This vegan apple cake is soft, moist, and packed with apple pieces. It’s an easy, one-bowl recipe made with seven simple ingredients.
You won’t believe how soft, moist and easy this cake is. We love it so much that we even made a whole-wheat one and one filled with our mouthwatering vegan custard.
Check out our best plant-based dessert recipes!
There are many ways to make vegan apple cake, and each country has its style and recipe. Here, we make one inspired by our favorite Italian apple cake. It’s a family recipe and one of our favorite apple desserts.
You can enjoy this apple cake for breakfast (that’s what Italians do), as an afternoon snack, as a dessert, with ice cream, or drizzled with our vegan custard.
The cake is easy to put together, soft, moist, and made with fresh apple chunks. It’ll take you 10 minutes to prepare.
The thing is, you won’t need fancy vegan ingredients to make this cake taste delicious. Instead, we developed it so that you can make it with a few everyday pantry staples.
We add a layer of apple slices on top to prevent the moisture from escaping the cake while it bakes. The apples on top look beautiful and taste delicious.
We love this apple cake so much that we even made a version filled with our vegan custard for extra moisture and deliciousness.
And for the more health-conscious, we prepared one with whole-wheat flour, which tastes wholesome and delicious too.
Ingredients
Apples
Use any apples you have at hand. However, keep in mind that sweeter apples will make a sweeter cake.
Flour
The first time you make this vegan apple cake recipe, we recommend using all-purpose flour. The cake turns out light, moist, soft, and irresistible.
However, we tested the recipe with wholewheat flour, spelt flour, and even 50% all-purpose and 50% wholewheat. In all cases, the cake turned out delicious. You can also make it with a gluten-free flour mix for cakes.
Sugar
White or brown sugar, both work. You can even use coconut sugar, although that’s slightly less sweet, and you’ll need about 25% more to achieve the same sweetness.
Non-dairy milk
We used unsweetened soy milk. You can substitute almond milk, oat milk, cashew, and other milk from nuts for soy milk.
Oil
For the best-tasting apple cake, we recommend using a neutral vegetable oil such as canola or sunflower oils. Refined oils are best for cakes because you can’t taste them.
You can substitute water, unsweetened applesauce, vegan butter, vegan yogurt, or vegan buttermilk for oil.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is optional. We think it tastes delicious with apples, however, it does color the cake brown a bit. If you prefer to make an apple cake that is not brown, but sandy colored, then substitute a tablespoon of vanilla extract for cinnamon.
Other spices that work well with apple cake are grated nutmeg and ground ginger, although these will make the recipe less Italian.
Baking powder
Baking powder makes the cake rise and keeps it light and airy.
Powdered sugar
Powdered sugar or icing sugar is an optional ingredient. My grandma used to sprinkle it on top of the cake before serving it to make it look pretty, so I still do that. But that’s entirely optional.
Instructions
Use a springform pan – the one that opens on the side – or a cake pan with a diameter from 8.5 to 9 inches / 21 to 23 cm. We use 8.5 inches/21 cm in the video.
If you have a different size pan check out the chapter below, “how to scale this recipe.”
As a first step, oil the sides of your pan and dust them with flour. Next, line the bottom with parchment paper. It will prevent the cake from sticking. Then preheat the oven to 360°F or 180°C.
To a medium bowl, add the wet ingredients: plant milk, oil, and sugar. Whisk till the ingredients are well mixed.
Next, with a fine mesh sieve, sift in the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon (optional), and a pinch of salt.
Cinnamon note: cinnamon will make your apple cake brown. If you don’t want that, substitute one tablespoon of vanilla extract for the cinnamon.
Tip: sifting the flours is a simple step that helps you make the cake lighter.
Whisk with a hand mixer for a few seconds till you have a smooth and thick cake batter. Do not over-mix, or the cake will turn out gummy.
You can also stir the batter with a whisk or a silicon spatula.
Add small apple pieces from 2 apples (about 11 ounces or 300 grams). Apples should be cored and seeds removed. You can keep the peel on.
Fold in with a spatula until the apple pieces are well incorporated into the batter, then pour it into the cake tin.
Cover the top of the cake with thin apple slices in a circular pattern, overlapping the slices a bit. Finally, sprinkle the apples with 2 tbsp of sugar.
