This cozy apple spice cake recipe has the perfect blend of warm spices and a gorgeous super-moist texture, thanks to a double dose of apple goodness!
Our Fan-Favorite Apple Spice Cake Recipe Is A Fall Dream Come True
Seriously. This apple cake recipe has been served at Thanksgiving, birthdays, Christmas Eve, ladies’ luncheons, and even made for weddings by professionals with rave reviews! It’s SUPER moist, deliciously spiced, and full of flavor.
🥣 EASE: This easy spiced apple cake is made in a sheet pan, which means it’s about as low-fuss as it gets! The recipe is made from simple ingredients, and the only skills you need are grating, stirring, and mixing.
🍎 FLAVORS: Warm spices and apple are the stars of the show here! Paired with our suggested buttermilk syrup (or some caramel sauce!), the flavors are next-level amazing.
🍰 TOP TIPS: For the best apple cake, I highly recommend weighing the dry ingredients where possible! Also: try the buttermilk syrup!!!
Happy baking! xo, Emily
Gather Your Ingredients
One thing readers LOVE about this easy recipe? The simple ingredients list! Let’s take a look:
The Best Apples For Apple Cake
Not all fresh apples bake the same, and some hold their shape better than others. Our two favorite kinds of apples for apple spice cake are sweet, tart apples, like Honeycrisp apples and Granny Smith apples.
Both have great balanced flavor that works well with the spices, and they won’t get mushy or mealy when baked. (Braeburn & Pink Lady are two other nice choices!)
How To Make Apple Spice Cake, Step By Step
As always, you can find the full recipe with ingredient amounts, detailed instructions, and tips in the recipe card below.
- Preheat & Prep. To start, preheat oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×13″ metal pan with butter or spray or line with parchment paper.
- Combine Dry Ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream Butter & Sugar. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer or paddle attachment for 2-3 minutes, until light, fluffy, and well combined.
- Finish Wet Ingredients. Mix in eggs, one at a time till well incorporated, then stir in applesauce.
- Add Dry Ingredients, Then The Apples. Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently stir or mix just until the dry ingredients are mixed in. Next, add the grated apples and stir until evenly distributed.
- Bake. Pour cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake in preheated oven 30-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (This cake will bake to a deep brown, but if your cake seems to be getting too dark, feel free to loosely tent the pan with foil for the last few minutes of baking. Cool cake on a wire rack.
- Serve & Store. Cut cake into slices and top individual slices with buttermilk syrup, caramel sauce, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (Or, frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting!) Store leftover cake covered in the fridge 2-3 days for best results, or 1-2 days at room temperature.
Serving Suggestions & Toppings To Try
This gluten-free apple cake recipe is packed with flavor, but I do recommend adding at least one little topping for serving. Here are my favorites:
- Buttermilk Syrup or Caramel Sauce. My FAVORITE way to serve this old-fashioned apple spice cake is with a generous drizzle of Buttermilk Syrup or Caramel Sauce.
- Ice Cream. A slice of slightly warm cake with a scoop of cold ice cream (and maybe some caramel sauce!) is one of the best fall desserts around.
- Whipped Cream. A dollop of fluffy whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top of the cake is light and lovely!
- Cream Cheese Frosting. A classic cream cheese frosting is DELICIOUS with the spices in this cake! (If you plan to frost the cake, make sure to let cake cool completely before frosting or the frosting will melt!)
- Sautéed Apples. If you want to play up the apple flavors in this cake even MORE, you can top each slice with some cinnamon apples and a little scoop of ice cream or a bit of whipped cream.
FAQ + Tips And Tricks For The Best Apple Spice Cake
Measure Your Flour Carefully! To avoid a dense or gummy cake, take care to measure the flour properly. I recommend weighing the flour when possible, but at least use the scoop and level method if you don’t have a scale!
Can I Make This As An Apple Bundt Cake? If you’d like to make this in a bundt pan, I honestly recommend making this apple bundt cake recipe. If you choose to make a bundt with THIS recipe, make sure you grease the bundt pan properly first, as it’s a very moist cake and is more likely to stick. (I recommend adding sugar to the pan after greasing, which can help the cake come out.) Also follow these guidelines for converting cake recipes to fit different cake pans. It’ll take 50-60 minutes or so in a 10-12 inch bundt pan.
