mom’s apple cake
My mother makes the best apple cake, and has for as long as I can remember. Big cinnamon-y chunks of apple nestle into a coffee cake I would call “unbelievably” moist, but really, should not be hard to believe considering that my mother is also the one who brought us another of the best cake recipes on this site, The Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake. The cake gets better the second day, when the apples juices seep further into the cake and I have seen the conviction of many a chocolate-obsessed/fruit dessert non-believers crumble upon trying a single slice of it. The apple cake, it’s some good stuff.
Not above pilfering content for my website from my nearest and dearest, I talked my mom into coming over (and heaving up all 51 stairs–she likes to count them) on Sunday to bake the cake with me for the New Years dinner at my in-laws today. I wanted to get the recipe down, but also to get the back story on the cake recipe. In bits and pieces, I remember it being called at different times a “German Apple Cake” and a “Jewish Apple Cake”, though what made it either was unclear. I suspected that if was indeed German, it came over with her parents as they escaped the Holocaust. I imagined that my grandmother and her mother before her must have made this cake often, as it uses such simple ingredients but the final product is so much better than the sum of its parts.
As it turns out, the actual story is, uh, a little less romanticized. My mother has been making this cake not for 60-something years, but since I was a kid. And the recipe, it didn’t come from her mother or her mother’s mother (”My mother? Bake a cake? Ha!” my mother said.) but a clipping that a neighbor gave her from some now-defunct magazine. Entirely crushed that the recipe involves no escapes from terror, no bits of the old country, no tales of war rations or ingredients that don’t translate well into English, I briefly considered where my more interesting history of the cake should be the only story I tell, but alas, I am a terrible liar and find the vast expanse between my version and the actual truth to be as funny of a story as any.
My grandchildren, however, will be able to talk all about how this recipe was passed down their crazy Grandma Deb (with the awesome hair, I hope they’ll add), because we’re not getting rid of it any time soon.
One year ago: Bronx-Worthy Bagels
Two years ago: Flower Cupcakes
Mom’s Apple Cake
6 apples, Mom uses McIntosh apples
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar
2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.
Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.
Yum, that looks awesome! I think every grandmother — or future/potential grandmother — should have her own version of apple cake (mine does, and it indeed came over with her from Russia, so you can take heart in the fact that there are stories just like the one you imagined, though the disparity is very funny). My grandma slices the apples very thinly and adds raisins, but it’s basically the same. Shana Tova!
Could you use a bundt pan? What is the real difference between tube v. bundt?
Sounds amazing. If you’re using the walnuts, do you add them to the cake batter?
My mother makes the same EXACT recipe from a magazine clipping given to her by my Dad’s mother. Weird!
Mmmm I LOVE APPLE CAKE so I am so excited to make this!
Are there any pics of you on this site? Do you have crazy hair or something or were you just saying that?
Ok, a tribute to your site. I am a petrified cook. My mother was amazing amazing amazing and died unexpectedly before I learned to do anything. (True story: I have an email from her telling me how to hard boil eggs with her apologizing for not teaching me anything in the kitchen.) So what little I do has been self-taught from Food Network and the internet. Your site gives me the courage to ask questions I’m sure are stupid and no one else would ask, like “Can I use my bundt cake pan for this? And what’s the difference between a tube pan and a bundt pan anyway, except for straight vs. patterned sides?”
And then every time I come here with a question I am sure will make me the laughingstock of the foodie cognoscenti I discover someone else has asked it first and I don’t feel so alone in my kitchen anymore.
So thank you Kaitlin for beating me to my exact question. Thank you Deb for creating a site where I can come with these questions. And thanks to all the others here who have created a place where it’s ok to just be learning.
I think my tube pan is a a chubby 12-incher. Will that make a flat and sad cake?
My grandmother makes a very similar cake in a bundt pan. I liked to make up stories that it was from her mother’s mother and filled with mystery and mystique and then she told me she got it out of a Home and Garden magazine only 20 or so years ago.
I like my version better, so I’m sticking to it!
This seriously looks INCREDIBLE! I must make it!
That looks so wonderful and fall-ish. I love apples in the fall and use them in every possible way, but never before in a cake! This might be the inspiration I needed.
This is identical to my recipe for Jewish apple cake. I love it!
The difference between a tube and a bundt is that a tube pan is smooth and a bundt pan has decorative elements, and you serve the cake flipped out of the pan, or upside down. So, I don’t know that a bundt would work for this. Technically, I guess you could put the apples in first so they’d be at the top and not the bottom when you flipped it out, but of course we haven’t tried it this way so you’d be the guinea pig for it! (And do let us know if it works fine.)
I believe you can also bake it in one layer in a 9×13 pan, and I suspect in two loaf pans, but um, don’t quote me on that (unless it works awesomely). To give you a guideline, the cake was barely halfway up the pan when we put it in the oven, and rose quite a bit, but very slowly. Hope that helps!
Re MemeGrl:
I feel the exact same way. I’m not a horrible cook, and my mom taught me a thing or two, but something about this website keeps me coming back despite the fact I’ve only made one or two receipes that have been posted. This is the only “food blog” I read, and I do just that; “read” it. The stories that go along with each post are just as wonderful as the photos and receipes themselves! Thank you!!!
My Irish Nana (may she rest in peace) made a cake just LIKE this and I always regretted not getting the recipe from her. I can’t wait to make this! Oh, the childhood memories it will stir!
I love your recipes! I was wondering the same about whether I could use my bavarian bundt pan, and whether I could just layer the apples and batter so that it is batter on top and bottom. Also, whether milk could be substituted for orange juice.
Yeah, I love fruit desserts but I hate citrus in my baked goods. Do you taste the orange?
It’s gotten to the point where I only check this site while I’m eating something… everything looks so fabulous that I get insanely hungry otherwise. Thanks for this Deb! I can’t wait to try it– my Nonnie will be SO proud.
As a member of the not so into fruit for dessert and all hail chocolate, this looks pretty good. I bet the husband would like it…maybe it’s time for a trip to the orchard.
This looks amazing. I am going to the apple orchard hopefully next weekend so this might need to be made with the fantastic apples. This looks great!
