before removing, placing on a flat plate or cake stand and then, finally and optionally, dusting with icing sugar.
Notes
- You can peel the apple if you want or cut it with a knife into chunkier slices. Cubes or wedges won't work as it's too heavy for the cake batter to hold. You can also substitute the apple for pear, carrot, pumpkin or beetroot to name a few.
- You can use gluten-free cake flour instead or substitute it for almond flour to make the cake gluten free.
- Freshly grated nutmeg will have more flavour than pre-ground packaged nutmeg.
- You can add any other nut or seed instead of almonds. Walnuts, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds and pistachios all work well. With the nuts make sure to chop them roughly into smaller pieces.
- You can use any fat. Oil gives the fluffiest texture while butter makes it richer but slightly more crumbly in texture. You can use any oil. Neutral like sunflower or extra virgin for an interesting taste.
- Most baking recipes call for large eggs. This recipe uses whole eggs. An egg yolk weighs 20 grams and the white 30 grams. If using pasteurised whole egg use the gram measurements of 50 grams per egg. 200 grams egg = 4 whole eggs.
- I use brown sugar because it helps keep the cake moister and also adds some warming molasses notes that pair well with the spices. Feel free to use regular white sugar instead. You can also make it sugar-free by using your preferred sweetener instead. Just make sure to add it to taste.
- Apple sauce keeps the cake moist and boosts the apple flavour. Feel free to substitute for yoghurt, sour cream or any other fruit or vegetable puree.
- Store airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days. For longer storage, this cake can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Trix
Thank you for sharing your recipes. Love to try them on.