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, 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.
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
- 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 cinnamon, sugar 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.
Maaya says
Thank you so much, such a great and quick-to-make recipe! I made this lovely apple cake today and it tasted so good, like a shop-bought version! Just to mention that I used self-raising flour and stevia instead of sugar (1:3 ratio, stevia to sugar) because we’re no longer eating sugar, and I added chocolate chips on the top which melted in to make it taste even more delicious!
Jessica Holmes says
That sounds wonderful Maaya! So glad you enjoyed it!
Ann Blom says
This cake is great, I’m not the best baker, but this is simple, straight forward, and I have all the ingredients in the pantry. It’s really a big plus during LOCKDOWN Covid-19 South Africa that I didn’t need to shop for ingredients. Thank you for a stunning recipe that even I couldn’t mess up.
Jessica Holmes says
Aw love that Ann! Thank you for your lovely feedback!
Lizzie says
I’ve been craving a cinnamon apple cake for a couple days and this is EXACTLY what I hoped it would be! I subbed sour cream for the yogurt and it turned out great. The crumble on top is wonderful. This will be the perfect pairing for my morning coffee 🙂 Thank you for the recipe!
Jessica Holmes says
Aww so happy to hear that Lizzie!!
Cresilda Sulpico Murphy says
Delicious and super easy to followed your instructions that’s why the result is totally perfect. It’s my first time to do it 👍🥰Im very happy to the result 👍I don’t vanilla extract and yogurt it’s never been lessen the taste . NOTE: I replace the yogurt to cream nestle it’s totally works 😊.
Highly recommended 🥰☕️👩🍳
Jessica Holmes says
Amazing! So glad you enjoyed it Cresilda!
M says
CAN YOU MAKE THIS WITH OUT THE yogurt?
Jessica Holmes says
I don’t recommend leaving out the yogurt. You can use sour cream instead.
Heidi says
I just tried the recipe and it turned out AMAZING!
Soft and full of flavor .. I reduced the amount of sugar a bit
Thank you for sharing the recipe
Jessica Holmes says
Awesome, love that Heidi!
Emma says
This recipe is the BEST!! Ticks all the boxes of a good cake -easy to make, fills the house with a heavenly smell, texture is light & fluffy & best of all the whole family is lining up waiting to devour it! Thanks for sharing!!
Jessica Holmes says
Aww love that!!
Angela Mele-Kaschalk says
Delicious, This cake recipe was easy to follow and called for simple ingredients. The family enjoyed every morsel, I will definitely be keeping this recipe,
Jessica Holmes says
So happy to hear that Angela!
Nikayla says
Hi, I only have natural yoghurt. Would this work as there’s less fat content? Thanks
Jessica Holmes says
Yes that should be fine!
Anna says
I really love this recipe and I make it with coconut milk instead of the yogurt and I use oil instead of melted butter for the topping. Delicious way to use up my crab apples.
Jessica Holmes says
Oh that sounds amazing Anna! Love the idea of using coconut milk!
Barbara says
I would love to make this but I don’t have Yogurt is there something else I can use instead. Not able to go shopping easily because of the virus and being in self quarantine.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Barbara, you can definitely swap sour cream for Greek yogurt. Or if you check the comments, a few readers recently successfully made it with buttermilk – I haven’t tried that myself. Hope that helps!
Melroy says
Hi Jessica, Thank you for sharing this! The cake came out really good. Will definitely try this again.
Cheers!
Jessica Holmes says
So happy to hear that Melroy!
Ina says
Thank you so much for this amazing recipe. I have made numerous apple cake variations so far and this will be the first one I loved. The search is over – bookmarked!!!
Jessica Holmes says
Yaay! So happy to hear that Ina!
Michelle says
DELICIOUS! This is the first apple cake I’ve ever made from scratch. Your directions were clear & helpful. I’m in the US and have never heard of caster sugar, so, as per the internet I pulsed granulated sugar in the blender for 30 seconds for the needed texture. I substituted the Greek yogurt with what I had on hand, reduced fat sour cream & used Granny Smith Apples. So fresh, moist & FLAVORFUL. Thank you for sharing!
Jessica Holmes says
Ooh so glad you enjoyed it Michelle! Thank you so much for your very kind feedback!
Tianna says
Yum!