Do you think it will taste good for the break fast on Yom Kippur? That’s when I am baking it! L’shana tova.
YUM. I’m making this this afternoon, though I’ll have to substitute grapefruit juice for orange juice.
Would you be willing to share the coding for the the part that posts your year-ago and two-year ago posts? I’d love to have one . . .
As soon as I go apple picking in a couple of months, I am making this sucker. Looks incredible!
My mother has made a very similar recipe for years (hers includes currants, which are quite nice with the apples). She always uses a 9×13 pan, and the cake comes out very dense and moist. This cake was the first thing I made for my husband and his family (before we were dating even). I like to think that it played a small part in catching his interest - it’s that good!
Thank god for this post. I was telling my friend less than two hours ago that I needed something to bake tonight. It’s in the oven as I type, and it smells amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
This looks amazing! I guess I know what’s for dessert tonight (and breakfast tomorrow, etc.) I’ll definitely be making it in a bundt pan - I guess I’ll just have to eat it upside down - oh, the sacrifices I make :)
This looks delicious, I love apple cake!
Ohhh that looks good! I bought the ingred to make apple cake just this last weekend.I will have to try your recipe too!
This type of weather makes me want to bake apple cake, plant mums and roast marshmallows.
Stupid question but i’m a baking novice…i’m going to make this the day before a dinner party - do you keep the cake in the fridge overnight and reheat in the oven when it’s time to eat? or do you keep it out at room temperature. I’m afraid of the bugs coming out for it, and I don’t have anything to succesfully cover it with. Also, should it be reheated?
also, as someone who just ordered that tube pan online for this cake…i hope you’ll show us more recipes in the future so I can utilize it!
I will definitely be making this recipe on Sunday! I will be going apple picking then and have been waiting for a wonderful recipe — this is it!
Thanks Deb!!
Btw, I love to read your stories, too, so fun :-)
I’m a new reader of this blog and I have one thing to say: you are absolute hell on my diet! Here I am, trying to be good, munching on carrot sticks and eating cottage cheese, but all that falls by the wayside when I see these drool-worthy pictures and fabulous recipes. I guess I’ll have to start sharing some goodies with my friends, else I might end up gaining weight instead of losing it. This apple cake is definitely getting a try out this weekend. I’ll console myself for the diet cheating by reminding myself that apples are good for you :-)
I was just looking at my apple cake recipe..it’s almost the same except the apples are sliced and it only has 1/2 tsp cinnamon! It’s the first cake I ever baked in my life…I was 19 (too many years ago!) I always thought it needed more cinnamon but recently I traded 1/4 C of the oil for maple syrup and that gave it enough flavor. I like the layered effect that yours has..it’s much like my Jewish coffeecake with struesel layers. Think I’ll chop my apples this time and layer them like yours. Thanks for this!
Absolutely gorgeous! It is on my list of apple cakes to make this week.
I have made a very similar cake using apple cider or juice instead of orange. For those who don’t like the citrus in their cakes, this works quite well. Lovely photo of the recipe card—-priceless.
Has anyone had success baking this in something other than a tube pan? Also, I’ve never seen a recipe that mixes in the eggs after the dry ingredients. I’ll probably still follow the recipe as it’s written because it just looks so good, but maybe someone can explain this unorthodox technique to me!
I have had this exact recipe for at least 30 years, except that mine doesn’t say MacIntosh apples, it just says apples. It’s a wonderful recipe.
AAAh this cake looks heavenly! I need to bake this ASAP! Happy New Year!
It looks like my question about the bundt pan has been asked. But I’m thinking maybe there’s no reason a springform pan wouldn’t work? I have both a bundt and springform pan (in addition to layer cake pans and two pie plates and a tart pan) and I have a hard time justifying a new one.
Ooh, apple cake, definitely German! When I was in Berlin a few months ago, I ate Apfelkuche every chance I got — which was basically once a day. Often for breakfast, I might add…
This is the s*&t! Nothing better thans a spiced, moist apple cake and it’s even better ’cause its a family recipe.
Wherever it came from, it looks fabulous! I’m looking forward to trying it out!
It’s in the oven as I type. Num.
Oh, dear…
I’m trying to carve out the time to bake your Challah…I thought maybe tomorrow night.
Now I have a problem…Challah, or Apple Cake, Challah, or Apple Cake…(lather, rinse repeat..)
Such a dilemma. Maybe both this weekend?
Deb, thanks so much for this trip down memory lane. I grew up on Long Island, the sole Lutheran amidst a neighborhood full of cherished Jewish friends. I was invited to Bar/Bat Mitvahs, Holidays (High and otherwise), and actually ended up teaching at a Jewish Day School after college.
Can we count on you for a wonderful recipe for Noodle Kugel?
L’Shana Tovah!
Deb, too!
MemeGRL, just for the record, I totally want to give you a hug. Do you happen to live in the weird and wacky South like I do? If so, come have a glass of wine and let’s try and make an fabulous, edible mess in the kitchen!!
Seconding Elissa’s question - where do the walnuts get added? (And I’m guessing, from the photos and from this step being missing, that you prefer the cake without nuts?)
I have a fluted bundt pan that never seems to get used. If I use 2/3 of the batter to fill in the pattern of the bottom (really the top) and sides of the pan and create a chunnel to put the apples (in the center of the batter in a ring inside the cake) and follow up with the rest of the batter so that the cake has a bottom, then I won’t have to buy a tube pan. The apples won’t get browned at all even if they sink into the pan, but it would be fun to try it and see what happens. I wonder if this would work for that chocolate chip sour cream cake, that could be fun to try, too.
I made the honey cake and received rave reviews from co-workers and from my husband’s co-workers as well. Now I have to make this cake and buy this cake pan as well. Deb, your site is so inspiring. Thank you.
Ha! I just made this for Rosh Hashanah also. It’s so good-I don’t know why i don’t make it any other time of the year. My mom gave me the recipe too but she doesn’t remember where it came from….
Hi Suzanne — It’s not special code. I just do it manually (groan).
Baking beginner — You don’t need to reheat the cake, or at least that is not common–unless you really want to serve it warm, in which case, go for it. Room temperature or the fridge are fine overnight. Foil or plastic wrap–once the cake has completely cooled so condensation doesn’t dampen the top of the cake–is fine to wrap the pan in if you don’t want to unmold it.
