This Best Apple Cake Ever is super moist and delicious with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice!
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!”
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.
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:
- Spiced Eggnog Chocolate Chip Cake
- Kathy’s Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake
- Toffee Pecan Bundt Cake with Caramel Drizzle
- Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake
Best Apple Cake Ever
This Best Apple Cake Ever is super moist and delicious with the perfect amount of sweetness and spice!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 10–12 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
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
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan and set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Sift two additional times and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine oil and both sugars, and mix until well blended.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix again.
- Add the sifted dry ingredients to the batter and mix thoroughly. By hand, fold in apples and walnuts and mix until evenly combined.
- 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.
- Remove cake from the oven and allow to cool in the bundt pan for 20 minutes.
- 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.
- Remove the cake from the pan, onto a serving plate. Spoon the glaze over the warm cake.
- Cool for a little longer before serving.
Hi! Can I make this in a 10 cup Bundt?
You can, but you’ll need to leave some of the batter out – otherwise it will probably overflow. The bake time will probably be less too.
My husband is raving about this cake and he is not a dessert man!
Love hearing comments like this Sharon – so glad the cake is a hit!
Made this again Saturday, this is the only recipe that I use now , absolutely perfect as recipe stated
Thank you Sherry!
Just a comment – I always find it frustrating when recipes start with something like “2 bunches of kale” or “3 large apples” because it is hard to know how large a bunch of kale or how many small apples equal a large apple. Knowing how many cups of chopped apples would be very helpful.
Thanks for the suggestion Sarah – we generally agree with you on this point about how to list ingredients, and most of our recipes do include precise measurements. We shared the recipe written exactly as we received it, and after making this cake many times, it is a somewhat forgiving recipe in that you can use “three large apples” so a little more or less will work if your apples are smaller or larger than mine. Having said this, the next time we make this cake, we will make note of the number of cups of apples it measures out to.
Just baked this . It is delicious. I don’t use seed oils so I used coconut oil . I would also like to try it with butter instead of vegetable oil
Hi Joanne – Both coconut oil and butter are solids at room temperature vs the oils…just be aware that the texture of your cake is likely to be firmer and more dense than if you followed the recipe as written.
Works every time. I use a lot of apples. So moist
Thanks Karen!
Can you add 1tsp of baking powder? It doesn’t rise that much
Looking at your pic and mine rose about the same
I would like it a little taller.
You can try it if you’d like Joanne – let us know how it works!
I followed the recipe exactly, but it didn’t turn out as expected! It tasted fine, but the cake fell apart in chunks and stuck to the Bundt pan.
Sorry you were disappointed J. I’d suggest greasing your pan and try smaller apple chunks or maybe fewer apples.
This was the best apple cake ever!! I made it for the 4th of July and it was a hit. Everyone loved it and it didn’t last long. I made it exactly by the recipe except I added one extra apple.
Thank you Jamie!
Absolutely the best apple cake ever! I’ve made this several times, as written and with variations, subbing 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup canola oil for the oil, and cutting the white sugar back to one cup. Delicious no matter how I’ve made it. The next time I’ll try using a lemon glaze for the topping.
Thank you!