Sweet bites of apple with crunchy pecan and hint of warm ginger, this Apple Cake is a delightful teacake! I like to drizzle some salted caramel on the cake, and it goes to a whole new level of lusciousness. It’s an easy one-bowl apple cake recipe that barely needs any effort.
Fruit cake is my tea time happiness and I often keep it simple with few basic ingredients and simple steps.
This cake is not overly sweet or covered with frosting, but it’s quite comforting. It’s crumbly yet still moist and dare I say, it’s a great snack too.
Ingredients for Apple Cake
Fresh Apples - Use crunchy and not overly ripe apples. I like to peel the apples, but you can leave them on too. Some people prefer to grate the apple, I personally like it chopped into small pieces, so I get those apple bites in between.
Pecans - You can use the other variety of nuts too, but pecan and apple goes so well together. If you are allergic to nuts, you can discard nuts too.
Eggs - I love eggs in cake, but if you want to make it eggless, replace with 1 cup thick plain yogurt.
All-purpose flour - You can do a mix of all-purpose flour and almond flour too, or keep it with just all-purpose flour.
Baking powder and baking soda - Both are key ingredients for fluffy, soft cakes.
Brown Sugar - I like the richness brown sugar adds in this cake recipe, but you can always use white sugar too.
Ginger powder - Using fresh ginger is a tad bit difficult here as it may not mix evenly with the batter. I prefer to use ginger powder as it will mix evenly and also add the beautiful warm autumn flavor.
Vegetable Oil - My Mom always baked cakes with oil and not butter. That somehow stayed with me and for all my tea cake recipes, I often use vegetable oil.
Steps to prepare
1- Peel and slice the apple into small bites.
2- Roughly chop the pecans
3- Crack the eggs in a mixing bowl and add the brown sugar. Then whisk to mix it together.
4- Pour the oil and whisk again to mix everything.
5- Sift the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.
6- Using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture to form a thick, glossy batter.
7-Add the sliced apple and pecans and fold it to the cake batter.
8- Grease the baking pan with oil and then pour the batter to the pan. Top it with few more pecans and then bake the cake.
Once the cake is baked, wait for it to cool down a little before you release it from the pan. Then let the cake cool down to room temperature before you slice the cake.
I personally love to add almond flour to the batter, but this kept it plain. Almond flour adds a nutty taste and much crumblier texture to the cake.
FAQs
Honey crisp would be the best apple, as these are sweet and very crunchy. You can also make with granysmith, but granysmith will be tart, so you have to add more sugar, probably.
You can add grated apple too instead of chopped apples. Grated apple with evenly mix in the batter whereas chopped apples will give that sweet bites in between
It is not eggless, but you can make an eggless version by substituting eggs with 1 cup thick plain yogurt.
More easy cake recipes to try
Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup oil
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 apples (cut into tiny bite size cubes)
- few thin slices of apple (optional)
- ½ cup pecans (Roughly chopped)
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 and grease a loaf pan with butter or oil.
- Roughly chop half of the pecans and leave rest of them whole to place on top of the cake batter.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg, sugar and oil. Once it’s combined, sift the all-purpose flour, ground ginger, baking powder and baking soda. Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients to form a thick, glossy batter.
- Drop the apple cubes and chopped pecan. Mix it and pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Layer the thinly sliced apple on top along with the whole pecans.
- Place the pan on the middle rack and bake it for 55 to 60 minutes. Poke the center of the cake with a toothpick or a skewer and if comes out clean, it’s baked. If the top of the cake looks dark but the cake is still not baked, place an aluminum sheet loosely on top of the cake and continue baking.
- Once done, let it cool a little before you release from the pan. And then let it cool down more before you slice and serve.
Claudia
I loved the simplicity and overall result of this cake, but I have to admit I did not at all care for the hint of ginger. What could I replace it with next time? Cinnamon perhaps? Or vanilla? Or a combo thereof?
Kankana Saxena
So glad you liked it Claudia! Cinnamon and apple is marriage made in heaven, always works I say 🙂 and Vanilla I think works on almost anything!