This easy recipe for apple cake is a wonderful way to showcase fresh apples. Soft and tender with a stick-to-your-fork moist crumb and juicy apples in every bite, this cake is delicious plain, topped with buttery brown sugar glaze, or even a quick dusting of confectioners’ sugar.
One reader, Jenny, commented: “So there are ok and good recipes, and then there are recipes like this – ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! This will be put in the recipe box and made for years to come. ★★★★★”
Another reader, Kathy, commented: “I have made many different apple cake recipes in the past, but yours is absolutely the best! I love all the spices you include and the brown sugar glaze! It is also the most moist apple cake I have ever made. ★★★★★“
This apple cake is just the thing to make when you have some freshly picked apples from the orchard (or the grocery store), and you want a simple recipe for a crowd-pleasing dessert that’s ready to eat in the next couple of hours. And will be just as tasty served tomorrow!
The apple flavor is front and center, complemented by the background flavors provided by warm spices and sunny orange juice. If a beautiful fall day were a cake, it would taste like this.
And if you need more inspiration, here is a list of 30+ fall cake recipes.
Everything You’ll Love About This Fresh Apple Cake:
- Tender, soft, and moist like fresh peach cake, banana cake, pumpkin cake, and spice cake
- Chock-full of juicy apple chunks
- Perfectly spiced with the flavors you love in apple pie (with less time + effort)
- Easy to make—no mixer required, no fussy decorating
- Don’t have to wait hours for it to cool completely before eating
- Dairy-free cake recipe like zucchini cake
- Transport and serve right from the baking pan
- Wonderful plain or topped with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar or a brown sugar glaze
Sheet cakes are renowned for being easier than layer cakes—no leveling off cake layers, no fancy decorating tools, no assembly whatsoever. Slicing and serving is a breeze and you’ll appreciate that this dessert can feed a crowd, but is still completely manageable to make. It’s easy to transport, too!
Favorite Pan: I really like to bake quarter sheet cakes in a glass 9×13-inch pan or this metal pan that comes with a lid. The lid is super convenient for storing & transporting!
Recipe Testing: What Worked & What Didn’t
I love this spice cake and knew it would be the best starting point for today’s version. The biggest change, besides altering the spices, is using apple chunks instead of shredded.
- Test cake #1 included 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 3/4 cup each of brown and white sugars (like the spice cake). The cake browned pretty heavily and rose a bit too high, and needed just a touch more moisture and flavor.
- For test cake #2, I reduced the baking soda slightly, to 3/4 teaspoon, and changed the ratio of sugars to be 1 cup white and 1/2 cup brown. To brighten up the apple flavor, I added a little orange juice and a bit of lemon zest. This cake came out lighter in color and perfectly moist, but the lemon zest was overpowering the apple.
- For test cake #3, I kept everything the same as the previous cake, but left out the lemon zest. This apple cake turned out perfectly golden and rose up just enough, with those beautiful dimples on top revealing the apples within. And the orange juice adds the perfect amount of fresh flavor and moisture, allowing the apple flavor to really shine.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner!
Key Ingredients You Need
- Flour: All-purpose flour serves as the base. You’ll use sturdy all-purpose flour instead of cake flour in this recipe because of the thick, wet batter.
- Baking Powder + Baking Soda: These ingredients help the cake rise.
- Spices + Vanilla: Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and vanilla—apple’s flavor support team! We use a similar spice combination for apple cobbler, too.
- Oil: Helps guarantee a moist crumb without weighing the cake down.
- White + Brown Sugar: Both sweeten the cake and brown sugar provides flavor. We’re using a mix of brown sugar AND white granulated sugar, though, because brown can weigh down a cake.
- Applesauce: Applesauce adds moisture, and the combo of applesauce + apple chunks ensures an apple-forward flavor in every bite! Make sure you use unsweetened applesauce.
- Eggs: Eggs add to the cake’s structure. This is a big cake, so you need 4 of them.
- Orange Juice: I promise this cake doesn’t taste like oranges! We’re using 2 Tablespoons, and it works so well to bring out the sweet-tart apple flavor. I love using orange juice with fall spices—it’s also the surprising ingredient in my pumpkin bread.
- Fresh Apples: I like to use a mix of sweet and tart apples.
