This vegan apple cake is soft, moist, and packed with fresh apple chunks. It’s an easy one-bowl recipe made with just seven simple ingredients—no fancy vegan substitutes needed!
For more easy and delicious vegan cakes, check out our vegan carrot cake, vegan lemon cake, easy vanilla cake, and lemon blueberry cake.
Why you’ll love this recipe…
Inspired by Italian apple cake, this family recipe is perfect for breakfast, a snack, or dessert with ice cream or vegan custard.
We think you’ll love it because it’s:
- Quick to prepare in just 10 minutes and in one bowl.
- Packed with apples to give it flavor and keep it moist.
- Made with pantry staples.
- Affordable. Did you see the price of eggs these days?
- The layer of apple slices on top keeps it extra moist and adds a beautiful finish.
Louise and I love it so much we also turned it into a healthy apple bread, made vegan apple muffins, and filled one with vegan custard for extra richness 🤤.
Ingredients
Full ingredients and substitutions are in the recipe box below.
- Apples: You can make this cake with any apple variety. We recommend sweeter varieties such as fuji, golden delicious, and pink ladies for a sweeter cake.
- All-purpose flour: Substitute whole wheat flour, spelt flour, or mix half all-purpose and half whole-wheat. Use a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour mix for cakes to make it without gluten.
- Sugar: You can use white or brown sugar.
- Almond milk: Substitute another non-dairy milk like oat or soy milk.
- Olive oil: Substitute another vegetable oil such as avocado, canola, and sunflower oil. For oil-free use apple sauce in the same amount.
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder: essential to help the cake rise in the oven.
- Vanilla extract & lemon zest: optional for more aroma.
Notes on Baking Pans
You can use different cake pans to make this cake. Here are some ideas:
- 8-inch (20 cm) cake pan for a tall cake (it takes a few minutes longer to bake)
- 8.5-inch (21 cm) cake pan. That’s what we usually use.
- 9-inch pan (23 cm) for a shorter cake (it takes a few minutes less to bake)
You can also make apple muffins with the same batter by using a 12-muffin tin and baking for 25 -27 minutes.
Variations
- ADD YOGURT: For a moister cake, swap some plant milk for yogurt. Use 2/3 cup (160g) plant yogurt and 1/2 cup (120g) plant milk.
- ADD CUSTARD: Have you ever tried apple cake with custard inside? Make vegan custard, then pour ¾ of it over the batter in the pan. Swirl gently with a knife. Top with thin apple slices in a circular pattern, sprinkle with 2 tbsp sugar, and bake at 360°F (180°C) for 55–60 minutes. It’s so good!
- SWAP PEARS: You can substitute slices of pears for the apples.
How to make vegan apple cake
Line cake pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 360°F or 180°C.
To a mixing bowl, add almond milk, olive oil, sugar, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk until well combined.
With a fine-mesh sieve, sift in the flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt.
Whisk or mix 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.
Cinnamon note: You can add 1 – 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the batter, but it will color your cake brown. We prefer adding vanilla and lemon zest to the batter and cinnamon on top.
Add small pieces from 2.5 apples. The apples should be cored and the seeds removed, but you can keep the peel on.
Fold them with a spatula until then pour batter into the cake tin.
Cover the top with thin apple slices arranged in a circular pattern, overlapping the slices a bit.
Finally, sprinkle the apples with 2 tbsp of sugar mixed with a teaspoon of cinnamon.
Bake on the center rack of the oven at 360°F (180°C) for 55 minutes to 1 hour.
A skewer inserted in the center should come out mostly dry. If it doesn’t, keep baking in 5-minute increments.
Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan and cooling it for at least 1 hour.
Tips
- Cinnamon: for more cinnamon flavor, add 2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter. Keep in mind that the cake will have a brown color if you do so.
- Don’t overmix to avoid a dense, gummy texture. Stop once the ingredients are combined.
- Work quickly after adding baking powder, as it starts activating immediately.
- Sift the flour to remove lumps and add air for a lighter cake.
- Don’t open the oven for the first 30 minutes to prevent deflation.
- When baking, place the cake pan on a baking rack, not a baking tray, because the tray will get too hot and will overcook the base of the cake.
Frequently Asked Questions
Baking time varies by oven, milk, and flour type. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center—if it comes out clean, the cake is ready. If wet, bake a few more minutes and recheck.
