A deliciously easy Cinnamon Apple Cake made from scratch. This soft and tender Apple Cake is packed with fresh apples and features a crunchy cinnamon topping and a drizzle of sweet frosting.

Apple-licious 🍎
Can we take a moment to talk about the match made in heaven that is apple and cinnamon? This terrifically tender Cinnamon Apple Cake is my new fave.
It’s soft, it’s sweet and it’s jam-packed with fresh, juicy apples. The final touch is a sprinkling of sugary cinnamon and a sweet milk glaze.

Can I just say that I never thought a Cinnamon Apple Cake could taste so good. I baked quite a few cakes to get this recipe JUST right and when I finally landed on the winning recipe, I was beyond excited.
One bite of this soft and fluffy masterpiece and I was fist-pumping the air. After many failed Apple Cinnamon Cakes, I instantly knew this one was the winner. Of course, I had to have a few more slices just to be oh-so-sure.

When I first attempted this cake, I started by using oil as the main fat. This is because oil tends to add moisture to baked goods, like in my Olive Oil Brownies or my Pistachio Cake. I love using oil in cakes.
The first cake was lovely and soft and the taste was on point. But the edges were a little dry for my liking. So I moved on to see if butter would work better, like in my Easy Peach Cake, while also slightly altering the amount of flour and sugar.

Let’s just say, it didn’t. The first butter version used melted butter and the cake was heavy, dense and not great. To add lightness and get back closer to the original version, I tried creaming the butter and sugar, like I do in my Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donut recipe. It was better, but still nothing rivalled the oil version.
So finally, I returned to oil, but used a little less flour and added yoghurt to ensure the cake was soft, moist and never dry. It was crowned the WINNER.
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What you have here is a melt-in-your-mouth cake that’s studded with fresh apples. It boasts a sugar cinnamon crumble, that once baked, becomes crisp and flavourful.
The cinnamon topping blends perfectly with the juicy, chunks of apple. Then, just because we can, we drizzle the entire cake with a two ingredient sweet sugar glaze. It’s pure perfection.

Tips for making Apple Cake
- This Cinnamon Apple Cake is incredibly easy to make. You only need a bowl and spoon – no need for an electric mixer.
- You can use any kind of apple you like, I use red Royal Gala apples. You’ll need to peel and then chop your apple into roughly 1/2 inch squares – discarding the core.
- Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredient until combined – try not to over mix.
- The crumble is made using sugar and cinnamon. Mix together using melted butter until it clumps like sand. Sprinkle over the top of your cake batter – no need to be perfect here.
- Bake until golden and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- The final touch? Drizzle over the sweet sugar glaze and serve!

Watch how to make it
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Let’s Bake
Cinnamon Apple Cake
A tender Cinnamon Apple Cake drizzled with a milk glaze.
Ingredients
Apple cake
- 210 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 150 grams (3/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 cup (approximately 1 large) red apple, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil or flavourless oil
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) Greek yogurt
Cinnamon topping
- 50 grams (1/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
Sugar glaze
- 30 grams (1/4 cup) icing sugar or powdered sugar, sifted
- 1–2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Grease and line an 8-inch round cake pan with baking or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Add chopped apple and stir briefly to combine.
- In a separate bowl, add eggs, vanilla, oil and yoghurt. Whisk briefly just to break up the egg yolks.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and gently mix with a wooden spoon until combined – but be careful not to over mix. Spoon batter into prepared tin.
- To make cinnamon topping, combine sugar, cinnamon and butter. Mix together until lumpy and wet. Sprinkle over cake batter.
- Bake cake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer cake to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To make the glaze, mix together sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk. Stir until smooth. If the glaze is too thick, add an extra tablespoon of milk. Drizzle glaze all over the cake.
Nutrition Information
Serving Size: Calories: 310 Sugar: 25 g Sodium: 143.8 mg Fat: 14.1 g Carbohydrates: 42.7 g Protein: 4.8 g Cholesterol: 42.2 mg