Bee Cake — Yeah, the arrangement of the ingredients is pretty odd–and was even more so before I edited it. (Adding baking powder long after the flour, etc.) I am sure it will also work if you whisk the eggs in with the wet ingredients, but can assure you it works this way too.
Gwen — The walnuts could be mixed in in the end, I suspect. It’s funny because the recipe doesn’t say and we’ve never used them. But I am sure the end would work.
I tried out this cake tonight, and I’m happy to report that it bakes great in a loaf pan. I made half the recipe and it all fit nicely in my bread loaf pan. Delicious!
We have something in common! This exact recipe was considered a family heirloom. I remember adding it to my family tree history for a school assignment. My father made up stories about it - something about escaping Poland with it. And then one day my mother came clean, it was just a recipe my mom got at the tennis club from one of her friends. The horror!
Well, the apple cake is still one of my favorites. My mom makes it for me every time I visit.
It’s funny - I just made a very VERY similar cake for the holiday from Arthur Schwartz’s new cookbook, and for years my mom has also made a similar cake. In fact, it’s my absolute favorite cake!!
I tried out the cake substituting milk for orange juice (which I didn’t have), and baking in a 13×9 pan for 1.5 hours–worked out great! And it’s very tasty. I’m going to try the challah tomorrow. My Jewish boyfriend will be happy.
This looks absolutely wonderful. I would have thought the apples would be dry, but I suppose it’s more like a apple cake/pie combo so the moistness is still there. Love it, want it.
I made this with apple juice rather than orange juice and it was incredible. (Didn’t have orange juice in the house.) Thank you so much for sharing the recipe! :)
Does anyone else get kind of grossed out when a recipe calls for a cup of vegetable oil? The cake does look fantastic and I would love to make it. Is there a good substitute?
What a fantastic use for my tree full of apples that are about to turn into sauce! I imagine it might also be divine with pears, although completely different…
Leslie - vegetable oil - canola oil is the best - is so good for you! It’s the kind of heart-healthy fat we need in our diets!
It looks gorgeous and must taste heavenly! A wonderful home recipe!
Cheers,
Rosa
That looks fantastic. And what’s better, it goes well with a funny story.
Awesome-looking cake! And so easy, I must try it. Love the backstory, too. (Or should that be “bakestory”?)
Leslie, I’m not sure what’s gross about vegetable oil, but you probably could use grapeseed oil or even olive oil instead (I’ve used both in muffins and they tasted fine).
Leslie…you can use melted butter. Or half applesauce and half oil or butter.
Oh Deb. Manually? There has got to be a way to code this . . .I’d go research it but I have APPLE CAKE to eat. We love it. Thank you so much for sharing it.
PS I layered the walnuts pecans on top of the apples.
Oh awesome, this is basically a carrot cake base but with apples!
Hi love, i live in Australia and have made a many a recipe of yours. I just made your spinach quince, it was bliss, best ever great idea with the pie crust! just one question … what is ‘half and half’ ? my mother did’nt know either , i dont think we have it here. Oh and i have a request if you might like to consider =D a lime and coconut cake? i’ve been tying to find a recipie aboslutly everywhere, and not smart enough to come up with one myself. I can see it now… crumbly coconut on top mmm. i have no idea how make up my own recipie. Thanks for the fantastic websites im sure everyone really appeciates it .
Love from Australia!
Oh yay, it is dairy free! I am avoiding all dairy as we live in China and the dairy here is all contaminated at the moment. Thank you!! It is in the oven now- 25 minutes after reading the recipe! :) Smells great already!
Heh heh, I felt the same way when I found out that our family’s “traditional” Christmas Eve Beer Cheese Soup did not have some illustrious familial past, but instead was something Grandma saw in a magazine and started making. Ah well, that doesn’t diminish the absolute deliciousness of the soup.
Oh dear. Apple cake is my FAVORITE and my friend won’t give up her awesome recipe. I’m TOTALLY making this in hopes my recipe trumps hers for not giving it up. LOL! Thanks for posting. :)
okay okay stop I have had enough!!!! Now I have to make this one also?? I am going to the store down in my village-hoping for Macintosh apples and I am making this today.
Wow it’s amazing how many names this cake gets. My grandmother used to call it Jewish Apple Cake, here in MD its reffered to as Carolina Apple Cake, and I’ve also heard it refered to as Ma’s Bunt Apple Cake.
Whatever you call it, it still tastes amazing!
Holy connoli, this looks delectable!. A decadence of cinnamon, apples and cakey goodness! I melted at the mere site of this cake. Although I am not an expert baker of cakes ( maybe bread) & tremble at the thought of making one ( I don’t like to fail when cooking/baking ), I can’t wait to try this out. It looks too simple to mess up and too yummy not too face my cake-make fears.
I made this last night and it was AMAZING! Thanks for sharing!
I grew up in the Bible Belt South (didn’t even meet a Jewish friend until grad school) but grew up with this much beloved Jewish Apple Cake. When I was a freshman in college my mom sent one in a care package (mails beautifully, by the way) because it’s a pretty effective “I love you.” I haven’t made it in a year or so, but will have to do so soon. Thanks for the reminder. BTW, I need to get my recipe out to check, but isn’t this a huge cake? Lots to share…
I like that you posted your mother’s apple cake recipe. I just posted my mother’s apple crisp recipe this week and it will always be one of my favorites. I am also going to have to check out your mother’s chocolate chip sour cream cake.
I made this yesterday about 4.6 seconds after I read the recipe - it’s great! I used a bundt pan, as it was the only pan with a hole that I had, and it worked just fine! Mmm-mmm.
Happy New Year from Israel and thanks for sharing this recipe with us!
Though the tube pan I have has been bought in Germany….. it is definitely too small for your Mom’s Apfelkuchen, what size of pan should I get??
Thanks!
As you were describing the cake at the beginning, I kept thinking, there’s no way this could be the same recipe as MY mom’s apple cake, right? WRONG. It’s exactly the same recipe. We call this the ten-pound-apple cake because it’s so damn heavy!!! And, delicious.
PS I’ve used gala apples before, successfully.
