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.
Cespedes says
Hello!
This cake is amazing ! We ate it for lunch today and it was so good.
Thanks so much for the recipe !
Florence from France.
Jessica Holmes says
Aw so glad you enjoyed it Florence! Thank you for the kind feedback!
Trevor says
Hi I am planning to make this cake today cami add broken up walnut pieces to the mix if so do I need to emit anything thank you .
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Trevor, walnuts will be a lovely addition – no need to change anything. Enjoy!
Denali says
Hi, Jessica.
Can I substitute either sour cream or buttermilk for the yogurt?
Thanks!
Stay well!
-Denali
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Denali, yes! Go with sour cream if you can!
Rebecca says
Hi there,
Is it OK to use olive oil instead?
Thank you!
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Rebecca, I haven’t tried myself but it should be fine. Just use a mild olive oil so it doesn’t overwhelm the taste.
Inka says
Ok, as a guy who tried his hand in baking for the very first time, this recipe was just perfect. I had probably the fluffiest, moist, tender cake ever.
So I used Indian style curd instead of greek yogurt and just powdered brown sugar using a high powered mixer-grinder. It still was great.
Thank you so much!
Jessica Holmes says
So happy to hear that Inka!
Hannah P says
I lost my sense of smell over 6 weeks ago (probably Covid but who knows?) but my daughter says the cake smells delicious! It was simple to put together but 30 mins at 160 (fan assisted) lead to a sunken middle and a.completely undercooked middle). I’ve put it in for another 10 mins so crossing my fingers because it sounds and looks fabulous!
Jessica Holmes says
Hope you enjoy it Hannah!
parisa says
yummy and easy recipe! all the family enjoyed it i used brown sugar instead of white sugar for the frosting on top and it gave it a cool look!
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Kat says
My family and I loved this cake. I added a good dash of cinnamon to the batter as we love cinnamon, added an extra apple and left off the glaze. Really fab! Not oily at all, perfect moist texture!
Jessica Holmes says
Aww so happy to hear that Kat! Thank you for your kind feedback!
Naima says
Hello, Jessica
I’m thinking of making this cake for the family, am I able to use regular sugar instead of caster?
Thank you.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, yes you can swap granulated sugar caster sugar.
Mariana says
Made it with green apples, around 2tsp of cinnamon inside the batter, double baking powder as I lacked baking soda and no glaze, and it was absolutely amazing! Definitely will be doing it again soon!
Jessica Holmes says
So happy to hear that Mariana!
Zee says
I really wanted this cake to be good, but it just tastes like oil. The oil coats your mouth like a film when you eat it.
It looks good. And is moist. So that part worked out.
Jessica Holmes says
Sorry to hear that Zee. It shouldn’t taste oily with all the good things like apple, sugar and cinnamon in it.
Emma says
Hmmm. I consider myself a pretty decent baker but had two challenges:
1) Caster sugar — not something I’ve heard of before in Canada and before baking, a quick Google search told me this was powdered sugar (which is what we call icing sugar). After making the batter (somewhat skeptically, as I was unsure this really was supposed to include icing sugar), I saw you called for icing or powdered sugar for the glaze. Went back to Google and found that caster sugar is actually somewhere between granulated sugar and icing sugar. Hmm!
2) Baked for 35 mins and tested with toothpicks — everything came out clean. Left on the stove to cool down and the center has collapsed! Not sure if this has to do with #1 above (or perhaps I missed the very center of the cake in testing its doneness?) but back into the oven it goes… hopefully I can save this cake!
Jessica Holmes says
Hey Emma, sorry for the confusion. Caster sugar can be swapped 1 for 1 for granulated sugar. I wrote a blog post about it you might find useful, you can read it here. If it sunk in the middle, it sounds like it might have been slightly under baked. Otherwise there can be many reasons for cakes sinking, such as opening the oven before they are ready, over mixing the batter or expired raising agents. Hope that helps!
Jess says
Hi Emma! I’m also Canadian – when recipes call for caster sugar I usually use the superfine sugar from bulk barn. I believe it’s the same sugar bulk barn recommends on their little recipe sheets to use when making jam.
Anna says
This was divine! I used a bit less sugar and no glaze because I prefer my cakes to not be very sweet but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Now I must try to control myself and not finish the whole pan in one go 🙂 Thank you so much for posting this.
Jessica Holmes says
Aww so glad you enjoyed it Anna!!
Neha says
I just tried this ! And it turned out to be amazing !!!!
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed it Neha!
Angel says
Great recipe, will definitely. repeat it! I was running out of yogurt and used cottage cheese as a substitute and it worked well! Added a teaspoon of ginger to the final glaze! Love it! Thanks for sharing!
Jessica Holmes says
Oh love that Angel!