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Home Baking

Easiest Ever MOIST Apple Cake

By:Nagi
Published:30 Sep '16Updated:16 Dec '20
443 Comments
Recipe v Dozer v

This Apple Cake recipe is from a reader and is a gem of a find! The cake is really moist, perfectly spiced, and studded with tender pieces of fresh apple. The batter is incredibly fast to make with just a wooden spoon – no electric mixer required!

Hands down, the easiest and BEST Apple Cake recipe you will ever try! Made with fresh apples, no electric mixer required to make this beautiful moist cake. www.recipetineats.com

Dozer got in so much trouble over this Apple Cake.

This is how the usual routine goes down: He’s technically not allowed into the kitchen – albeit my house is open plan so strictly speaking, it’s hard to have a clear boundary that he needs to stay out of. But when I shoo him away, he is generally pretty good about taking himself off into the yard to chase rabbits, bark at birds or whatever other important contribution he’s making to make this world a better place.

But the minute whatever I’m making is ready and I take it to the area where I shoot my photos, he comes dashing inside.

“Dashing” is honestly the word. He doesn’t walk or lope. He dashes at a very fast paced trot, his heavy footed paws thudding through the house making the wooden floor shake (really, he does).

And that’s when he becomes a real nuisance. Because I’m concentrating on taking photos, I don’t always manage to catch him in the act of photo-bombing.

Case in point: Dozer photobombed EVERY SINGLE photo of this cake being dusted with icing sugar. 🙄

The BEST Apple Cake on the internet - very moist, perfectly spiced and so fast & easy to make. No mixer required, just a wooden spoon! Made with fresh apples. www.recipetineats.com

Hands down, the easiest and BEST Apple Cake recipe you will ever try! Made with fresh apples, no electric mixer required to make this beautiful moist cake. www.recipetineats.com

THAT CHEEKY BUGGER!!!

See look. Here he is AGAIN. And again. And again. GRRRRR!!!!!

Dozer photo bombing Apple Cake photos

So I apologise profusely to all those who find it a real turn off to see a DOG in food photos, but my bottom can’t afford for me to make this ridiculously delicious Apple Cake yet again just so I can get one single shot (I just wanted ONE!) of me dusting the Apple Cake without Dozer in the background.

OK, now I’m done stomping my foot over Dozer ruining my photos, a quick word on this Apple Cake recipe: It’s crazy easy and fast to make the batter, it’s made with FRESH apples (won’t work with canned, cake is not as moist), and it really is beautifully moist.

This easy Apple Cake recipe was given to me by the lovely Dorothy in Tennessee in the US. It was meant to be, because I had just shared an Apple Cake disaster on Instagram then a couple of days later, she shared this recipe with me (without having seen my epic failure!). I tried it once, twice, three times, then I decided I had to share it here because it is that good and that easy!

– Nagi x


More afternoon tea favourites

  • Classic Scones

  • Strawberry Cake – really easy cake recipe

  • Cinnamon Swirl Bread – easy, no yeast!

  • Cheese, Herb and Garlic Loaf or Zucchini Cheese Loaf– quick bread, no yeast

  • Apple Muffins and Apple Teacake

  • Raspberry Bars or Strawberry Bars

  • Blueberry Lemon Loaf with Lemon Glaze or Blueberry Lemon Yoghurt Cake

  • Savoury Cheese Muffins or Cornbread Muffins (personal fave😇)

  • Whole Orange Cake

Hands down, the easiest and BEST Apple Cake recipe you will ever try! Made with fresh apples, no electric mixer required to make this beautiful moist cake. www.recipetineats.com

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Apple cake on a white cake stand, ready to be served

Easiest Ever MOIST Apple Cake

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 50 mins
Total: 1 hr 5 mins
Cake
4.90 from 132 votes
Servings12
Tap or hover to scale
Print
  • 397
A very moist, perfectly spiced Apple Cake! This is incredibly easy to make - no mixer required. This must be made with fresh apples, not canned. See note 5 for information about different measures in different countries & different oven types. Also, I do not recommend substituting butter for all or part of the oil - it does not come out as moist and you can't taste buttery flavour anyway because of the spice flavourings! FREEZES great!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour , plain / all purpose (Note 1)
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda (bi-carb soda) (Note 1)
  • 3/4 tsp EACH salt, cinnamon and ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp freshly ground)
  • 1 1/4 cups white sugar (Note 2)
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs , large, at room temperature (55-60g/2oz each)
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups apple , peeled, cored and cut into 8mm/ 1/3" cubes (~2 large, 3 small) (Note 3)

Optional Extra

  • 1/2 cup flaked raw almonds
  • Icing sugar . confectioners sugar, for dusting

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (all oven types).
  • Grease and line a 21 cm / 9" springform cake pan. (Note 4)
  • Place flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a large bowl and whisk to combine.
  • Whisk oil and sugar in a bowl, then whisk in eggs and vanilla.
  • Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a wooden spoon until JUST combined. Stir through apple (optional: add 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or other nuts).
  • Pour into cake pan. Sprinkle over almonds.
  • Bake for 50 minutes - 1 hr. Check at 50 minutes - it is cooked when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  • Cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar if using, then serve. This cake doesn't need cream or ice cream because it is so moist, but I wouldn't turn it down!