This cake looks incredible. My keyboard is covered in drool. I have no shame.
I’m actually going to rush home and bake this tonight AND I WON’T SHARE ANY WITH ANYONE.
Debra,
I made your honey cake for the holiday, and everyone loved it, along with a brisket from 95 Gourmet magazine and a noodle kugel.
WHY didn’t you show me this before? I have a zillion apples sitting here!
I am going to get right to it! It’s gorgeous, and my favorite cake of all time.
Happy New Year.
Stacey
PS
Do you have a tube pan with removable sides?
I have springform pans and a tube pan, but none like this one.
Makes it easier to take the cake out? I will find go buy one. Didn’t know they existed.
Stacey
that looks amazing! just made my first apple +cinnamon cake and loved it. this sounds awesome - thanks for the recipe!
Another key difference between tube pans and Bundt pans if the volume they can hold. Tube pans come in various sizes but generally they are larger than stylized Bundt pans which typically hold about ten cups. I use an Angel Food cake pan as my tube pan it is quite large. If I were to transfer the batter from that pan into a Bundt pan it would overflow the Bundt pan and create a disgusting mess in the oven. I have to use a additional small pans to contain the extra batter when I want to put one of my pound cakes in a Bundt pan. I make a pound cake that is about the same size as this cake. It fills a Bundt pan and not quite a 9 * 5 loaf pan. Oh, one other thing. The original Bundt pan was large - it held/holds about 15 cups so if you have one of those you probably can put this recipe in it with no problem.
Today is the coolest day Nashville has seen since early spring - PERFECT baking weather, especially when it comes to apple cake!
That cake looks soooo freeking good!! I’m going apple picking again in a couple weeks, so this is what I’m making…I’m getting tired of the same old apple crisp or pie!
One of the reason that oil is used, rather than butter, is so that the cake can be parve, and eaten with either a dairy or meat meal, right? It is, after all, a Jewish holiday cake. And as many have already said, using a vegetable oil is much better for our health and hearts.
I just made an orange cake for a second night dinner, which would be a MENA (middle east north African) version of a Jewish New Year cake–more like an upside down cake with slices of oranges but a similar dense batter cakey-ness. I think it’s important that some of the apples remain outside of the cake to get that soft sweet caramelized gooey-ness which is probably always the best part of such cakes…
thanks, deb!
I live in Zurich and there were Bundt -tins aplenty. I bought a flexible silicone one and am looking forward to the resulting cake - I am sure it will be fine. The oil is a bonus - I am trying to avoid dairy for a few weeks, so this is perfect :0)
Thanks for sharing.
India
Well, I just popped this in the oven in my bundt pan, but must have done something wrong as my pan was just about full before it went in the oven–am worried about how much its going to rise. . .I also subbed buttermilk for the OJ, as I had the buttermilk in the fridge and thought it might be a nice flavor along with the apples and cinnamon–will post a review and update after its done cooking. Crossing my fingers. . .
Wow - this looks amazingly good. My husband loves apple pie, so I bet he’d be over the moon for this cake! Thanks for posting.
Shannon - half and half is sort of like a light cream that many Americans add to their morning coffee (I believe it’s a mixture of half regular milk and half heavy cream). In some countries they call it “light cream” or “half cream.” :)
HI!
This looks DELICIOUS!! Is there a substitute for eggs by any chance for this one? My daughter has diary and egg allergy and I would have loved to make this cake for her bday. Or if you know an good cake without diary & egg that I can make and everyone else to enjoy as well. please let me know! Her bday is next month.
Thank you!
Marcea
My mom made this!!! I remember being grossed out my the orange juice as a kid..I know…random!
She lost the recipe but now here it is. She always made it in a 9X13…I do remember it puffing up and spilling over though so maybe it is too much batter for that pan?
An update: just took it out of the oven after 90 minutes, and while the cake did not spill out of the bundt pan as I had feared, putting the apples in first (a la apple upside down cake) resulted in a not so clean release from the pan. So I scraped out the stuck bits, used them to fill in the whole left by the bundt pan tube, and am now looking for a glaze I can use to “pretty it up” a bit. It smells great!
Wow! This apple cake looks so good. I will try the recipe! I love the picture of the hand written recipe card. Thanks for the wonderful blog I read on a daily basis now!
Haha, awesome!!! That’s exactly the recipe from my (German) grand-mother. I loooove this apple cake :)
It’s best when it has rested for a day!
So, my mom got this same recipe from a coworker years and years ago and she’s been tinkering with it ever since. Here’s what I know about her tinkering successes: the bundt pan works just fine. If you want to put the apples in first, spray it really well with non-stick spray first. If you don’t like to use a whole cup of oil, you can use up to half applesauce/half oil and the cake is still yummy and moist. Also, if you get a wild hair (as my mom would say with a completely straight face) - add a little rum to the apple mix. (If you’re me and you add more than just a little, you get this fabulous rum-apple cake which smells oh-so-good! I have to go bake now.)
I’m going to make this cake with my son when he get’s home from school today. No walnuts in the house but I do have pecans, so they’re going in! I will probably mix them in with the apple and spice mixture myself. I love fruit desserts(and chocolate ones too, heck anything dessert) but it’s rare to find one that isn’t just pie or a tart. Thanks for the recipe!
Shannon, half and half is a light cream. It has about 12% butter fat in it. It’s called half cream in the UK.
this looks do good. I love apple cake especially with some whipped cream . I m in heaven thinking about it only. :-)
It is definitely the season for baking with apples. Your cake is beautiful and looks delicious! Wish we could have a tasting party!
Just visiting everyone in my blogroll today gathering recipes for National Apple Month (October) Looks like I’ve harvested not only a delightful Apple Cake recipe but also memories in the making…GREAT post!
Thanks soooo much for sharing!
don’t forget to add this recipe to your apple recipes in your topic index!
Certainly DOES look like your mom makes the best apple cake - what a phenomenal recipe!!
just picked 30 lbs of cortland apples last weekend… this might be a must-bake!! :)
Apple Cake with Rum Sauce has been a family favorite for years! Rum Sauce is drizzled over the top, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and that is perfection. This version looks like a great one to try.
