Apple Cake

Jump to Recipe

It seems like every winter we have a few extra apples laying around that start to get a little bit mushy. They aren’t great for eating but they still work perfectly for baking. We’ve found some ways to use them up like apple bread and, of course, classic apple crisp. This year, I’m on a cake kick. The first thing I made was an apple dump cake. This was a win-win for me because I had an old store bought cake mix that I wanted to get rid of as well. (Yes, our non-toxic house had a cake mix in it, life happens.) It was good, but it was honestly a little too sweet for me. The apple cake recipe that I’m about to share with you is a little different, less sweet, and a wonderful treat! 

The Original Recipe

This recipe comes to us from the lovely Bernie Zomberg. If you know and love Bernie, tell her we love this one and we’re making sure we keep this recipe alive for years to come! 

Apple Cake Ingredients

• 2 eggs, beaten
• ½ cup oil or applesauce
• 1 ⅔ cup sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup raisins
• 4 cups apples, pared and chopped
• ½ cup nuts, chopped  (optional)

Directions

Mix the first 8 ingredients. Add raisins, apples and nuts. Pour into greased and floured 9×13 pan.

Topping Ingredients

• ⅓ cup sugar
• ½ cup nuts
• ½ cup butterscotch chips

More Directions

Mix and sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. 

Tips & Tricks

One of the best things about this recipe is that it’s just so darn easy! One bowl and a couple measuring utensils and you’re there! What I truly enjoy is that I can measure out the first 8 ingredients in order. A lot of times I’m trying to plan out how to use my teaspoons multiple times without cross-contamination issues. For instance, if a recipe calls for vanilla and then baking soda later on, I’m always going to flip those around so that I can use the same teaspoon. I want to do all of my dry ingredients first, then wet because I need less tools. I’m all about cooking from scratch but also not making millions of dishes (even though I do them everyday anyways). 

First thing to address, always the sugar. I only use 1 cup of sugar. While this recipe conforms to normal societal expectations, I really prefer my desserts to be less sweet than what most prefer. For that purpose, I will give you the full amount but advise that you can cut some of the sugar should you so wish to do so.

When the directions say pare, that means peel. However, you can make this without peeling your apples. I very rarely peel my apples unless I’m doing a big batch of something and I’m using my KitchenAid attachment to do so. Ain’t nobody got time for that! The skins taste just fine and add some extra nutrients for you. I swear peeling apples is just something someone came up with to create more food waste. Pare them if you want, or leave them if you don’t want to. Either way, your cake is going to taste fantastic. 

The other note here is that I will not put nuts on this cake. While I’m sure it would taste fine, it just isn’t my preference. I don’t love nuts to begin with and therefore I rarely have them on hand. If I do have them on hand I would have to get out my Ninja to chop them and we already talked about making dishes above. However, if you like nuts- add as many as you want. If you don’t like them, like me, you won’t be missing out on anything if you don’t add them. 

In Summary: Apple Cake

This apple cake is the perfect fall or winter treat. The added bonus is that baking it makes your house smell super incredible! I think one of the great parts of fall is obviously the cooler weather but also the scents. Fall scents are just so much better than any of the others, well, maybe except Christmas. Christmas scents are also pretty great. Since you can make this cake with apples that are slightly overripe it can be qualified as a Christmas scent or Christmas treat too. Heck, if you preserve apples you could have this all year round! That would be amazing but also the smell would make me crave that cooler weather too so it’d be some sort of punishment! 

What season do you like the most?

Honestly, fall is my absolute favorite. I love the cooler weather and harvesting is such a special time for us too. We’re busy, but it’s a lot of family time which is really special.