Best Apples to Use
Firm apples are ideal for baking, and you may remember that if you’ve tried my apple crisp before. Avoid soft or mealy apples. For depth of flavor, it’s best to bake with a mix of sweet and tart apples. For this fresh apple cake, I usually use about 1 and 1/2 Honeycrisp apples and 1 Granny Smith apple.
- Tart apples I love to bake with: Granny Smith (in my opinion, this is the best overall apple for baking), Braeburn, Jonathan, and Pacific Rose
- Sweet apples I love to bake with: Jazz, Pazazz, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady/Cripps Pink, and Fuji
For a detailed list of my favorite apple varieties, and when to use each, you can visit my post The Best Apples for Baking.
Peel & cut the apples into 1/2-inch chunks, just like we do for apple turnovers. You need about 3 cups (360g) of apple chunks:
No Mixer!
Since we’re not creaming butter, you don’t need a mixer. Grab a big bowl for your dry ingredients, a medium bowl for your wet ingredients, combine it all, and then fold in the apples.
It will seem like too many apples. It’s not, I promise!
Topping Fresh Apple Cake
Today’s fresh apple cake is so moist and flavorful, like a lighter, spongier version of apple cinnamon bread. But here are some optional toppings… because who doesn’t love an accessory?!
If you’re looking to add some extra flair and sweetness to your fresh apple cake, I guarantee no one will turn down a slice smothered in the buttery brown sugar glaze. It’s the same exact glaze I use for this apple Bundt cake (just added a bit of salt), and it gives the cake a caramel-apple flavor profile.
I also love this cake with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar (pictured above), just like I enjoy serving my baked apple cider French toast. Note that the confectioners’ sugar will melt and disappear into the cake after a few hours, so it’s best to do this right before serving. Other topping suggestions:
- Drizzle with salted caramel sauce, just like I do on these apple cinnamon scones. Apples + salted caramel = a match made in heaven.
- Spread some apple butter on a slice, for extra-deep apple-cinnamon flavor.
- Add brown butter icing from these apple blondies.
- Slather on a layer of salted caramel frosting—if you’d really like to indulge your sweet tooth.
If you’re really feeling the fall vibes, serve it with a glass of honeycrisp apple sangria!
I hope you LOVE this!
Print
Fresh Apple Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
You’ll love this easy sheet cake recipe for tender and moist fresh apple cake. The pictures above include a few photos of the cake with a dusting of 2 Tablespoons (15g) confectioners’ sugar and some include a buttery brown sugar glaze. The glaze recipe is included below.
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon EACH ground ginger & allspice
- 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 cup (240g) unsweetened applesauce
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) orange juice
- 3 cups (360g) peeled chopped apples (1/2-inch chunks, about 2–3 large apples)
Optional: Brown Sugar Glaze
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- small pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.
- Make the cake: Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar, applesauce, eggs, vanilla extract, and orange juice together in a medium bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until combined. Fold in the chopped apples until combined. It will seem like a lot of apples and that’s ok!
- Pour and spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 45–50 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on it. Around the 30-minute mark, loosely tent with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and set the pan on a wire rack. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before topping or serving.
- Right before serving, you can top the slightly warm cake with a dusting of 2 Tablespoons (15g) confectioners’ sugar or make the brown sugar glaze in the next step.
- Make the glaze: As the cake cools, prepare the brown sugar glaze. Combine the butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, and pinch of salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the butter has melted, and then stop stirring and let the mixture come to a rapid boil. Boil for 1 minute. Turn the heat down to low, give it a quick stir, and let simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in the sifted confectioners’ sugar. Allow glaze to cool and slightly thicken for at least 20 minutes. Spoon glaze over the cake right before serving. (Cake can still be warm when glazing.) If your glaze thickened up too much as it cooled, warm in the microwave for 15 seconds and stir until smooth.
- The cake (glazed, dusted, or plain) can be served warm or at room temperature. Cover leftovers and store at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. If you topped with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar, note that the sugar will melt and disappear into the cake after a few hours.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prepare cake through step 5. Cover the cake tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature before serving. Continue with step 6.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass 9×13-inch Pan or Metal 9×13-inch Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Cooling Rack | Fine Mesh Sieve (for confectioners’ sugar topping) | Medium Saucepan (for glaze topping)
- Can I replace or reduce the oil? Vegetable oil is the best option for this cake. You can replace with a neutral-flavored oil such as avocado oil or canola oil. Feel free to use melted refined coconut oil (refined doesn’t have much of a coconut flavor) and make sure every other ingredient in the cake batter is room temperature, so the oil doesn’t solidify. Do not replace with melted butter because the cake will taste dry. You can replace a small amount of the oil with applesauce if needed, but keep in mind that the cake will begin to taste dry/rubbery the more oil you replace.
