Easy Apple Spice Cake

This Easy Apple Spice Cake is a delicious fall-inspired single-layer cake, great for snacking and really easy to throw together. It’s perfectly moist, loaded with chunks of apples, and flavored with delicious warm fall spices. It also uses applesauce to really bring out the apple flavor and make a super tender cake. It’s a great way to use up some of the apples from the orchard!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 40

Total Time: 1

Servings: servings

Ingredients

1 cup neutral oil
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup unsweetened plain applesauce
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups peeled diced apples (about 2-3 apples) ½" pieces

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, whisk the two large eggs, ½ cup granulated sugar, and ½ cup dark brown sugar together until pale and slightly frothy, about 2 minutes.
To the egg sugar mixture, add the 1 cup neutral oil, ½ cup applesauce, and 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Whisk together until well combined.
To the bowl add the 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon cloves, ¼ teaspoon allspice, and ½ teaspoon salt. Whisk together until almost fully combined.
Add the diced apples to the batter and fold in with a spoon until just combined.
Transfer the cake batter into a prepared 8x8 baking pan.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until the edges are lightly golden brown and the center is cooked through.
Let rest in the pan for 15 minutes to set before removing and transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. Top with powdered sugar if desired.

Video

Notes

Bake with room temperature ingredients! It helps make sure everything incorporates properly, and bakes at the same speed.
Measure your flour properly. A kitchen scale is preferred, but if you don’t have one, the spoon and level method is best. If you have too much flour, your cake will be dry. Avoid scooping with the measuring spoon as it's likely it'll pack in and you'll have too much.
- Spoon and level method: fluff the flower with your spoon, then gently drop spoonfuls into your measuring cup and brush away any excess on the top with the handle.
Don’t over mix the batter! Mix in the dry ingredients until it’s almost fully incorporated but some flour streaks remain. Then add the apples and mix until JUST incorporated. If you over-mix, the cake will get tougher and gluey.
To prep a cake pan, spray it with non-stick cooking spray and it line with two pieces of parchment paper (one going each way) with at least an inch hanging over the sides of the pan so you can easily pull the cake out.
Let the cake sit in the pan after it’s baked for a few minutes. This is a moist cake, so it needs a bit to set before you take it out of the pan.
To check if your cake is baked through – insert a cake tester or toothpick into the center of the cake – if there are just a few crumbs, it’s baked through. If there’s any semblance of wet batter, it needs more time.
Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is at the right temp! While extra important for baking, this is handy for any recipe you make 😊

Nutrition Estimate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Apples, baking, cake, Fall Baking

Author: Haley