Recipe Notes:

1. Flour - can use wholemeal/wholewheat but reduce by 2 tablespoons.
Self raising flour - can sub flour with self raising flour, but skip baking soda.
Baking powder - can sub bi carb with baking powder, use 4 tsp. If you do this, do NOT use self raising flour in place of flour (because self raising flour already has baking powder in it!)
2. Sugar - Use white or loosely packed brown or light brown sugar. Not dark brown sugar and not raw sugar.
3. Apples - Use Granny Smith or tart red apples, but not extremely sweet apples. Also, do not use canned apples for this because the juice in the can makes this cake less moist. Also do not be tempted to grate the apple instead of chopping it - I tried that and again, that too made the cake less moist.
4. My easy way of lining cake pans - see beginning of the Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake video.
5.  Recipe source - This is a reader recipe, from the lovely Dorothy in Tennessee, US. By popular demand, here is the original recipe! It is made for a bundt pan. Follow the directions of the recipe but use these quantities and make it in a bundt pan.
1 1/2 cups. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups sugar (I reduced to 2 cups)
3 eggs, beaten
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups sifted flour
1 tsp EACH baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves
3 cups peeled and chopped fresh apples
1 cups chopped nuts (I use walnuts)
5. Measures - Cups and teaspoons are slightly different in size between some countries. For most recipes on RecipeTin Eats, the difference is not large enough to matter or is relative throughout the recipe. For recipes where the difference does matter, different measures are provided for different countries, like in this Soft Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.
For this Apple Cake, the measures per the recipe can be used no matter which country you are in except Japan. If you are in Japan, please do not use cups, use the weight measures provided.
OVENS: I have a fan forced / convection oven but have made this in a standard / conventional oven too. I found that this recipe works better using the same temperature no matter which oven type you have. The only difference is the cook time - fan forced is ready at 50 minutes, standard oven is ready at 60 minutes. But no matter which oven you have, check your cake at 50 minutes. If your oven is weak, it may take over 1 hour for the skewer to come out clean.
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 12 servings. 

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 113gCalories: 403cal (20%)Carbohydrates: 49.9g (17%)Protein: 5.1g (10%)Fat: 21.2g (33%)Saturated Fat: 4g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 17.2gCholesterol: 27mg (9%)Sodium: 238mg (10%)Fiber: 2.1g (9%)Sugar: 24.4g (27%)
Keywords: apple cake
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

LIFE OF DOZER

Well! After telling you how naughty he was while I photographed this Apple Cake, I’m not sure he deserves to be featured in his own section on this post…..

But who am I kidding. I can never stay mad at him.

Here he is “minding” the Apple Cake as it cooled. Just minding it. No cheeky thoughts running through that furry head, I’m sure….

apple-cake-1

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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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443 Comments

  1. Rachel says

    May 22, 2023 at 6:58 pm

    5 stars
    Lovely! Perfect with a cup of tea. Lots of “that was yum” comments from everyone. Cut down on the cloves as I am a little adverse to the taste of it. So easy to make and will be a regular from now on.

    Reply
  2. Shenali says

    May 9, 2023 at 5:58 pm

    5 stars
    I’ll be honest – I was a bit apprehensive to make this recipe. I’ve trusted Nagi’s recipes since lockdown started in 2020, and every recipe delivered what it promised. This was no different. Yes, the batter was a bit thick but the final product was moist, light and fragrant. No substitues. No additions. Thank you Nagi.

    Reply
  3. Angela Campbell says

    April 26, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    I think this te Joe is kissing more liquid? Milk?
    Mixture was much too thick! Difficult to spread.

    Reply
  4. Dianne says

    April 14, 2023 at 6:36 pm

    1 star
    I love cooking your recipes Nagi thank you. This cake was a complete disaster. Didn’t rise well and texture is lumpy. I followed your recipe exactly. Any thoughts?

