Best Apple Cake Ever

This really IS the Best Apple Cake Ever!

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This Best Apple Cake Ever is super moist and delicious with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice! 

Best Apple Cake Ever

If you’re still looking for an easy – and really delicious – dessert to serve over the holidays, have we got the recipe for you!   My sister-in-law Pam shared this recipe with us over email with the subject line: “Best Apple Cake Ever!”

Pam celebrated her birthday last month, and a friend of hers showed up with this cake – the best apple cake ever.  In fact – the cake was so good, the three of them ate the entire cake in about 24 hours.

Pam then made this apple cake for us for Thanksgiving – and it was so good, Jack and I immediately looked at each other and said, “We’re making this for our blog!”

The Best Apple Cake Ever

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This apple cake is moist and delicious with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice – plus large chunks of apple and chopped walnuts add great flavor and texture to the cake too.  Once this apple cake comes out of the oven, a wonderful sweet buttery vanilla glaze is poured over the top which soaks in to make the cake even more delicious.

The Best Apple Cake Ever

Not only is this apple cake really delicious – but it’s also very easy to prepare.

Can I make this cake in a 9×13-inch pan?

Yes – and this easy apple cake comes out just as moist and delicious. Click here to see the instructions for baking this apple cake in a 9×13-inch pan.

You may enjoy these other Bundt Cakes:

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Best Apple Cake Ever

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4.8 from 505 reviews

This Best Apple Cake Ever is super moist and delicious with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice! 

  • Author: A Family Feast
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins
  • Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Yield: 1012 servings 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Units Scale

Baking spray with flour, or shortening and flour to grease the pan

For the Cake

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 3 large apples, peeled and cut into large pieces (Note: The original recipe calls for tart green apples, but we used some red Cortland apples we had on hand and it was delicious!)
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

For the Glaze

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 3 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Sift two additional times and set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine oil and both sugars, and mix until well blended.
  4. Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix again.
  5. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the batter and mix thoroughly. By hand, fold in apples and walnuts and mix until evenly combined.
  6. Spoon the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
  7. Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool in the bundt pan for 20 minutes.
  8. While the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine all of the glaze ingredients. Bring to a boil and allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute.
  9. Remove the cake from the pan, onto a serving plate. Spoon the glaze over the warm cake.
  10. Cool for a little longer before serving.

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Best Apple Cake Ever

Best Apple Cake Ever
Last updated: May 27, 2025

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1,497 Comments

  1. I havent trird this recipe yet i just found it now on your website. I will be making it this weekend. I would lie to receive your emails for your recipes thank you.S

  2. On which rack do you bake the best apple cake on, the lower third rack or the middle oven rack?

  3. I’m baking this Apple cake that looks fabulous ! I hope it is great as it seems.
    Thank you for sharing your recipe.
    Will let you know how it came out.
    Blessing.
    Fabby

  4. Really is great! Moist and not too sweet. Used powdered sugar instead of making glaze. Added some sour cream the second time I made it and it really came out great. Got lots of compliments from my guests.

  5. HI! I was trying to PIN this to a Pinterest board using the Pinterest button by the print button but it says it’s not allowed. 🙁

    1. Hi Lena – I’m not seeing the same error – I was able pin using that button. Would you retry – and if you still see the error, please let me know what device and browser you are using? I’d like to try to recreate the issue and troubleshoot.
      Thanks for letting me know!

  6. This is really the best ever! I’ve made this 2 days in a row! The first went to a neighbor since she gave me the apples. I joked that I made a mistake giving it to her as we had a slice when I took it to her. Just made another today for hubby and I. I Left the brown sugar out on purpose. Didn’t substitute more white sugar either. Plenty sweet. Since I cooked in a toaster oven, it only took
    50 min. . Seems like too much apple for the amount of batter, but it’s not and you really do have to mix by hand. It looks beautiful too!

  7. Made this yesterday and I have a few notes. It’s too sweet so I would reduce the amount of sugar as the glaze makes it even more sweet. I would reduce 1/2 cup white sugar and only do 1 cup white and keep the brown as the recipe instructs. I used 5 apples both granny smith and McIntosh and grated 2 of them and then chopped the other 3 and it was perfect and added extra moisture. I love the taste of butter in a cake so I did half oil and half melted butter. The last thing to give the glaze more apple flavor I added a splash of apple brandy and it was exactly what it needed and I used confectionary sugar instead of granulated sugar and didn’t cook it but just used melted butter and whisked it up in a bowl and consistency was ideal. Everyone loved it except for my note that the sugar should be reduced slightly. Will make again!

    1. Thanks for the suggestions Jeff – I know that some other readers have commented that they successfully reduced the sugar without impacting the texture of the cake so you should be OK doing so. Thanks for taking the time to leave your comments.

  8. Absolutely loved making this recipe! Cake was incredibly moist & delicious! I used canola oil & where it asked for 1 1/2 cups sugar I did 1/2 cup coconut sugar and x1 cup raw caster sugar. I added a little maple syrup to the syrup at the end. 🙂