Rum Sauce:
½ cup butter
½ cup evaporated milk
½ sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum flavoring
Microwave butter, milk and sugar 2-3 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla and rum flavoring. Serve over Apple Cake (or sawdust… ; )~ )
Sorry, that is 1/2 cup of sugar in the Rum Sauce recipe above…
I got this recipe from a friend about 5 years ago. I get so excited when the apples are in season and I can make this cake. It is especially good with hot custard poured over the top.
Well I made the cake this evening and I must say it was fantastic. I used a mixture of Granny Smith and Fuji, 3 of each-no Macintosh where I live. The cake fit into a spring form pan with a tube insert for the center. I though this cake would billow over and I would be eating out of my oven, but it all stayed in and It puffed up just a bit over the top of the pan so it was really pretty. thanks for a great recipe!
Tula, the benefit of cooking for your friends, and giving it away is that you don’t HAVE to eat ALL of the calories, and they do. Thus, they become larger at a faster pace than you do, so when you’re standing next to them in pictures, its all relative, ha ha. AND you get to keep cooking the amazing food on this blog! Whoo hoo, LOVE this stuff!
LOVE it, never seen orange juice in a cake before!:)
Anything with two cups+ of sugar will surely taste good… I’ll try it with half that!
You make it look so easy - yum!!
This is something that I am positive I can and will make. Like right now. And it will probably be gone by tonight.
Thank you Deb!!!
PS you were super cute on Martha that day!
This cake is in the oven. I baked it with my six year old after school today, and am planning it for before-dinner snacks tonight. The kids will be forced to eat it still warm… but I don’t think they’ll mind.
I didn’t notice the missing directions for walnuts until I’d started mixing — I decided to mix them in with the apples.
For those who made the cake without a citrus juice, how did it turn out? I would think that the acid in the orange juice (or the buttermilk) would be needed to help the baking powder do its job, and the cake might rise less if you used apple juice.
As I was admiring your mom’s recipe card, I realized I have that same Martha Stewart conversion card that’s peeking out from behind it on my fridge!
Debra,
I made your mom’s cake tonight and it came out beautiful!
I did a post on it tonight.
Thanks!
Stacey
Deb, I can’t wait to make this cake, but please tell me what size tube pan, and by “prepared” do you mean greased and floured?
I’ve made a very similar recipe using either 2 loaf pans or a bundt pan.
When I make it in the bundt, I put the apples in the middle.
Deb — I love your site and visit it religiously (no pun intended today!) but have never posted until now — my mom also makes this cake and calls it “Special Apple Coffee Cake” (not sure why it’s “special” — just delicious).
The only difference in our recipe (probably my mom’s modification) is that our apple mixture uses 1/3 c. brown sugar instead of white and also has 1/2 c. raisins (and no nuts). We use a bundt pan and put in 1/3 batter, then 1/2 the apple mixture (being careful not to touch the sides of the pan so it doesn’t burn), then 1/3 batter, the other 1/2 of the apples, and finally the rest of the batter.
It has definitely made believers out of non-fruit dessert people, as you mentioned, and whenever I make it I always do so about 2 days in advance and have it sit on the counter to let the flavors come together and moisten further. We bake it for 1 hr, 15 min. at 375 and in case you hadn’t tried and were wondering, it freezes beautifully!
Thanks for all the terrific recipes and inspiration!
p.s. My mom says she originally found the recipe 40 years ago in a Mazola Corn Oil ad!
Love the recipe card. totally reminds me of my Greek gramma’s handwriting. and I have been dying for a good Jewish apple cake recipe. you’re nice to share. I might be disowned for doing that in my family!
Unlike almost everyone esle who’ve made comments, I haven’t eaten or made this apple cake. So, I for one, say “thank you Deb’s mother”. Now — how about your chopped chicken liver recipe? your family’s beef brisket recipe? Pretty please.
This looks delicious! I’m not big on fruit desserts, but I do love pretty much anything with apples!
OOOOOO, it’s a good thing I’m stocked with apples from the farmer’s market. Mr Chiots has been begging for some baked apple goodness, this should work.
oh my this is gorgeous! i can’t wait to try it :-D thanks!
An absolutely gorgeous apple cake.
My Mom used to make this cake when I was a little girl. I made it for my little girl a few years ago. It’s a good cake to make in the fall. When we were kids we would spread butter on our piece of apple cake. I better not do that now!
My mom made a cake just like this. Thank you for bringing back some nice memories.
My grandmother makes a variation of this cake in a 9×13 pan - she puts the batter (including walnuts) in the pan, glops some spoonfuls of cherry pie filling on top and swirls it in a bit, then tops it with thinly-sliced apples overlapping in rows or patterns. And like the one described above is always better the second day! Makes a great breakfast on the run.
Oh I have to make this! I really have to make this. I am usually just a silent admirer of your blog but this recipe is to awesome to keep my mouth shut! Thank You!!
Oh no! Now I have to decide between making this or the honey cake for Shabbat. Thanks for a delicious-sounding dilemma!
Ok, I have to have this. My friends have golden delicious trees. will this work? they are a bit tart so will I have to compensate? I’ve never baked with fresh apples before so hurry and let me know before they give all their apples away!
My grandma, bless her soul, made exact sort of cake. In a bundt pan. Or a loaf pan, or a skillet, or a cookie sheet (when I was reaaaally little, she made a slightly flat, but golden brown and delicious version of this cake on a cookie sheet, it was nicknamed Cake-slash-Dunes).
I’ve learned to make it, making it with her, at the tender age of, oh, about six, and since I’ve made it in every vessel from a glass casserole dish to an antique cast-iron duck pan.
My friend Helen makes my other friend Mary’s (rather blonde) version of this cake in an electric Dutch oven, my grandma would often add sweetened, condensed milk or cottage cheese to hers and I, I’ve made this cake with red currant puree instead of apples once.
Awesome, it was not, but point remains - this cake is extremely flexible - no-one I’ve come in contact with so far has had a written or otherwise set recipe for it, yet the only way to truly screw it up is to forget the flour (which we’ve done, don’t worry;).
