Apple cake loaded with fresh apples and a hint of cinnamon, this perfectly sweetened cake makes a great snack, dessert, and breakfast. If you are a cake lover like me, this is a must-try recipe.

My first blog anniversary on Oct 15th... YAY! I cannot believe it will be a year already since I started blogging. It has been a wonderful and exciting journey.
Thank you to my friends Meredith Lawida and Patty Connelly for your support. I greatly appreciate your tips and advice on my posts and photography. Thank you to my cousin Shital Lakhani, who stood by my side countless days and nights while we worked through the initial challenges of blogging. She has been a great inspiration and constant support. Thank you to all my readers for your love and support!
I have made many blogger friends and have learned so much from all of them. I am fascinated by all the amazing blogs out there and it is very inspiring to read their wonderful posts. One of my favorite blogs is Smitten Kitchen. I have tried many of Deb's recipes and they are all amazing.
One of the recipes that I had been waiting to try is her 'Mom's apple cake'. Recently I happened to watch Deb, live on Food52 making this cake. There were thousands of viewers from around the world and it was so exciting to see and hear Deb talk about this recipe.
I have to admit that apple picking has fallen out of our Autumn rituals. Soccer has taken over our weekends and there seems to be no time left right now for any additional activities. I hope that will change one day and we will be able to go apple picking as a family.
One thing that I try not to miss is the Sunday farmers market in town. They have the season's best local vegetables, fruits, baked goods, jams, honey, and fresh mozzarella. In the last couple of weeks, I started seeing various apples, and I thought it was the best time to make this apple cake.
What better than celebrating my first blog anniversary with a cake that's been liked by so many people! Deb made it sound so simple in the live show that I had to jump on the first opportunity I had to bake it.
Step by Step recipe
- This recipe calls for 6 apples, any variety, peeled, cored and chopped into 1 inch cubes.
- Toss cinnamon and sugar to the apples and keep aside. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar, vanilla, and eggs.
- Mix wet ingredients into dry ones; scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. Since I do not have a tube pan that the recipe calls for, I used my bundt pan. Deb in her live had mentioned that you layer the apples differently if you are using a bundt pan. So, I started by adding half of the apples to the well-greased bundt pan.
- Pour half of the batter over the apples.
- Spread the rest of the apples and then top it with the remaining batter.
All this with the plan(high hopes) of turning the cake upside down successfully! I have a speed convection oven so I usually reduce the temperature and also watch the cake more frequently than what the recipe calls for.
As the original recipe states "* Tip: The apples love to hide uncooked pockets of batter, especially near the top. Make sure your testing skewer or toothpick goes not just all the way down to the bottom but does a shallow dip below the top layer of apples to make sure it comes out batter-free. Should your cake be browning too fast, before the center is baked through, cover it with foil for all but the last few minutes in the oven."
- I had my speed cook convection oven at 335 degrees and it took exactly an hour for the cake to be done. I did not have to cover it with foil.
- Now the fun part, trying to take the cake out of the bundt pan. I let the cake cool for about an hour. And then ran a butter knife in between the pan and the sides of the cake to loosen it up a bit and then flipped it over in a dish. Some pieces of apple were stuck to the bottom, that I simply scooped up and put back on the cake.
The cake came out nice and moist so it was no problem sticking the apple pieces back on top of the cake. It also made my cake look more rustic! Thank you Smitten kitchen for this terrific recipe.
Update (10/16/2017): I am so excited to share my apple cake Instant Pot recipe. Check it out and let me know how you like it. The Instant Pot cake is a bit dense than the oven-baked but equally delicious and the best part is that you do not have to keep checking for the doneness.
★ Have you tried this recipe? We love your feedback, Please click on the stars in the recipe card below to rate.
Here is my adaption to the Original recipe from smitten kitchen:
Recipe
Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 6 apples I used a mix of variety
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 2¾ cups flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
- 1 cup neutral vegetable oil
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¼ cup orange juice (I was out of OJ, so I used apple cider)
- 2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup walnuts chopped, optional
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into 1-inch chunks.Toss with cinnamon and 5 tablespoons sugar and set aside.
- Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix wet ingredients into dry ones; scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
- Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples (and their juices) over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 ½ hours, or until a tester comes out clean.*
Using Bundt Pan
- For bundt pan, start by spreading half the apples, then half of the batter. Then spread the remaining apples with juices and rest of the batter. Keep checking the cake after about 45 mins. Mine was done in an hour at 335 degrees in convecon speed cook oven.
Nutrition
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Indu says
Congrats Archana! You rock, lady!
Archana says
Thank you Indu!
Writer in progress says
Looks tempting 🙂
Archana says
Thank you Madiha!!
Sandhya says
Congratulations on your first blog anniversary, Archana!
The apple cake looks delicious!
Archana says
Thank you Sandhya!
Aayushi Manish says
Congratulations ??
Archana says
Thank you Aayushi!
Utkarshini Khanna says
Really tasty and beautiful!!
Archana says
Thank you Utkarshini!
Sindhu's Kitchen says
Looks yummy Archana. And congrats on your Blogiversary 🙂
Archana says
Thank you Sindhu!
Rashmi Gopal Rao says
Lovely recipe! Congrats Archana!
Archana says
Thank you Rashmi!
Sheryl says
This cake looks like a perfect Autumn dessert.
Archana says
It is Sheryl! Absolutely delicious
Starr @ The Misfit Baker says
Congratulations on your 1st blogiversary! And that cake looks positively delicious!
Archana says
Thank you Starr!
Cook with Smile.. says
Congrats Archana?..so happy for your self hosted site...cake looks great?
Archana says
Thank you Lathi!
chestnutandacorn says
Yum! This looks delicious! xx
Archana says
Thank you!
forgivingjournal says
This looks delicious!! Thank you for sharing 🙂 Congrats on your year anniversary - that is quite an accomplishment.
Your use of avocado oil is really interesting. Is that good in baking generally?
Many blessings - your post brightened my day,
Debbie
Archana says
Thank you so much Debbie! I love avocado oil, it works great for high heat cooking and is very mild.
cookandenjoyrecipes says
WOW what a beatufiul and lovely apple cake.
I would like to personally invite you and hope you will be able to participate in our first new monthly exchange: T’IS THE SEASON: CAKES, COOKIES AND TREATS – December 2016 Share and Inspire Others! – https://cookandenjoyrecipes.wordpress.com/2016/12/01/share-and-inspire-others-december-2016-event/ .
Hope to see there there as well. Entries due via email to cookandenjoy@shaw.ca by midnight, 10 December, Vancouver, BC time. ?
Archana says
Thank you!
cookandenjoyrecipes says
<3
sravana says
You’ve done a fab job! Very well written! Thank You so much!
Archana says
Thank you so much
Yamini says
Hi Archana, I made your Apple Cake and it came out really tasty. It was easy to make too. Thank you! I wish I could post. Photo too!
Priya says
Hello, I will be trying your Delicious Apple cake a third time. And I wanted to try an eggless one as I have family visiting. Some of them don’t consume eggs.
Pls do send me an alternate replacement for this recipe:) appreciate your help, Archana!
Archana says
Priya, I have not tried this recipe without eggs.
Priya G says
Thoroughly enjoyed the apples cakes both the times that I’ve tried it.
This time around I don’t have orange juice or apple cider. Is there another replacement you would recommend?
Archana says
water and lemon juice 🙂