    Reply
    • Cassandra says

      April 21, 2023 at 5:56 pm

      Check that your baking powder hasn’t gone off (1/2 tsp powder, 1/4 cup boiled water, if it fizzes vigorously its still good, if not turf it and buy a new one

      Reply
      • Dawna says

        April 28, 2023 at 12:41 am

        Oh oh…mine cake is in the oven. Should have read comments first! I don’t see baking powder as a listed ingredient only baking soda. Hope mine doesn’t flop as I’m serving for company tonight

        Reply
  5. Cassandra says

    April 8, 2023 at 6:03 pm

    Would this cake work for layering with an apple compote and stabilised cream?

    Reply
  6. Karen White says

    April 8, 2023 at 5:11 pm

    5 stars
    Baked spiced apple cake. Absolutely delicious! Only change I made. Didn’t have vegetable oil so used melted butter & 1/4 cup milk.

    Reply
  7. Tiffany says

    March 28, 2023 at 7:59 am

    5 stars
    Hi,

    I made your moist apple cake twice over the weekend and it has been an absolute hit!!! Thank you so much for the beautiful recipe.
    I did however go to make it again and I have measure my baking soda and spices wrong. Instead of measuring 3/4tsp of spices and baking soda I got my spoons muddled and I measured half a tbsp plus 1/4tsp of all spices and salt. Is there anyway I can tweak this recipe so I can use these dry ingredients and not waste!
    I have the dry ingredients including flour all ready to go and whisked up – and then I realised my mistake..

    Hope to hear back soon =)

    Reply
  8. Debbie Foltz says

    March 12, 2023 at 8:59 am

    5 stars
    This was delicious! It smelled like a fall day in my house while this baked. It was so simple to make. I will be making this again.

    Reply
  9. Nicholas Price says

    December 6, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    3 stars
    Unfortunately, my cake did not turn out well, like Christel. The mixture was very thick, and as I tried to spread it evenly around the pan, the baking paper was moving around as well. The end result is a shallow cake, which is uneven in height. I had a slice and it is slightly dry; although it still has to cool down overnight, i think.

    BTW, I used peanut oil, would this change the result, instead of vegetable oil?

    Thanks Nagi,

    Nick

    Reply
  10. Ana says

    November 27, 2022 at 9:56 pm

    5 stars
    This recipe is a keeper! I was “gifted” some lovely organic, crispy, red variety apples and came across this site. I used brown sugar (ours is granulated) and reduced the sugar by 40 grams since the apples were sweet. It’s moist and delicious! I can’t wait to try more of Nagi’s recipes!

    Reply
  11. amber says

    November 18, 2022 at 9:58 am

    5 stars
    Fantastic, as always. Have followed you for years Nagi. Thanks for being awesome!

    Reply
  12. Christel says

    November 12, 2022 at 7:12 pm

    Un fortunately, the cake did not turn out well for me. I was very careful following the recipe and weighed the ingredients. I used Granny Smith apples. I tested the cake after 50 minutes and the skewer came out clean. The cake was well risen and had browned nicely. However, when the cake had cooled I noticed that the middle had sunk which was a bad sign. The cake was undercooked in the middle. I cut the uncooked bits out. The cake tasted really nice and I will make it again next week. I have no idea what could have gone wrong. Any suggestions?

    Reply
  13. Amy Morgan says

    October 20, 2022 at 1:27 pm

    5 stars
    The spices are beautiful! And such a perfectly moist cake ❤

    Reply
  14. Renee says

    October 9, 2022 at 5:06 am

    WOW — easy and Delicious! Fast enough for a weeknight but nice enough for company. !!Going to make this often!

    Reply
  15. Marjorie Ong says

    September 12, 2022 at 11:42 am

    5 stars
    Great Recipe Nagi. It was super easy and yummiest apple cake to date that I have made.

    Reply
  16. terri d. says

    August 8, 2022 at 1:51 am

    5 stars
    made into 12 muffins perfectly. my fav apple recipe so far – balance of sweet & spices.

    Reply
  17. Lee says

    July 10, 2022 at 6:49 pm

    5 stars
    Absolutely delicious! The whole family loved the moist apple cake, thank you heaps.

    Reply
  18. Zia says

    July 5, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    The cake turned out just amazing . The taste and texture was great too and really so easy to make .
    Thanks Nagi .. surely another keeper !

    Reply
  19. Sabina B says

    June 3, 2022 at 7:56 pm

    Could these be made into muffins? What adjustments need to be made?

    Reply
  20. Sunayana says

    May 29, 2022 at 7:39 am

    I love most of your recipes but unfortunately this cake just did not work for me. The cake was too sweet and felt too oily. Xx

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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