Now, where’d this wonder come from? Neither German, Jewish or Russian origins could be ruled out, but being as simple as all things truly brilliant, it may have appeared from the primordial goop along with the first amphibians or from the dip dish at one of Adam and Eve’s first housewarming parties…
Either way, it was known as “sharlotka” among my childhood friends and their parents.
Hoiwever , I must say that your version is quite a bit more virtuous than mine - with, oh, I don’t know - half a stick of butter, it’s hardly a health food.
I never realized apple cakes were so popular! My friends and co-workers certainly weren’t familiar with my Dutch version, but they learned to love it fast.
I’ll have to try this one, too. More the merrier.
This is such a great dessert for the new season! Looks so cozy and delicious!
I have just made my first ever “Dorset Apple Cake” which obviously originates from the county of Dorset here in England. The quantities/ingredients differ slightly, no walnuts, the zest of an orange rather than orange juice and all spice rather than cinnamon, but in essence the same thing and totally delicious. I made mine in a square 9 inch pan and it came out fine (beginners luck maybe?). My apples came form a tree in a friends garden so I have no idea what variety they were but they were cooking apples rather than eating apples and tasted great when cooked. Can’t wait to make this again!
Keep on bloging Smitten Kitchen, even though I have to convert your american measurements to the European equivalent it’s so worth it. I love your work!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!
Hmm, I guess I know why I woke up early, now. To make this. I’ll let you know when I’m done . . .
Duessa — I am actually a big fan of baking with those yellow apples, as they are a little less juicy so make things around them less wet. You shouldn’t need to adjust the sugar.
I actually made a version of this recipe this past weekend, because we had a LOT of apples in the house. The only difference was that I added some orange zest, a little more baking powder, and I did put it all in a bundt pan, mainly because I don’t own a tube pan. The recipe I had also stated to cook it for an hour and a half, but I had to turn off the oven at an hour and ten minutes, otherwise it would have dried out. Maybe my oven is hotter then I think it is. But the most important thing was that apple cake is DELICIOUS! And for those that don’t bake too often it really is an easy cake to bake, and it is perfect for the fall. Thanks Deb for putting forth this great cake for others to enjoy.
I have to make this cake. I have a similar recipe that’s wonderful, but this looks even better. From your photos it looks like the cake is served top side up, not inverted. My tube pan does not have a removable bottom, so I should flip it out of the pan and then fip it right side up again?
Made it last night. It’s great but my apples did not stay on top like yours did. I wonder why.
Strangely enough for a cup of oil it was not the least bit greasy and it worked well eating it out of hand. My Son and Husband had to drive harvesters until late in the night to try and beat the coming rain . They drive and eat at the same time and this was a good choice for them…plus they liked it. Thanks
I made this cake yesterday in a 13×9 inch pan (I didn’t layer it, I just poured in the batter first, then put the apples on top) and have a note of caution: it won’t take an hour and a half to bake. Mine burnt a bit on the bottom (cake abuse!) and it wasn’t even in there for the full hour and a half.
I know, I know, you’re supposed to check on the food you have baking in the oven. I was distracted and forgot!
At any rate: the parts that weren’t burnt were OMG DELICIOUS. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Hey everyone — Please keep in mind that baking times can vary wildly from oven to oven, depending on how the ovens circulate heat and whether the have been calibrated correctly. I always recommend that people start testing for doneness 2/3 of the way through a baking time, especially if your oven runs warm. Ours runs cool, and this took well over 1.5 hours to bake! (Most frustratingly, I may add.)
Oh that looks delicious! I’m definitely going to try it because I always buy more apples than I intend to eat (with the intent to use the surplus to bake something yummy). Thank you for also adding the recipe card photo to Flickr, makes it easy to fave and and remember where I got the recipe from :)
oh my heavens…this cake looks so wonderful.. I am going to bake it this weekend. Thanks for such a great recipe. I can smell it right now
Deb -
Totally my fault. I just thought I’d throw the tip out there for those who are planning to use a different pan or are new to baking. I should have known better!
Deb, this looks wonderful. I love homey deserts and will try this later this afternoon. Many thanks to you and your Mom for sharing!
You are right; it is even better the next day!
This looks fantastic! I think my family would love this for Sunday dinner. It looks easily vegan-ized, so I may toy with making a vegan version later(but not for my dairy and egg eating lovies, just me). Thanks!
I think that is the most delicious looking apple cake I have ever seen. Just from the photos alone I can see how great the texture would be if I bit into it…mmmm…apple-y and soft…
Oops. Sorry. Got distracted there. Time to wipe drool off keyboard.
This is literally the same recipe that my friend’s mom gave me about 4 years ago for the holidays, and that I’ve used ever since as my own. Which is funny because as you were describing it, I was thinking “There’s no way it’s better than Barbara’s!” And, it’s the same! Well, there is a slight different. The first step is to beat the eggs UNTIL FOAMY (emphasis in the original). Do you think it makes a difference?
When I was doing a little research, I came across a version from an old Gourmet that had the separated and whipped egg whites. I like the idea, actually–it would lighten the cake up. However, I stuck with this because this is how my mother always makes it.
In fact, in almost any cake you can separate out the egg whites, whip them and fold them back in in the end for an airier cake. It’s a great trick for pancakes and waffles, too.
I saw that the handwritten recipe calls for 3 cups of flour and then the typed version calls for 2 3/4 cups. Which is right?
Thanks!! Looks SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good.
I made your mom’s cake this morning and it was absolutely wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
I baked this today and it’s incredible. A friend of mine is going to give me challah making lessons tomorrow, so I’m going to take this over as a thank you. This is the first recipe I’ve made from your site and I’m so encouraged to try even more. Thanks!
No way! My grandmother and mother make the EXACT same apple cake, and have passed the tradition on to me. I am, incidentally, amused to report that our recipe comes not from the old world or even an old neighbor, but instead from a 1960s Catholic church community cookbook.
I made your Apple cake last night and I put it into my silicone bundt pan and it worked fine (I did make a point of trying to mix in some cake batter into the apple bits on the bottom of the tin which would be the top of the cake)
I used only one cup of sugar as I find many american recipes use much more sugar than I am used to, and even a cup of caster sugar made quite a sweet cake.
I also found that the top of the cake burned quite badly (which wasnt too bad as it became the bottom but I had to cut a lot off) and I turned the oven down a bit.