Bake the cake at 360°F or 180°C for 55 minutes to 1 hour on the center rack of the oven.
Take out of the oven and let cool down for about 1 hour. Then sprinkle with some powdered sugar if you want.
Tip: bake on a baking rack, not on a baking tray, because the tray will get too hot and might overcook the base of the cake.
Variations
Extra moist apple cake with plant-based yogurt
If you’d like an even more moist apple cake, you can replace some plant milk with plant-based yogurt (like soy yogurt or coconut yogurt).
In this case, we recommend adding 2/3 cup (160 grams) of plant yogurt and ½ cup (120 grams) of plant milk.
Apple Cake with Custard Filling
You get all the comfort of a traditional apple cake and the surprise effect of a delicious custard filling.
First, make the custard following our recipe for vegan custard. Then after you pour the cake batter into the cake pan, pour 3/4 of the custard you get from our vegan curstard recipe.
With a knife or a skewer, swirl the custard around the batter. Don’t mix it too much.
Then cover the top of the cake with thin apple slices in a circular pattern, overlapping the slices a bit.
Sprinkle the apples with 2 tbsp of sugar, and bake the cake at 360°F or 180°C for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
Storage
Store vegan apple cake leftovers out of the fridge, at room temperature, for three days, covered in a cake container or in a plastic bag to keep it soft and moist.
It is essential to limit airflow to the cake to preserve its softness.
If you want to reheat the cake, you can do so in a preheated oven for 5-7 minutes to make it softer.
Even after several days, when you reheat the cake, it will still be as soft and warm as when you prepared it.
How to scale this recipe
How to scale the ingredients
Easy! We calculated the scaling number for you. First, pick the pan size you want to use for your cake, then multiply all the ingredients in our recipe box at the bottom of the page by the scaling number in this table.
| Pan size | Scaling Number |
|---|---|
| 4-inch pan (10 cm) | 0.22 |
| 5-inch pan (13 cm) | 0.31 |
| 6-inch pan (15 cm) | 0.44 |
| 7-inch pan (18 cm) | 0.60 |
| 8-inch pan (20 cm) | 0.79 |
| 9-inch pan (23 cm) | 1 |
| 10-inch pan (25 cm) | 1.23 |
How do I know if my cake is fully baked?
Depending on the type of oven, type of milk, and type of flour, your cake will take more or less time to cook than ours.
For this reason, when baking any cake, you should always check the cake’s core with a clean toothpick or skewer before you take your cake out of the oven.
To do that, insert the toothpick or the skewer into the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean and dry, your cake is ready. If the toothpick comes out wet, bake for a few more minutes, then check again.
Tips
- Do not over-mix. Over-mixing will result in a heavy, gummy cake. If you want your vegan apple cake light and fluffy, then mix till the ingredients are incorporated and no more.
- Try to be fast. From the moment you add baking powder to the cake batter, try to finish the cake and bake it as fast as you can. This is because the baking powder starts working as soon as it touches the cake batter, and if you leave it out for too long without baking, you’ll lose some of its leavening power.
- Sift the flour while adding it to the mix. Sifting will break down any lumps and help you incorporate air into the cake. In turn, your cake will be lighter and fluffier. You can sift with a regular kitchen sieve.
- Do not open the oven. At least during the first 30 minutes of baking, your cake might deflate.
Questions
Yes, replace all-purpose flour with a gluten-free one, like a gluten-free all-purpose baking mix.
If you want a healthier vegan apple cake, we suggest you replace all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour and reduce the sugar amount.
Vegan cakes are already healthier than regular cakes as they don’t contain eggs or butter and are dairy-free.
Yes. Just follow our recipe and replace the oil with the same amount of water or applesauce. It will work wonderfully.
We are not particularly eager to use egg replacements in our baking if it’s not necessary because 1) they are expensive, 2) they are most often not needed, 3) they alter the texture and flavor of the cake, and non-vegans might not like them.
More vegan cake recipes
Rest assured that all our cake recipes are delicious and easy to make. You won’t be able to tell they are vegan!
