The best apple cake is literally almost all apples
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The best apple cake is loaded to the brim with apples wrapped up in a simple buttery thick batter spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. I can’t think of a better cake to go with a cup of strong black tea.
This recipe came originally from my Mom’s godmother. Ann was my great-grandma Marie’s (of kolache fame) best friend. It’s likely as such that this recipe is close to 100 years old. Apple cakes in Europe are practically their own genre. Some are more like pie, some are light and fluffy, and some are more like this one: dense and moist with nearly equal parts apples and cake batter.
I’ve been eating this cake my whole life, and I’ll tell you it’s best the 2nd day. After the first day, the spices kind of simmer down and meld together into something really special. In my family, we like it plain, just sprinkled with powdered sugar. If you want to put a dollop of whipped cream on a slice, we can still be friends.
However you slice it, this just might become your favorite apple cake recipe.
Old-fashioned apple cake
Why this is the apple cakes to rule all other apple cakes
- It’s not like pie even a little bit: The apples here add moisture to the cake with delicate flavor you won’t get from a pie.
- So many apples!!: This cake does not shy away from adding apples into the batter. As an inveterate apple lover, this is my favorite thing about this cake. There’s no hint of apples, they are the main star.
- Intriguing spices: Don’t skip the spices here. We don’t use allspice nearly enough, and this cake is a good argument for why allspice should be celebrated right alongside cinnamon and nutmeg for making apples sing.
- Unusual leavening: modern cakes usually rely on baking powder to leaven them. This one instead relies on baking soda. The baking soda gives the cake a deep brown color and a slightly alkaline taste. It may be weird at first, but let the cake sit for a day, and you’ll love it more.
Ingredients for apple cake
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Apples–sweet or sweet tart varieties are best
- Cinnamon–Saigon cinnamon is my first choice, but use what you have
- Nutmeg–freshly grated is best
- Allspice: grind it fresh for the best
- Baking soda
- Salt: optional; the original recipe doesn’t call for it probably because salted butter was used.
Tips for making incredible apple cake
- Cut your apples thin: If you cut the apples too thick, they will not cook through by the time the cake is done. For the best cut, cut just to the right of the core on all 4 sides of the apple to get large wedges. Cut each side of the apple into planks about 1/2″ wide. Rotate the planks and cut into 1/16″ thin pieces. They will look more or less like big confetti pieces.
- Use fresh spices [steps on soap box]: You’ll get the best taste from freshly ground spices. A coffee grinder will do the job well grinding all the spices. Alternatively, if you already have ground cinnamon, a mortar and pestle will take care of the allspice perfectly.
- Don’t cut hot cake: Waiting for this cake to cool is right up there on the pure torture scale with waiting to cut bread, but here we are. Cut this cake hot, and you justly deserve the delicious but also falling apart pieces that you will cut. Just walk away and go do something else while it cools.
Ways to gild this lily of a cake: serve it with any of these to win the day
- Caramel sauce
- Cinnamon ice cream
- Vanilla pastry cream mixed with whipped cream
- Apple butter
Old-Fashioned Apple Cake
- Total Time: 100 minutes plus about an hour to cool
- Yield: 16 slices
Description
A recipe from my Mom’s godmother, you will scarcely see an apple cake with more apples. Cut them thin, and you will be rewarded with tender sweet apples laced through this delicious buttery spice cake.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 pounds sweet or sweet tart apples (Golden Delicious, Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji)
- 2 sticks butter, at room temperature (227 g), plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar (300 g)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g), plus a little more for flouring the pan
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 whole nutmeg, grated (see note)
- 1 teaspoon salt (optional–my Mom has never used it, but sometimes I do)
- 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice, ground (see note)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Grease a tube pan with butter, being sure to cover the center well. Sprinkle the buttered surface of the pan with flour, tapping the pan while you rotate it on the counter to leave a light layer of flour that covers the butter. Tap out any excess flour.
- Peel the apples, and then cut them into thin small pieces. The best way to do this is to cut just to the right of the core on all 4 sides of the apple to get large wedges. Cut each side of the apple into planks about 1/2″ wide. Rotate the planks and cut into 1/16″ thin pieces. They will look more or less like big confetti pieces.
- Beat the butter with the sugar in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it is light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla to the butter and beat until the batter looks like fluffy buttercream frosting.
- Whisk the spices and baking soda with the flour in another bowl.
- Mix the flour into the butter just until the flour disappears.
Use a baking spatula to fold the apples into the batter with about 10 turns, making sure that they’re well distributed.
The batter will seem quite stiff, but the moisture from the apples will soften the batter as it bakes. - Smooth the batter into the pan.
Bake for 55-60 minutes until the cake is well browned and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 
- Cool the cake for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Cool the cake completely before cutting.
- Serve with powdered sugar (or gild the lily—see notes).
- Keep the cake at room temperature for up to 4 days. It really tastes best after the first day.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
Use a coffee grinder or not: My preference is to grate the nutmeg with a Microplane and smash the allspice in a mortar & pestle. I like the coarser texture of the allspice in the mortar and pestle and the super fine texture of the nutmeg from the Microplane. If you are not like me (that is obsessive about grinding spices with far too many spice grinding tools), just toss everything in a coffee grinder. You’ll still get a good grind, and it’s much simpler than my silly process.
Gild the lily: This cake only needs a sprinkle of powdered sugar to serve. If you want something fancier, consider adding: Caramel sauce, Cinnamon ice cream, Vanilla pastry cream mixed with whipped cream or a dollop of Apple butter.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: German
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 267
- Sugar: 23
- Sodium: 238
- Fat: 12
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 37
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 54