I took it to work and it was very well recieved, and a recipe I would make again. I think I might add some allspice and mace and cloves to make the flavour a little more complex, but I did like the way the apples retained the flavour so the cake was quite tasty!
I just made your Mom’s Apple Cake. It’s really good. I mistakenly
baked it for an extra 15 min and it was still moist.
Great recipe. Thanks for sharing:P
Hi Debs,
This is the second recipe I’ve found that’s calling for so much sugar. The other was the zucchini bread, and for that I didn’t use all that was called for.
I’m just wondering how sweet this apple cake really is and if I want something less, how much should I go for?
Thanks!
my friend mona is bringing this to a dinner party at my house tomorrow night, i cannot wait….
I love apples and this sounds like a great cake idea.
Hey I hope you didn’t already answer this question, but I did not see it addressed. In my experience apple sizes can vary wildly, esp if using grocery store ones versus local, and I have messed some stuff up lately by using not enough small, local apples. Can you give me an idea of the size of the apples–small like local, small orchard grown ones? Large like those huge granny smiths found in grocery stores? Perfectly inbetween?
Thanks for sharing–and thanks to your mom also. This looks wonderful.
the cake looks wonderfully delicous. i tend to use butter more than oil -
do you know why sometimes one is used rather than the other? and is it
possible to substitue one for the other? melted butter instead of oil
in this cake. thanks.
I made it in a bundt pan last night, and it turned out beautifully. However, I found that I only had to cook it an hour and five minutes. And I put a little more than half of the dough in the first layer to make sure the top of the bundt cake didn’t collapse with all the apples.
it was fabulous! thanks deb!
I’m baking this cake right now…. The batter is fabulous! I only had a big round spring-form pan, no bundt or tube, so I’ll let you know how that turns out. I used the walnuts and layered them in before the apple/sugar.
One question however…. about how many cups are 6 macintosh apples? That variety isn’t sold here, so I picked 6 apples from the supermarket at random — and ended up with a lot more apple than your photos show. I didn’t hold back but chucked them all in. Apples shrink when they cook, right?
PS To BlueRose, I skimped on the sugar too
I made this last night with great success! I subbed milk for the apple juice, which turned out fine. One thing - the batter is pretty thick. I was so absorbed with scraping out the remnants of the batter from the bowl and not pouring it down the tube in my pan, I let it all collect on one side of the pan. Since this was my second layer of batter, it promptly sunk to the bottom. To prevent having a cake with all cake on one side and all apple on the other, I mixed it all together in the pan. So instead of having a clearly layered end product, I have a yummy cake with apple pieces studded throughout. Mine baked in exactly 90 minutes.
Sugar questions: You can of course cut back on the sugar, but keep in mind that you should not just look at measurements such as “2 cups” and jump to the conclusion that a cake is overly sweet (which this is not). It is simply a huge cake, 1.5 to 2xs the volume of most single-layer cakes. That said, I am pretty sure my mother often cuts it back by a 1/4 cup. I think you could drop it as low as 1 2/3 without the cake particularly suffering. Hope that helps.
Apple questions: McIntoshes are actually on the small to medium size, but you can of course use any old apple you like. I simply put that in there because my mother has always baked with them, and I have always snacked on them as she baked with them, and they have this uber-apple-y flavor I always associate with early fall.
Oil questions: You can substitute melted butter or margarine for the oil. However, I just wanted to throw one thing out there–butter is, of course, my favorite things to put in cakes. It’s flavor is unparalleled. However, I have found that cakes that use oil tend to stay just that more moist, just a little big longer. Perhaps a half-swap of butter would give you the best of both worlds.
Hope all that helps!
I made this Wednesday night and it is absolutely delicious. I think the next time I would substitute brown sugar for part of the white sugar and use buttermilk instead of orange juice (because I think buttermilk makes everything better). It was a huge hit though!
I just took the kids apple picking. They picked twenty-five pounds of apples. Believe it or not, we are almost out. I was planning to take them again, and I will give this a try before they all get used up.
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Deb,
I ended up using 1 cup of sugar instead of 2 and the cake didn’t suffer at all. It’s perfectly sweet, just the way I like it.
Thanks!
I made it! Thank you. The recipe is a keeper! I made it in a square pan … see it at http://sleeplessinwisc.blogspot.com/
Hi Smitten Kitchen.
I made this recipe last night and it was such a hit at work. The only thing is that the bottom ended up being a bit hard .. I should have cooked it about 10 minutes less ..
Thank your mother for the recipe :)
I made your Mom’s Apple Cake the other night and had a piece for breakfast the next morning - incredible! I followed your recipe exactly: perfect, perfect, perfect! Thank you for sharing!
I am now obsessed with your mom’s apple cake. I made it last night and it is delicious!!! ( I’ve had it for every meal since then.)
I’ve made this recipe a zillion times when I was younger. Then I got more health conscious. I haven’t made it in years because I cannot justisfy a full cup of oil in a cake. I should experiment with lightening it up a bit. I do miss it, it is a delicious cake.
I just made this today and all I have to say is wow! It is so easy to make and comes out incredibly moist and flavorful. I gave half to my mom and she called me while she was still eating to let me know how good it was. I’ll be making this recipe again very soon!
I made your mom’s cake and it was delish. My husband loved it. Thank you for sharing. See the pics and my blog at http://gengandchip.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/autum-days-are-here-again/
Hi. I´m a brasilian guy, and made this cake. It´s fantastic! I will make more times.
Wow - this is gorgeous… and it just made me sort of wistful about being a kid! My mom made the Jewish apple cake all of the time when I was growing up. I think the only difference was she sliced her apples. The chunks are gorgeous.
This cake is just wonderful. I made it in a bundt pan, putting the apples on the bottom first. Did not come out as cleanly as I would have liked but tastes amazing. I was a bit skeptical about the batter because it looked more like cookie dough, but once all the eggs were incorporated it looked just like the picture. Thanks for the recipe, love your blog.
Forever the multi-tasker, I decided to bake both your Mom’s Apple Cake, and the Challah on the same day.