Lynae says
Great receipe!! Needed something to do during the covid-19 lockdown, and this was an excellent way to spend time with my son who was bored to death! Can’t wait to try another one of your delicious creations! Thanks so much!
Jessica Holmes says
Aww love that Lynae!
Joseph says
Excellent! So easy to make even for an amateur baker like me.
Jessica Holmes says
Love that!
Jasmin says
This cake is delicious! Really moist and flavoursome. The recipe is accurate. I had a bit of extra Apple so probably added a quarter cup extra and that still worked. The whole family loved it. Thank you for the recipe. Will be making it again!
Jessica Holmes says
So happy you enjoyed it Jasmin!
Kathryn Fitzgerald says
So, so good! Perfect in fact! Make sure you have plenty of tea or milk to wash it down with. Delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed it Kathryn!
Barbs says
Can you use self raising flour instead of plain flour+ baking powder and soda?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Barbs, I haven’t tried myself so it’s hard to say. In theory it would be ok but I’m not sure of the ratio of raising agent to flour. Usually 1 cup of self raising flour has around 2 teaspoons of baking powder, so that might leave you a little short on leavener. Since I haven’t tried it myself, I can’t confirm.
Barbs says
Hi Jessica, I made the cake and it was delish!! I ended up using plain flour+baking powder+soda so can’t give a review on SR flour.. I used 2 small granny smith apples (unpeeled), added 1 tsp ground ginger but couldn’t taste it so will add more ginger next time. The crunchy cinnamon topping was so tasty, didn’t need the syrup. I’ll try it with 1/2 cup sugar next time and probably a third small apple. This recipe is a winner, thank you!
Jessica Holmes says
Love that! Thanks so much for your kind feedback!!
Tania says
Hello
I made this lovely cake this morning! I made buttermilk to use instead of using the sour cream and let me tell you …this cake knocked it out of the park! Delicious !! And so easy! I also added 2 whole McIntosh Apples but the cake could have used 3. Thank you so much for this recipe! I’m planning to make many more. And I didn’t use the glaze as the taste and sweetness is enough with the yummy topping. Delicious!!!
Jessica Holmes says
Hey Tania, thanks so much for the lovely feedback! And so glad it worked well with buttermilk too.
Martha says
Fantastic!
Sashi Dugalic says
WOW! It’s so easy and tastes amazing. My favourite recipe. Made it twice and once I doubled the recipe and it turned out perfect. Thanks Jess for sharing this recipe with us 😊
Jessica Holmes says
Aww love that! Thanks Sashi!
Cecile Feliciano says
Just made this amazing recipe and i made it perfectly. So yummy my husband likes it so much.
Jessica Holmes says
Amazing, thanks for the lovely feedback Cecile!
Sheetal says
I have made this several times to great success. Thank you for an amazing recipe.
Quick question—I have an abundance of ripe pears in my fridge. I’m wondering if I can substitute 1:1 to apples?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Sheetal, so glad you enjoyed the recipe! And yes you can use pears – I’ve tried it myself and it’s very nice too!
Joanna says
Just made this morning – followed the recipe to a T and it came out divine 🙂 Only slight tweak was sprinkling some chopped pecans on top along with the cinnamon topping. Thank you for making our day with this super yummy recipe..
Jessica Holmes says
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed it Joanna – and love the idea of adding pecans!
Michelle says
Fantastic cake, will definitely make again. Thank you!
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed it Michelle!
Vinesha says
Hi there
I made this cake using fat free yougart and more baking powder instead of baking soda. It came out perfect not too sweet and without icing on top.
It was finished in a day. Baking another 1 today.
Thanks for the recipe
Jessica Holmes says
Amazing! So glad you liked it!
Ana says
Hi!
Will defiitely try this soon. Is it possible to replace the greek yogurt with kefir?
Thank you for sharing! (:
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Ana, I haven’t tried but that would probably work. Let me know if you try it!
Ana says
Hi Jessica,
Just to let you know it worked well with Kefir 🙂
The cake is delicious, thank you again!
Ana
Jessica Holmes says
Awesome, thanks for the feedback Ana!
Preetika says
Hi which one out of cinnamon apple or cinnamon cake would you recommend baking? Also cinnamon apple cake requires greek yogurt..any su substitute for that as I will otherwise not be able to bake it.thanks
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Preetika, you can use sour cream instead of Greek yogurt if you like.