You will love this moist and delicious old-fashioned cinnamon apple cake recipe. It is fast and easy, using only two apples and a few pantry ingredients. This small batch recipe is for an 8X8 or 9-inch round pan, but it is easy to double or make a half-size apple cake for two.
🍎Ingredients
Apples
Egg
Cinnamon
Pantry ingredients—flour, sugar, oil, baking soda, vanilla extract
Walnuts—optional, chopped
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Featured Comment by Ann:
"I am eating a piece of this cake as I am writing my review. Just delicious and really easy. I like that you can dump all the ingredients together, and loved the sugar sprinkle on top. Thanks!"
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I used my wife's old-fashioned apple cake recipe as a model. She contributed it to the Holmes School Cookbook years ago. It is beautiful in its simplicity and wonderful results using only things we all have on hand.
I cooked this cake unsupervised by the author, so I made a few minor changes—I made it smaller in size, added more cinnamon, and shredded some of the apples to release more apple juice for flavor.
Check out these other great dessert recipes, like Crock Pot Apple Cobbler, Old Fashioned Blueberry Cobbler. Berry Crisp for Two, Easy Old Fashioned Apple Crisp, and Apple Crumble Pie.
👨🍳How to Make Cinnamon Apple Cake—Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. Peel and dice (¼ to ½ inch) or shred apples. Half and half works great!
3. Mix all ingredients well and move to a prepared 8X8 or 9-inch round pan.
4. Sprinkle with sugar.
5. Bake at 350° until a toothpick comes out clean. About 45 minutes.
6. Cool before serving.
For more details, keep reading. See the Recipe Card below for complete instructions and to print.
🍎What apples to use
I find Cortland, Granny Smith, Gala, Ida Red, Fuji, Honey Crisp, or Roma all work well. But really, the apples you love and have in the house are usually the best choice for you.
If you are buying for this recipe, get Granny Smith or Gala apples. Avoid Red Delicious or Macintosh apples, which don't cook well.
🥣Optional Glaze
A simple glaze makes a great topping. You can keep the sugar topping if you wish. Drlzzle on the glaze while the cake is still warm.
- ⅔ cup of powdered sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 3-4 teaspoons of milk.
↕️How to make this a "for two" or "family size " recipe
This is already a small batch recipe, making 8 small servings. But if you need more or less, it is easy to cut in half or double to fit your needs.
- Use the recipe card and adjust the number of servings to half or double.
- Use the amount of ingredients in the ingredient list, not the instructions—those do not adjust.
- A double recipe bakes in a standard 9X13 cake pan and will take about 10 minutes longer to cook. As always, good to the endpoint, not by time.
- A half recipe can be made in a 6-inch round pan or a pan with a surface of about 25 to 30 square inches—like a 5 X 5 pan. Baking time will be about 10 minutes less.
🍴Serving
You can use it for brunch, dessert, or just a snack. Serve it alone or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Other possible toppings are fresh fruit, whipped cream, or caramel sauce.
❄️How to store leftovers
Store well sealed in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days.
You can freeze apple cake for 3 months. Before freezing, I suggest cutting it into slices and wrapping each individually.
Reheat briefly in the microwave.
❓FAQs
A 9-inch round or 8X8 baking pan is an excellent choice. Other choices are an 8-inch round or 6X9 rectangle pan.
A springform pan works well but is not required.
Large chunks of apples release steam when cooked, causing steam pockets in the cake. Smaller dice, ¼ to ½ inches, will work well.
I like to shred half the apples. This preserves some apple texture while releasing the juices and a great deal of flavor.
This is one of those "sticky" cakes—even in a non-stick pan with butter and flour, there is some sticking. A piece of parchment paper on the bottom of the pan helps.
📖 Recipe
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Easy Cinnamon Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 2 apples—Granny Smith or Gala preferred - medium or large, shredded or diced
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup walnuts - chopped Optional
- 1 tablespoon sugar - Optional for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° with the rack in the middle. Prep a 9-inch round or 8X8 cake pan with butter and flour. Parchment paper on the bottom is suggested.
- Dice or shred two medium apples. I suggest half shredded and half with smaller dice of about ¼ to ½ inch.
- Mix all ingredients well and move to the prepared pan.
- Sprinkle with about a tablespoon of sugar.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. About 45 minutes. Cool before serving.
Recipe Notes
Pro Tips:
- Use the apples you have, but I do not like red delicious or Macintosh apples in recipes like this. I usually use Granny Smith or Gala apples.
- The apples can be shredded or diced.
- Options, recipe sizes, and pan options are discussed in the recipe post.
- Another good topping is a simple glaze: ⅔ cups of powdered sugar, ⅛ teaspoon of vanilla extract, and 3-4 teaspoons of milk.
- Store airtight at room temp or refrigerate for 3 days or frozen for 3 months
Your Own Private Notes
To adjust the recipe size:
You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.