Can I Make This Cake Dairy-Free? Yes! Just use vegan butter (like Earth Balance). Then, top with a vegan caramel sauce or dairy-free vanilla ice cream instead of our buttermilk syrup.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Tell me all about it! Leave a star rating below when you try our Gluten-Free Apple Spice Cake recipe. I can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Apple Spice Cake
Ingredients
For The Wet Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter, softened (113 grams/8 Tablespoons)
- 1 3/4 cups sugar (350 grams)
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup applesauce (I prefer unsweetened)
- 2 cups peeled & grated or finely diced apples (I like Honeycrisp or granny smith apples)
For The Dry Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour or gluten-free flour* (270 grams)
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
To Serve (Choose 1-2)
- Buttermilk Syrup (or Caramel Sauce)
- Whipped Cream
- Vanilla Ice Cream
Instructions
- Preheat & Prep. To start, preheat oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×13" metal pan with butter or spray or line with parchment paper.
- Combine Dry Ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Cream Butter & Sugar. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar with a hand mixer or paddle attachment for 2-3 minutes, until light, fluffy, and well combined.
- Finish Wet Ingredients. Mix in eggs, one at a time till well incorporated, then stir in applesauce.
- Add Dry Ingredients, Then The Apples. Then, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently stir or mix just until the dry ingredients are mixed in. Next, add the grated apples and stir until evenly distributed.
- Bake. Pour cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer. Bake in preheated oven 35-40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (This cake will bake to a deep brown, but if your cake seems to be getting too dark, feel free to loosely tent the pan with foil for the last few minutes of baking. Cool cake on a wire rack.
- Serve & Store. Cut cake into slices and top individual slices with buttermilk syrup, caramel sauce, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. (Or, frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting!) Store leftover cake covered in the fridge 2-3 days for best results, or 1-2 days at room temperature.
Notes
- Flour. This recipe was developed years before we went gluten-free and works great with regular white flour (all-purpose flour). Now that we’re gluten-free, we use King Arthur Measure-For-Measure Gluten-Free Flour. If you use another gluten-free flour blend, be sure it contains xanthan gum, or the cake will not turn out properly. (Do NOT substitute coconut flour or almond flour in this recipe.)
- Other Toppings. If you prefer, you can frost this cake with Classic Cream Cheese Frosting!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition facts are an estimate only and will vary based on brands and amounts used.
Find it Online:
https://www.onelovelylife.com/apple-spice-cake/PS. This was one of the first recipes I developed for my site, way back in November 2008 before I’d learned a thing about photography. Here’s our original photos: (We’ve come a long way!😂)
Can I make this into mini bundt cakes?
Minda – I haven’t tried it in mini bundt cakes yet. It’s pretty moist, so I think it might have a tendency to stick.
This has to be the best apple spice cake i have ever made. My husband does not eat much cake but he sure finished this one off and asked me to make it again.
I’m so glad you loved it Janice! It’s my FAVORITE!
This cake was absolutely amazing. I tweaked it a bit, cut the apples into chunks instead of grating and sprinkled toffee chips on top before baking. I make my own applesauce with a tad of sugar but I add spiced rum to cook down w/the apples.
Really easy to make. Moist, flavourful, and very delicious!
I’m so glad you loved it Victoria! Thank you so much for leaving a review!
No recipe for the butter milk or caramel syrup
Victor – Sorry you had trouble finding it! It’s actually linked in the post with a blue highlight over the words. Here it is again. 🙂
Out of this world, my husband said when this cake is gone hurry and make another right away. The buttermilk caramel sauce was a must with it. Best cake ever!
I’m so glad you loved it! It’s one of my all time FAVORITE desserts!
My cake is currently in the oven. I have a question about the buttermilk syrup. Can that be used like a frosting on the entire cake or should it be spooned on individual servings?
It should be spooned onto individual servings 🙂 Hope you love the cake!
Amazing. Exactly like you would hope for. Moist.
I’m so glad you loved it!
So delicious! I made this for the first time last year at Thanksgiving and it was requested so many times that its making a comeback to this (2020) Thanksgiving menu!
I’m so glad to hear that Dana!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review–it helps so much! 🙂
if you dont have those individual spices can you use all spice instead and how much would you use?
Allspice is actually not a mixture of spices, it’s an individual spice, so I would not recommend it as a substitute here. If you have something like pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, you might be able to get away with that; otherwise, I’d recommend waiting until you can get the spices called for since they’re really what makes this cake so special. I’m sorry!
This is literally the beat thing I’ve ever made in my entire life. It is a million times tastier than I ever could have imagined! I can’t wait to make this every fall. Thank you for sharing!
Karen – BEST REVIEW EVER!!! Thank you so much for sharing this!