Deb, my kitchen has never, ever smelled better than it does right now! I am twitching, because the Challah is still VERY hot, and all I want to do is rip into it and slather it with butter. The Apple cake is waiting patiently for my mom, my daughter and her family to come for dinner tomorrow night. Thank G-d that there are two loaves of Challah- I’m quite sure that one loaf will be gone before morning.
Beautiful recipes, Deb. Thank you!
I have always emphatically proclaimed that I DO NOT BAKE. Since stumbling upon your site, this is the 4th thing I have baked (and I’ve done two of your recipes twice - the blueberry bars and homemade oreos). I’m glad I read through the comments because the cake is in the oven right now and I was just lamenting about how long 1 1/2 hours is to wait. I am hoping that this comes out as wonderfully as the other baked goods have. Keep ‘em coming!!
Thanks, Deb’s mom (via Deb of course)! I can always use another apple cake recipe. It looks fantastic!
This looks absolutely fabulous! I’m heading to my very first Thanksgiving Potluck next weekend and am very much looking forward to showing up with this! Apples? Cake? Delish!
WOW….I just made this and it’s WONDERFUL! The only mod I made was the cooking time. It took 2 hours and 15 minutes. This recipe is going in my “permanent” file. THANK YOU!
This cake is absolutely magnificent and mouth-watering. And your pictures are just perfect!
My 4 year old and I just made this cake, and it turned out great! I baked it in a 9×13 pan for 55 minutes and it’s perfect! Thanks!
This looks so wonderful! I will definitely try it.
I am always looking for easy recipes, and this looks pretty straight forward indeed. Judging from the comments left, others’ have been thrilled with it!
Apple recipes are a hit this time of the year! Thanks so much for sharing this! I might just bring it to Thanksgiving dinner :-D
~Cat
my cake came out kind of hard–any ideas what might have happened? (the apples were nice and soft, though)
This cake was my Saturday project and it was just perfect. We had a nice family dinner and this was the perfect ending to our meal. I was just wondering, do you think that it would be ok to add sugar to the greased pan before pouring in the batter to add that caramel-y crunch that some coffee cakes have? Or would it just burn? I’m new to baking and apprehensive about testing ideas that could turn out to just be disasters.
I wanted to share my baking experience with this recipe. As a novice baker, I was impressed at how quickly the recipe came together and at how many of the ingredients I already had in my meagerly stocked pantry. A few things for other novices coming to the plate: first, the batter is super thick. But don’t be alarmed. Second, as others have noted, oven temperature is critical. I already knew my oven ran hot, but even with my adjustments the timing was still off and the cake was overdone. The flavor, however = MAGNIFICENT. Deb, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful gifts with food and photography with the masses.
Thanks to all your encouragement and ideas, everyone–especially Donna and Jenya and Jen, and others whose comments I can’t find right now. Redengine88, I wish I did live in the south to take you up on your kind offer. I made it in a 9×13 baking dish since I had so so many apples and figured this would be the way to go.
HUGE success. Fall heaven on a plate. Joins the similar apple cake from the NYTimes as my new favorite way to eat apples. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/magazine/04Food-t.html?scp=3&sq=apple%20cake&st=cse
Thanks to all and happy fall!
Deb, keep ‘em coming. And thanks too for your assiduous follow-up!
I made this cake this weekend and it was a huge success! It smelled so good coming out of the oven that my husband and I dove in and sampled a slice before it was fully cooled. It was everything you said it would be Deb - flavorful, moist and full of cinnamony apple chunks. I cooked it in a 12 in springform pan and it took almost 1 hour 50 minutes to fully cook in the center. I’ve got an oven thermometer and it read 350 the whole time. I also couldn’t find McIntosh apples so I used a mix of granny smith, gala and golden delicious. My new favorite!
I made this yesterday and it is fabulous! I also had to bake an extra 15 minutes in a standard tube pan. There were still a few crumbs on the tester when I pulled it out, so I let it cool in the pan about 10 minutes assuming that it would cook a little bit more, and it pulled away from the sides of the pan perfectly so I could pop the center out with the cake. I cooled it fully before inverting it off the cone, then back onto the platter. It cuts beautifully with a serrated bread knife. I got tons of compliments and requests for the recipe. I was also thinking that this would be a good one to try with rhubarb (only probably mixing in the rhubarb) Thanks Deb!
whoah! That sounds and looks amazing. Thanks for sharing it…I am sure my crew here would love to devour that.!
Kimmie
mama to 6
one homemade and 5 adopted
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. The pictures were so gorgeous I had to bake it! The smell while it was on the oven was scrumptious.
My husband loves it! We couldn’t wait for it to cool off. Delicious!
Your pictures look beautiful, and you had such a great story to tell, I just couldn’t stop going back to the blog, like it was calling me (that, and the 4 kg apples I bought 2 days before you posted it!). I did not even resist 1 week before trying the recipe! Brought it to my family for the week-end, everyone loved it.
I bake it in a bundt pan, starting with half of the batter, but next time I will put less. As the bottom is not flat, half of the batter makes a really high piece of cake without any apples, which is a shame! :-)
ok… just put it in the oven.. but OMG the batter was THICK! I’m not sure how it’s going to turn out… when I tried the 1/2 the batter thing, it barely covered the bottom of the pan…
wait and see, I guess!
lol.. umm.. i seem to have messed this one up
Made this last week, and the two of us ate the ENTIRE thing in a matter of 4 days. Shameful. Had to tell you that this is my newest favorite cake… Thanks!
Hey Deb - I made this last night for a family dinner and WOW everyone went bonkers!!! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS - I love the picture of your mom’s recipe card - it makes everything so personal and lovely.
OMG! This is in the oven RIGHT NOW! WE are having it for a brunch kind of thing!!!! I’m sure with the ease and readiness of ingredients this will make it into my family recipe book! Thanks so much !
Made this cake and took it to a gathering of ladies. Everyone loved it, but everyone had a version of the cake that was easier and made less dirty dishes. I think I will try theirs next time!
Perfect for Rosh Hashana or breaking the fast at Yom Kippur. Looks delicious! I have made coffee cakes into individual party favor sized portions by making them in muffin tins (layers and all). Do you think that would work for this recipe too? They would make great favors for Thanksgiving. P.S. The history of the recipe i