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Homemade Apple Cake

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Updated Jun 18, 2025
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Is our apple cake recipe easy? Yes—both easy and delicious. It’s a simple one-layer cake made with fresh apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and other common pantry items. Delightful aromas will fill your kitchen as it bakes, and when served with a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream, the intoxicating flavors warm you from the inside, out.

Our moist apple cake recipe was created 15 years ago for a digest cooking magazine. It’s since appeared on our website and in our most recent cake cookbook.

This is a great recipe to whip up after picking apples at your favorite orchard. But don’t save it just for crisp fall days. It’s an apple cake recipe that will be devoured any time of the year.

Recipe Ingredients

Common ingredients you probably already have in your cupboard are used to make this comforting apple cake.

Apples: During testing, we found that shredding apples was the best way to add deliciously moist apple flavor to every bite of the cake. There’s no need to cook them first.

Sugar: For the best fresh apple flavor, we preferred the clean taste of granulated sugar.

Butter: Softened butter gives the best texture and flavor to the homemade apple cake. Refer to our how to soften butter tips to learn how to do it correctly.

Ice Cream: Our taste panel members agree that serving this apple cake recipe with ice cream elevates the flavors even more than adding an icing.

Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Eggs, vanilla, all-purpose flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and salt.

Cookware You’ll Need

Here’s a quick peek at the equipment you’ll need to make this fresh apple cake recipe with success.

Electric Mixer: A mixer makes quick work of incorporating air into the batter, for the best cake texture.

Rubber Scraper: Switch to a rubber scraper when stirring in apples and walnuts, to avoid overmixing which can impact the cake texture. It’s also handy to scrape all the batter out of the bowl.

Cake Pan: We prefer a 9-inch round cake pan with a shiny finish—it reflects the heat for a tender and light cake texture. Too small of a pan can cause the cake to overflow; too large and it will result in a shorter cake.

Other Equipment You’ll Need: Dry measuring cups and spoons, bowl, toothpicks, cooling rack.

How to Make Apple Cake

Here’s a brief look at how to make our apple cake recipe.

1. Spray the Cake Pan

Use baking spray that contains flour so the cake will release from the pan easily.

2. Beat the Butter and Sugar

Beat until no lumps remain and the texture is fluffy and light.

3. Beat in the Eggs

For the best textured cake, add eggs one at a time to incorporate the maximum amount of air.

4. Mix in Remaining Ingredients

Add the vanilla, flour, baking soda, and salt all at once. Mix on medium-low speed just until no traces of the dry ingredients remain. Then stir in the apples and walnuts with a rubber spatula or spoon.

5. Bake and Cool

Test doneness with a toothpick—it should come out clean with no wet batter or crumbs clinging to it. Cool the hot cake in the pan 10 minutes, then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool another 10 minutes on a cooling rack before serving. See the section below for how to remove a cake from the pan.

How to Remove Homemade Apple Cake from the Pan

Here's how to remove cake from a pan like a pro.

Cool in Pan: First cool the cake in the pan just 10 minutes to make it sturdier for moving. Any longer and it could be difficult to remove.

Flip Cake Upside Down: Place a cooling rack on top of the cake in the pan. With one hand on top, and the other beneath the cake pan, flip everything over; carefully lift the pan off the cake.

Flip Cake Right-Side Up: Place another cooling rack on top of the cake. Using the same motion as above, flip everything over so the cake is right-side up. Remove the top cooling rack.

Possible Variations

We’ve heard that our fresh apple cake recipe is a big hit, and fans love to tweak it to suit their tastes. As SueDav tells us, “I doubled the cinnamon and added some nutmeg. It was delicious.”

Here are even more variations to give it your own spin.

Swap the Sugar: For more of a spice cake flavor (and less apple-forward flavor), substitute 1/2 cup brown sugar for 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar. Add 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg with the cinnamon.

Add a Drizzle: Top servings of cake with caramel topping or maple syrup. Dodgegirl28 tells us, “Also great with a peanut butter drizzle!”

Make It Faster: Our 3-Ingredient Apple Dump Cake gets you to sinking your teeth into homemade apple cake even sooner.

Storing and Reheating Apple Cake

Got leftover cake? Lucky you—it’s another opportunity to enjoy a sweet bite of goodness!

Refrigerator

Place any remaining apple cake on a plate and wrap tightly with plastic wrap or place in an air tight food storage container. Store in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Over time, the cinnamon flavor might diminish, and the top of the cake may become stickier, but it will still taste delicious.

Freezer

Wrap cake tightly with plastic wrap or foil and place inside resealable freezer food storage bag. (If you want to take out just a piece or two at a time, cut the cake before wrapping.) Freeze up to 4 months. To thaw, loosen wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight or at room temperature 30 minutes before serving.

Reheating

Place a piece of apple cake on a microwavable plate. Cover loosely and microwave on Medium (50%) for 45 seconds to 1 minute or just until warm.

Why Betty Users Love This Recipe

Nearly 200 of our fans let us know this apple cake recipe is 5 stars. They tell us it’s easy enough to make, whether you’re new to baking or a dessert-making pro. One fan, Suzybb2 says, “This is the third time this week making this ridiculously super easy recipe.”

Makers tell us this moist apple cake recipe has a sinful flavor and a perfect balance of sweetness. They also note that they got positive feedback from those that enjoyed the apple cake—including requesting the recipe or that it be made again, soon. We’ve heard from users that this cake is great for more than just dessert—it’s also a great choice for breakfast, morning coffee break, or as an afternoon treat on a cold day!

Frequently Asked Questions

Homemade Apple Cake

  • Prep Time 25 min
  • Total 1 hr 30 min
  • Servings 8
  • Ingredients 11
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Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups Gold Medal™ All Purpose Flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded peeled apples (about 2 medium apples)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 quart vanilla or cinnamon ice cream
Make With
Gold Medal Flour

Instructions

  • Step 
    1

    Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 9-inch round cake pan with baking spray with flour.

  • Step 
    2

    In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. 

  • Step 
    3

    Mix in vanilla, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in apples and walnuts. Spoon into pan.

  • Step 
    4

    Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool 10 minutes longer.

  • Step 
    5

    Serve warm with ice cream.

Nutrition

490 Calories
25g Total Fat
7g Protein
60g Total Carbohydrate
39g Sugars

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Serving
Calories
490
Calories from Fat
230
Total Fat
25g
39%
Saturated Fat
13g
63%
Trans Fat
1/2g
Cholesterol
115mg
38%
Sodium
380mg
16%
Potassium
230mg
6%
Total Carbohydrate
60g
20%
Dietary Fiber
2g
8%
Sugars
39g
Protein
7g
% Daily Value*:
Vitamin A
15%
15%
Vitamin C
0%
0%
Calcium
10%
10%
Iron
8%
8%
Exchanges:
1 1/2 Starch; 0 Fruit; 2 1/2 Other Carbohydrate; 0 Skim Milk; 0 Low-Fat Milk; 0 Milk; 0 Vegetable; 0 Very Lean Meat; 0 Lean Meat; 0 High-Fat Meat; 5 Fat;
Carbohydrate Choice
4
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

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