- Orange Juice: If you don’t have orange juice, you can substitute apple juice, apple cider, or any type of milk. I don’t recommend using lemon juice in this recipe.
- Apples: For depth of flavor, it’s best to bake with a mix of sweet and tart apples. For this fresh apple cake, I usually use about 1 and 1/2 Honeycrisp apples and 1 Granny Smith apple.
- Layer Cake: Grease 3 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans. Divide batter between the 3 round cake pans. Bake for around 26–32 minutes, depending on which size pan you used. The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The brown butter cream cheese frosting used on this banana layer cake would be very tasty on this cake.
- Bundt Cake: Try my recipe for glazed apple Bundt cake.
- Cupcakes: Try my recipe for apple cupcakes.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Thanks for the great tasting recipe! Not too sweet, plenty of apple goodness. The apples all rose to the top of the pan – any way to prevent that next time?
I made this for the first time yesterday and it turned out soo good! I’ve been requested to make it again for a family dinner and was thinking on how to make the presentation more “pretty” (I only have a metal 9×13 pan). Would this recipe translate well into a springform pan instead?
Hi Karen! This would be too much batter for a 9 inch springform pan. Do you have a Bundt pan? Our Apple Bundt Cake is always a crown pleaser too!
Is it ok for me to use the 1:1 flour replacement to make this a gluten-free Apple Cake?
Hi Amy, We haven’t tested it, but you might have success experimenting with a gluten-free all-purpose flour like Bob’s Red Mill or Cup4Cup. If you give anything a try, we’d love to know how it goes for you!
I made it with Bob’s RedMill 1:1 flour substitute! It worked. Thank you.
This is a very good cake; the glaze really takes it over the top! Thanks!
I love all of your recipes and look forward to trying this one. Can I use half-and-half instead of heavy cream in the glaze?
Hi Sonja, that will work in a pinch. The glaze may not be quite as thick. We hope you enjoy the cake!
Excellent!
Can I substitute Apple Cider for orange juice? a little extra apple flavor?
Thanks you
Hi Peggy, that works just fine!
Thank you. will let you know how it goes.
This cake is AMAZING. It reminds me of my grandmother’s recipe. I made this for work and it didn’t last 30 minutes, the teachers devoured it. I did top it with the burnt butter icing that is with a different recipe from Sally. This will go in my family recipe book for years to come.
Thoughts on subbing in non-mushy pears for some or all of the apples? I love apple baked goods, but pears don’t get the glory they deserve!
Hi Elsa, Other readers have reported successfully using pears instead of apples in this recipe. Let us know if you give it a try!
This cake tasted great, but the frosting was grainy 🙁 I was bummed. I followed the instructions very well, and even set a timer. What could have gone wrong?
Hi Laura, Thank you for trying this recipe – we are so glad you enjoyed the cake! Sometimes a grainy glaze is from being cooked too long or at too high of heat. All stove tops are a bit different so if you decide to try it again, it may help also help to turn down your burner a little next time.
Can you do it on a 1/4 sheet pan? It would have a greater surface area and be thinner.
Hi Hollingsworth, are you thinking of a half sheet or larger pan by chance? This recipe is written for a 9×13-inch pan, which is the usual size of a quarter sheet pan. We haven’t tested it in a half-sheet or larger pan, but see recipe Notes for a few alternate sizes that we have tested.
This cake is so yummy I wouldn’t be surprised if hubby “licks” the plate when I’m not looking!
I served this topped with a warm vanilla butter sauce…delish!
Definitely another blue ribbon winner from Sally!
This was very good. Next time I’ll take it out of the oven a bit sooner than 45 min. Caramel sauce takes this from good to great. I didn’t have any powdered sugar for the sauce and mistakenly used 1/2 cup butter, but it was a classic caramel and so good!
Just got the recipe will make in a few days
I don’t have applesauce, I’m gonna use yogurt. But should I substitute it by weight? (180 g) Or volume? (1 cup)
Hi Ruzgar, great question. We would substitute by volume (1 cup).