- Delicious vegan vanilla cake
- Easy vegan carrot cake
- Soft vegan lemon cake
- Vegan coffee cake (with actual coffee)
- Italian carrot and orange cake
- Incredible easy vegan orange cake (with orange curd)
- Vegan chocolate cake
- Melty chocolate brownie cake
Desserts
Vegan Carrot Cake
Desserts
Vegan Lemon Cake
Desserts
Vegan Coffee Cake
Desserts
Orange Cake
Desserts
Chocolate Brownie Cake
Desserts
Easy Vanilla Cake
Desserts
Vegan Coconut Cake
Or check out our sweet recipes list for more plant-based cake and sweet ideas.
More Italian Desserts
We have some delicious vegan Italian desserts for you to try.
- Vegan biscotti
- Sicilian cannoli made vegan
- Vegan tiramisù
- Delicious vegan fruit tart
- Vegan ricotta pie with homemade vegan ricotta
- Vegan lemon tart
- Dairy-free panna cotta
- Strawberry tart with vegan custard
Desserts
Vegan Cannoli Recipe
Desserts
Biscotti Recipe
Desserts
Fruit Tart
Desserts
Vegan Lemon Tart
Desserts
Ricotta Pie
Desserts
Vegan Panna Cotta
Desserts
Strawberry Tart
Vegan Apple Cake
Equipment
- Springform pan or cake pan (diameter from 8.5 to 9 inches or from 21 cm to 23cm). We use 8.5 inch /21 cm in the video.
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup plant milk soy, almond, oats
- ¾ cup sugar plus 2 tbsp to sprinkle on top
- ¼ cup vegetable oil sunflower oil, canola oil, or melted vegan butter
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups flour all-purpose, wholewheat, or 50% all-purpose and 50% wholewheat (see notes below for more info)
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 3 teaspoons cinnamon or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract with wet ingredients
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 – 4 medium apples (about 6 ounces or 170 grams per whole apple – 2 apples for the filling and 1 to 2 apples for the top)
Instructions
- Oil the sides of your pan and dust them with flour. Line the bottom with parchment paper.Preheat the oven to 360°F or 180°C.
- To a medium bowl, add the wet ingredients: plant milk, oil, and sugar. Whisk to combine.
- Sift in the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.
- Whisk with a hand mixer for a few seconds till you have a smooth and thick cake batter. Do not over-mix, or the cake will turn out gummy.You can also stir the batter with a whisk or a silicon spatula.
- Add small apple pieces from 2 apples (about 11 ounces or 300 grams of apple chunks). Apples should be cored and seeds removed. You can keep the peel on.
- Fold in with a spatula until the apple pieces are well incorporated into the batter, then pour it into the cake tin.
- Cover the top of the cake with thin apple slices in a circular pattern, overlapping the slices a bit. Finally, sprinkle the apples with 2 tablespoon of sugar.
- Bake the cake at 360°F or 180°C for 55 minutes to 1 hour on the center rack of the oven.Take out of the oven and let cool down for about 1 hour. Then sprinkle with some powdered sugar if you want.TIP: bake on a baking rack, not on a baking tray, because the tray will get too hot and might overcook the base of the cake.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, you might also like:
Collections
30 Vegan Brunch Recipes
Collections
65 Plant-Based Italian Recipes
Collections
40 Vegan Desserts
[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”B0sAtMSG” upload-date=”2021-06-15T00:00:00.000Z” name=”Vegan apple cake” description=”This vegan apple cake is soft, moist, and full of fresh sliced apples. It’s a 1-bowl easy recipe, made with simple ingredients. You won’t believe how soft and easy this cake is. We love it so much that we even made a whole-wheat one and one filled with mouthwatering vegan custard.” player-type=”default” override-embed=”default”]
I’m currently waiting to take my first attempt out of the oven. It smells incredible!
Our mother is in her final hours, we’re in such limbo, and I have kept myself busy this afternoon by foraging in her garden for all the veggies and fruit. The apples are so beautiful and I wanted to make something lovely with them – thank you so much for such a brain-friendly recipe to occupy an addled mind.
I think it’s about ready…thanks again!
Dear Emma,
Thank your for taking precious time to leave a comment here. I hope that they cake turned out as you hoped, and provided a comforting treat for you and your family.
