This moist apple cake has layers of apple-cinnamon filling with a walnut topping. It's even better on the second day and will have you coming back to the kitchen for more!
Our family made a second trip to the apple orchard last weekend. You might remember me talking about our first trip to the orchard in my post about homemade apple butter. In that post I complained about the 90+ degree weather. Well, in true midwest fashion, the weather did a complete 180 and this visit to the orchard we had highs in the 40's. It was SO cold. The only person in our group dressed properly was our daughter with her winter hats and mittens.
This trip to the orchard we picked Northern Spy apples. It's a type of apple I wasn't familiar with, but according to King Orchard, it's a late season apple that is tart and will hold up well for storage. At the orchard last weekend they told us "spys are for pies". Catchy wouldn't you agree? I was thrilled to learn that they will hold up because I've been baking apple EVERYTHING this fall and... I need a bit of a break.
What Apples are Best for Baking?
Picking the best apple for baking is a bit of a personal choice. I think the most important component is finding an apple that is firm enough to hold it's shape because no one likes mushy apple desserts... ugh. Ideally you want an apple with a mix of tartness and sweetness. All of this being said, conventional wisdom often recommends Jonagold, Granny Smith, Fuji, and Honey Crisp for baking.
How Do I make Apple Cake?
This apple cake recipe comes from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen cookbook. For those of you that don't know Deb, she's an amazing food blogger that's been in the game forever. She's a down-to-earth gal and her recipes are such as well. No fancy ingredients or 20 step instructions. Deb says that her mother has been making this cake since she was a kid and that her mother got the recipe from a neighbor.
This recipe starts simply with peeling and chopping apples into one-inch chunks. My chunks were slightly larger and everything worked out fine. You're going to add sugar and cinnamon to the apples which will draw out the juices. This juice is FULL of flavor so be sure to add it along with the apples later in the recipe.
The steps for the cake batter are pretty basic, nothing fancy here. You whisk your dry ingredients together in one bowl. You whisk your wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Then you combine everything together and VOILA! Don't over-mix your wet and dry ingredients. Just fold everything together until it's well combined.
Now comes the fun part. You layer the cake batter and apples in your tube pan. This ensures that you end up with apples evenly distributed throughout the cake. The layers go cake batter, apples, cake batter, apples, and WALNUTS! Deb says she doesn't use the walnuts but I really enjoyed the taste that they added to the recipe.
Whew, that's it! After you throw that baby in the oven for 1 ½ hours and cool the cake, you have a delicious apple cake on your hands. I found that I actually had to cook my cake for about 15 additional minutes because there were pockets of uncooked dough surrounding the apples (Deb warns us about this in her recipe). So just keep a close eye on the cake during the last 20 minutes or so.
Apple Cake
Ingredients
Apple Mixture
- 6 apples peeled and chopped
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 5 tablspoons granulated sugar
Cake Mixture
- 2 ¾ cup flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 cup canola oil
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 eggs large
- 1 cup walnuts
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheight and place baking rack in the center of oven. Spray a tube pan with baking spray (flour + butter mixture).
- Prepare your apples by peeling, slicing, and chopping them into chunks. Add cinnamon and sugar to the apples and mix together. Set aside while you prepare the cake mix.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set mixture aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, orange juice, vanilla extract, and eggs. Add your wet ingredients to the dry and mix until completely combined (there should be no lumps).
- Pour half of the cake batter into your tube pan. Then, pour half of the apple mixture into the tube pan. Pour the remaining cake batter over the apples, and top the cake with the rest of the apples. Sprinkle walnuts on the top.
- Bake the cake for approximately 1 ½ hours, rotating halfway through. Test for doneness by inserting a toothpick which should come out clean.
- Cool cake completely in the tube pan. Afterwards unmold onto a cake stand for eating.
Notes and Tips
Nutrition
Did You Make Our Apple Cake?!
Did you make this recipe? First, let me say THANK YOU for giving it a try! Please leave us a rating above and leave any feedback in the comments section at the bottom of this post. I always love to hear your thoughts and ideas on what went well — and what didn’t — with a recipe! Be sure to check out some of our other recipes below!
marymtf
Fabulous, Heather. I've wanted a simple apple cake recipe for ages. Now I have saved yours/Deb's to my computer and printed a copy up. As that song goes, 'Summer is icumen in
Loudly sing Cuckoo.' Well it's soon a coming in, in Australia. A nice cake to celebrate Summer with and of course apples being abundant in Winter, I can celebrate it in Winter.
:)
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thank you for stopping by to visit Mary! I hope you enjoy the recipe when you have a chance to make it! The hubby already requested another with the apples that we have left over in the fridge ;)
Lathiya
I love the idea of layering the apples in between the cake..The cake looks awesome
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thank you Lathiya! I love that the apples are distributed throughout the cake... it's the best! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend :)
Jhuls
Look at those apples inside the cake!!! This looks fantastic!! Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday party! x
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thanks Jhuls! And YES, the apple chunks are totally my favorite part about this cake! Hope you had a great weekend and happy Monday!
Kat (The Baking Explorer)
This is a fantastic cake for Autumn, I can just imagine how good the flavours are!
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thanks Kat! You're spot on... this cake includes everything I love about fall! My favorite is that the apple chunks are so big you can totally taste the flavor :)
Antonia
The top of the cake is just gorgeous, Heather! I love cakes like this, it really looks delicious! Thank you for bringing this delicious apple filled cake to the party! Happy Fiesta Friday, my friend! :D
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thanks Antonia! I've never been disappointed by one of Deb's recipes from Smitten Kitchen. This apple cake is definitely a new favorite in our home. We ate the entire thing over the weekend!
Life Diet Health
Heather what a gorgeous looking and gorgeous sounding cake! I'm going to try and veganize this as it sounds like something we'd all love! Thanks so much for linking up and sharing at Fiesta Friday.
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thanks Laurena! I have only made a few vegan desserts but we have a bakery in Ann Arbor that makes amazing vegan desserts! I'd love to know what their secret is because everything is so delicious! Thanks so much for co-hosting Fiesta Friday with Antonia this week :)
Life Diet Health
You're welcome! People are amazed how delicious vegan desserts can be - my boys haven't even noticed this week that the cinnamon pretzels, welsh-cakes, crumbly mince pies and pumpkin apple cake were all vegan! :)
Jess
It looks really delicious Heather. Great job!
Heather @ Sweet Precision
Thanks Jess! happy Friday to you :)