Nutrition Estimate
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Editor's note: Originally Published October 6, 2016. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.
gail says
Which apples do you recommend for apple recipes?
Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan says
Hi Gail,
The choice of apples are generally mentioned in the recipe card notes but will be discussed in more details within the post.
Dan
Barbara says
Fab desert....as a help for peeling and shredding apples: I core the apple first which gives me two places for thumb and finger to grasp. I then peel or shred. I froze leftover cake cut into servings and placed them on a half sheet pan lined with parchment paper and placed in freezer. When cake was frozen, I used my trusty fold lock top sandwich bags to store each serving of Apple Cake. Then put cake servings in a gallon freezer bag and squeezed the air out and zipped shut.
Lily Zandel says
I was getting ready for our Rosh Hashana dinner and decided that needed another dessert. Because I had all the ingredients on hand, I decided to try the Easy Apple Cake from Scratch. It was easy, quick, light, moist, and delicious. Not a slice left. Next time I will make it in the 9x13 pan. Thank you for a delicious experience with something so simple.
Marco says
Yum! Very nice apple-cinnamon flavor. I cut the recipe in half and made two 4-inch cakes. Baking powder instead to make them rise more. Cut the sugar by half and it was plenty sweet because I used a lunchbox container of applesauce plus a pat of butter instead of oil. Each small cake was 300 calories but we only ate half each, so 150 calories for a nice sized piece of cake. Thanks for the recipe!
Ann says
I am eating a piece of this cake as I am writing my review. Just delicious and really easy. I like that you can dump all the ingredients together, and loved the sugar sprinkle on top. Thanks!
Claudia Matusiak says
Made this apple cake yesterday and it is so moist and delicious. I made one small change; instead of the one tablespoon on sugar on top, I replaced that with sprinkling my jar of cinnamon sugar over the top instead ~ can't ever have enough cinnamon with apple recipes. I do appreciate this recipe as I am not a person that really enjoys sickening sweet icings and this one is right up my alley for sure. Keep up the good work and I'll keep enjoying your recipes!
Kelly says
My husband tried this while I was out for the day . He thought it said baking "powder " not baking soda . It was the best apple cake I have ever had !!!! It probably raised more , but it sure did not do anything to the flavor .. Not sure as that is the only way we make it now . Thank you , so easy & sooo good !!!!
DrDan says
Hi Kelly,
Welcome to the blog.
This recipe is an old one from my wife's family. They tend to use baking soda. I prefer baking powder myself, you probably had a better rise. I will try it next time and see if my wife notices.
Thanks for the note.
Dan
Margaret says
This easy Apple Cake gets a five star rating from both my husband and myself. I followed the recipe as is and it turned out so super moist and delicious. It definitely is a keeper, but next time I am going to try and reduce the sugar a bit. Thanks for such a great little cake recipe!
Laura Childs says
The BEST apple cake ever! So simple and so delish. The cake itself is very moist and full of apple flavor. For the spice , I use apple pie spice according to my taste but that was the only modification I made. Thanks for this recipe is going to become one of my go to’s!
Laura
CharlieCarrah says
A really quick and easy cake -- not to mention delicious! I substituted all of the oil with home-canned cinnamon applesauce and it was fantastic! I diced the apples and I also used 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and added 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cloves and ground allspice. It needed an additional 5 minutes of baking and it was baked in an 8" x 8" glass dish. While still warm, we topped it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! Definitely a keeper!
DrDan says
Hi Charlie, thanks for the comment. I have done this one several more times already with various combinations. I'm convinced you can modify this many ways and it will still be excellent.
DrDan says
Hi Angela,
Thanks for the note and especially the trial of substituting in the applesauce for half the oil. I have been planning a repeat cooking doing that exact substitute. Now I can do the Apple Fritter Bread instead...
Dan
Angela Saver says
This cake is amazing!!!! I doubled the recipe & baked it in a 9x13-inch pan. I also only used 1/2 c. Oil & then substituted 1/2 c. Applesauce for the other 1/2 c. Oil. My family LOVES it! Thank you for an awesome cake that we will make over & over again! Definitely a keeper!
Justine says
This cake is delicious and super easy to make!! But just wondering if it's possible to cut the 1cup of sugar by half as well as the amount of oil without much change to the result of this cake? Also wondering if it can be frozen.
DrDan says
Hi Justine,
Thanks for the note. It is usually ok to sneak sugar down a little. But cutting in half is a lot unless the apples are very sweet. The oil really is needed, or you will have a marked effect on the texture. You can experiment with substituting applesauce or yogurt but I have not done it with this recipe so proceed at your own risk.
They should freeze well.
Dan
John says
Would this be good 2 days after baking? I'm looking for a desert to bring to a saturday tailgate, but would have to make it on Thursday.
DrDan says
Almost but not quite as good.
Dan