I wish you and your loved ones the very best. Kindest,
Louise
Had lots of apples from tree in my garden. Used some in this recipe. I was amazed how light this cake was and how pretty it looked with the apple slices on top.
Very easy to make, although I did use normal milk rather than plant milk and reduced volume of cinnamon as 16g seemed an awful lot.
Thanks, easy and delicious.
I made it upside down, first sugar and apple slices, then the dough and inverted it once cooked. The apple slices caramelized beautifully.
Wonderful, Clara. I’m so delighted that you enjoyed the cake, great idea to make it upside down ๐
Kindest, Louise
This apple cake is absolutely yummylicious! I baked it today and it turned out absolutely picture perfect! I had to bake mine at 360F for about 1 1/2 hours in an 8 1/2″ springform pan before it was completely cooked through in the middle. I baked this cake for vegan guests and even though it was made for them, my husband and myself (who are not vegan) loved it with slices of old cheddar cheese. I want to try it with your vegan custard next time. Does the custard have to be cooled first before adding it to the apple cake mixture? Also want to comment that your recipes pictures are stunning and your recipe tips for alternate ingredients are very useful and far exceeds those of other sites. Well done and thank you for sharing this terrific recipe.
Fantastic, Missy!! I’m so delighted you enjoyed this cake as a family ๐
So, for adding the custard, you would not need to cool it down, you can pour it after its cooked and it has reached its “custard-texture” ๐
Thank you for your kind comment, feedback, and support. We’re so happy to have you here ๐ฅฐ
Wooo Hoooo. What a great recipe, simple to make and simply delicious. I doubled up the recipe (what a great tool) as we had a large family gathering and the vegans and non vegans loved it. Thank you ๐
Hi Louise ๐
That’s wonderful news, so happy that everyone enjoyed this cake – sounds like a success! ๐
Thanks so much for sharing, and all the best. Louise
Hi ! I’m gonna to do this soon for my 1 year old son. Can I replace the sugar with compote or just recuce it to 75 g without modify the texture ? (Sorry, I’m not an english speaker)
Hi Elodie,
Yes, you can use half the sugar (75 g). It should work without a problem.
I am not sure about using apple compote. It should work fine, but I am not 100% sure.
I hope this helps,
Have a wonderful day.
Nico
Can you use almond flour?
Hi Rebecca,
We haven’t tried this with almond flour. I don’t think it would work with the ratios in the recipe as they are for a regular flour.
Sorry I can’t help further.
Nico
Can this be frozen please?
Hi Jazz,
Yes, you can freeze the cake for up to 3 months. Let it cool down completely, then place it in a freezer-friendly bag and freeze.
Thaw at room temp, in the microwave, or overnight in the fridge.
I hope this helps!
Best,
Nico
Hi! I was wondering which kind of apples you recommend to use. Thanks! I’ll try to make it tonight:)
Hi Mireia,
we tested this recipe with at least 7 varieties of apples and all worked perfectly. It’s really down to your personal preference.
If you prefer a sweeter cake (like us) then use golden delicious, pink ladies, or fuji apples. If you prefer a tarter, less sweet flavor, then use granny smith.
I hope this helps ๐
Enjoy!
nico
I made it with coconut oil and it came out great – even my kids loved it.
Thank you for this nice recipe.
That is such wonderful news – I love that the whole family enjoyed this cake ๐
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment here, and have a great rest of your day.
Kindest, Louise
Great recipe! I followed as recommended except swapped out half of the apple for some rhubarb I had on hand. Perfect for spring!
Hi,
I made this cake yesterday and while it turned out tasting really really tasty, I’d like it to be a bit less dense. I felt it was a bit gummy, or too moist. I mixed quite shortly (to avoid overmixing) and followed the metric amounts. Do you have any advice?
Thank you in advance ๐
Vera
Hi Vera,
Thanks for your message. What kind of flour did you use?
It could be that your flour has a high protein content. Try looking at the label and make sure it has below 11.5% protein for cakes.
However, this is is a moist cake (although it shouldn’t be gummy).
You could try reducing the liquid by 20-30 grams and adding 1 teaspoon of baking soda to make it lighter and more airy.
I hope this helps ๐
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Cheers,
Nico
Delicious and moist. We are eating the other half this evening.