This is basically Jewish Apple cake, which is can be eaten after a meat meal since it uses oil instead of butter 🙂
Excellent recipe! Family loved it
Made this apple cake today using King Arthur’s Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour and it turned out great. Other than letting the batter sit for about 20 minutes before baking I didn’t have to do any other adjustments due to the GF flour. I used that time to peel and cut up the apples. Used a Honeycrisp, Granny Smith and Pink Lady apple. Great flavor!
This cake was absolutely delicious! I will be honest, I cut the white sugar down by half and next time will probably cut even more. I used all gala apples. No glaze was used. Also used half oat flour and it baked perfectly!
This was amazing. One of, if not my #1, favorite recipe of yours (and I have tried many). The brown sugar glaze takes it to the next level
This cake recipe will be a new favourite of mine…easy & so delicious! It was the perfect sweet (but not too sweet) finish to our family gathering tonight! I added a few tbs of vanilla yogurt to the batter and it turned out so moist! Added a drizzle of warmed caramel sauce on top but totally yummy without it too!
Easy to put together but my edges finished cooking wayyy before the middle.. did I do something wrong? I ended up pulling it out with the middle slightly jiggly still… luckily it’s just for my husband and I so it’ll do for this time lol.
Hi Hannah, I’m sorry to hear that! What kind of baking pan did you use?
Making this tonight and wondering if I can put the icing on at 4pm and not serve it until 8pm. I see the recommendation is to ice it right before eating but I am bringing it to a dinner party. Thanks!!
Hi Kathryn, the cake will be fine for 4 hours at room temp!
I made this today after seeing the recipe on TikTok. Two large Granny Smiths and one Pink Lady. No nutmeg, but that was fine. I added in a little scraped vanilla bean because I had one in the cupboard. I did make the glaze. Simple, absolutely delicious, and tastes just like fall in New England. Sally has NEVER done me wrong!
Hi,
I wondering if I can make these as cupcakes? I want to take them to work and cupcakes work best is all.
Thanks so much. I love your recipes!
Hi Amy, here is our recipe for apple cupcakes instead!
Would love to tell about how great my cake turned out but halfway through typing, as it was several times while I made the recipe, this page had to reload and my comment went away. Please add the full recipes on YouTube and open up the comments. I had only nice things to say before dealing with this nuisance website.
I made this cake today, and it is fabulous!!! I am gluten free and dairy free. I used Bob’s Red Mill gluten free flour and subbed plant butter and the country crock plant cream for the dairy in the glaze. I also used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil just because I didn’t have any. It turned out amazing!!! Took it to a friend’s house for dessert and everyone raved. It will be great with coffee in the morning too. My husband declared this one a keeper. Thank you!!!
Did you have to change the baking time at all since using GF flour? I’m experimenting with adapting recipes with King Arthur measure for measure flour. Thanks!
Hi Sally, I would love to make this cake but in the UK it’s hard to find applesauce like you have it in the US. It’s like a sauce to go with roast meat, is that the kind of thing that would work? If not, is there a way that you recommend to make applesauce homemade?
Hi Sarah, If you’re in a pinch, you can substitute pumpkin puree or mashed banana but the flavor will obviously change. You can try 1/2 mashed banana and 1/2 yogurt/sour cream though! We don’t have a recipe for applesauce, but you definitely could make your own!
Michelle, it’s dead easy to make applesauce. Just peel, core and chop a few apples then simmer them in a little water until they’re soft. Mash with a potato masher and voila. Sally’s recipe calls for unsweetened, so this should work. I just made some today so I can try this cake tomorrow!
I just made it today and didn’t have applesauce either. You can make it easily though with a few cut up peeled apples in a small sauce pan with a little water in the bottom. Turn on medium to medium lowl and simmer till the apples break apart.
Hi Sally! I would love to make this cake. Do you think I could use plant based butter in the glaze?
That should work, Cathy!
Could the glaze be made without the cream or wood Lactaid milk work in its place?
Hi Tosha, that should work in a pinch, although the glaze will be much thinner.
This cake tasted kind of strange the first 2 days. Then was getting funky day 3 and day 4 was inedible. I went over and over the ingredients and instructions, but didn’t find any where I had deviated.