This Fresh Apple Cake recipe will be the highlight of your Fall season! The delicious moist spice cake is made with grated apples, then served with a simple caramel sauce and scoop of ice cream.
Make sure to try all of my apple recipes this season, including Baked Apples, Caramel Apples, Apple Pie, or this yummy Caramel Apple Dip to eat with your fresh apples!
Generations of love come along with this Apple Cake.
Generations of love come along with this Apple Cake.Treasured family recipes are so special; not to get overly cheesy, but I love how food can link us with loved ones who have passed on. <3 My grandmother's fresh apple cake recipe has been a favorite for generations. You don't have to peel the apples–we just grate them right into the batter, and you can really use any type of apple you have on hand. Just don't don't skip the caramel sauce because it makes this cake irresistible!
How to make Apple Cake:
Make Caramel Sauce: Combine sauce ingredients in a glass bowl and place on top of a saucepan with simmering water. Let it simmer while the cake cooks.
Grate Apples: Keep the peels on the apples and grate them with a box grater or the grating attachment on a food processor.
Make Batter: Mix butter, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl then stir in grated apples. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl then pour into the wet ingredients and stir only until just incorporated. Don't over mix!
Bake: Spread batter evenly into a greased 9×13 pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or with few crumbs.
Serve with caramel sauce and a scoop of ice cream!
Freezing Instructions:
To Freeze: Let cake cool completely then cover with plastic wrap and two layers of tinfoil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight. Enjoy cold or rewarm the whole pan in the oven on low heat, or warm individual slices in the microwave for a few seconds.
More Apple Recipes:
- Apple Crisp
- Baked Apples
- Applesauce Muffins
- Apple Coffee Cake
- How to make Caramel Apples
- Broccoli Apple Salad
- Apple Pie
- Waldorf Salad
- Applesauce
- Applesauce Bread
- Apple Pecan Salad
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Recipe
Apple Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup butter , room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- 6 small/medium apples* , grated with peel on (discard the core)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 1 cup chopped walnuts , optional
Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Easy Caramel Sauce (can be made ahead): Place all caramel sauce ingredients in a large glass bowl and stir to combine. Fill a saucepan with about 2 inches of water and bring it to a boil. Turn it to a low simmer. Set glass bowl over the saucepan (or use a double boiler) and simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Pour into a jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Wet ingredients: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well blended. Add the eggs and mix well. Stir in the big pile of freshly grated apple.
- Dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients.
- Combine: Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix, just until incorporated.
- Bake in a greased 9×13 inch pan for 45-60 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
- Serve warm with caramel sauce and whipped cream or ice cream.
Notes
Nutrition
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*I originally shared this recipe November 2014. Updated November 2020, October 2022 and September 2024.
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This was excellent as is but not quite five stars because there was something missing…think it was salt? Next time I would add a little salt to the cake and/or the caramel. It was soft and decadent, kinda like a sticky toffee pudding.
Delicious and easy!! My new favorite. Thank you so much for sharing.
Have not even had time to get to the store to pickup the ingredients yet but my mouth is watering for this Apple Cake just looking at the picture!!!
Thanks for Sharing Lauren
It looks like there are raisins in yours. Is that the walnuts or did you add raisins?
Lauren used walnuts in her cake, but you could stir in raisins instead if you’d like.
Delicious 😋😋
Made it this afternoon
Was so Easy to make & super moist
Only thing I did different was to omit the cloves
My husband loved it😜😜👍🏼👍🏼
Denise
Made this recipe tonight exactly as written by the talented owner and author of it… IT TURNED OUT TO BE THE MOST AMAZING APPLE CAKE I HAVE EVER HAD! I say bravo to it’s owner and publisher,, and I very much appreciate you sharing your wonderful family recipe with the rest of us that are grateful to have discovered it! My family and friends that have had the pleasure of sharing this cake thank you very much. Sure we will be enjoying it for years to come!!
This has the beginnings of a good recipe but it’s too heavy on the sugar (esp. with the recommended toppings) and there’s no salt listed (the cake won’t rise at all without including both). I reduced the white sugar and the number of apples by half, I added a cup of currants rehydrated in bourbon, I used allspice instead of cinnamon, and I added 1 teaspoon of salt to activate the 2 teaspoons of baking soda. The texture of the cake was light and spongy as it should be, and the combination of flavors came through with less sugar to drown them out.
E.A. You have so many negative comments on this recipe, please let us know when your “Perfect Recipes” page is???
So you made an altogether different cake & only gave this recipe 3 stars?
I don’t have cloves, is there another substitution?
So good. Cut recipe by half and used an 8×8 pan. Cosmic Crisp apples were bomb in this. Will be making on repeat.
Very tasty Reminded me of old fashioned cakes yum!
The recipe you have for the caramel sauce on top of this apple cake says that you simmer it for one hour, is that a misprint.
I used a Pyrex bowl over boiling water, don’t have a double boiler. Let it simmer for an hour. Turned out great. It thickens as it cools.