All plant-based milks work well. We use almond because we like the flavor. Soy milk gives and excellent structure and has a more neutral flavor. Oat milk and rice milk work well too.
Absolutely! Keep in mind that the cake will be denser and brown. Not everyone likes that! Our advice would be to use half whole-wheat and half all-purpose flour for a more balanced cake.
You can substitute water or apple sauce for olive oil. Same quantities.
Room temp: 4 days under a cake dome or in a plastic bag.
Refrigerator: up to one week.
Freezer: up to three months. Let it cool down completely before freezing.
Reheat: if it gets dry after storage, reheat for 1 minute in the microwave to make moist again
More easy apple recipes
Breakfast
Apple Cinnamon Rolls
Desserts
Baked apples
Desserts
Apple Crumble
Breakfast
Apple Cinnamon Muffins
If you tried this Vegan Apple Cake recipe or any other recipe on our blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it goes in the comments. We love hearing from you!
Vegan Apple Cake
Video
Equipment
- cake pan We use 8.5 inch /21 cm in the video. 8 or 9 inches also works.
Ingredients
- 4 apples divided, 2½ for the filling and 1½ on top.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup sugar plus 2 tbsp to sprinkle on top
- 1 cup almond milk
- ¼ cup olive oil or another vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extra
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ lemon the grated zest (optional)
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Line cake pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 360°F (180°C).To a mixing bowl, add 1 cup almond milk, ¼ cup olive oil, ¾ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extra and the grated zest of ½ lemon. Whisk until well combined.With a fine-mesh sieve, sift in 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and ⅛ teaspoon salt.Whisk or mix with a hand mixer for a few seconds until you have a smooth and thick cake batter. Don't over-mix.
- Add small pieces from 2½ apples. The apples should be cored and the seeds removed, but you can keep the peel on.Fold them with a spatula, then pour batter into the cake pan.
- Cover the top with thin apple slices from the remaining apples, arranged in a circular pattern, overlapping the slices a bit.Finally, sprinkle the apples with 2 tbsp of sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
- Bake on the center rack of the oven at 360°F (180°C) for 55 minutes to 1 hour.A skewer inserted in the center should come out mostly dry. If it doesn’t, keep baking in 5-minute increments.Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan and cooling it for at least 1 hour.
Notes
- Apples: You can use any apple variety. We recommend sweet varieties like fuji, pink ladies, and golden delicious.
- Almond milk: Substitute another plant-based milk.
- Olive oil: Substitute another vegetable oil like canola or sunflower oil.
- All-purpose flour: You can also use half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose. Substitute gluten-free flour to make the cake GF.
- Cinnamon: for more cinnamon flavor, add 2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter. Keep in mind that the cake will have a brown color if you do so
- Don’t overmix to avoid a dense, gummy texture. Stop once the ingredients are combined.
- Work quickly after adding baking powder, as it starts activating immediately.
- Sift the flour to remove lumps and add air for a lighter cake.
- Don’t open the oven for the first 30 minutes to prevent deflation.
- When baking, place the cake pan on a baking rack, not a baking tray, because the tray will get too hot and will overcook the base of the cake.
- Room temp: 4 days under a cake dome or in a plastic bag.
- Refrigerator: up to one week.
- Freezer: up to three months. Let it cool down completely before freezing.
- Reheat: if it gets dry after storage, reheat for 1 minute in the microwave to make moist again
Nutrition
Don’t Lose This Recipe
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Hi! We are Nico & Louise
We're here to share easy, healthy, and delicious recipes 🌿✨.
Welcome to our blog, we are glad you are here.
Hi there, I know that this is a vegan cake but I wondered if I can use regular milk and regulat yogurt. Thanks.
Hi Zara,
We haven’t tested, but my guess would be that it would work. If you try it, let me know what you think!
Thank you for your comment! Kindest, Louise
Hello Dear Nicole;
Everytime I made this recipe, everyone fall in love with it. Its a special recipe and everyone’s favorite(Specially for eldery people who like to eat cake but are afraid of the health risks).
Thank you very much for sharing it.
Hi Zoha,
Thank you so much for leaving a comment – we’re super happy that you and your loved ones enjoyed the cake ❤️
All the best,
Louise
Hi I was wondering how much custard you recommend adding – hoping to make later this week for our vegan friends.
Hi Arc,
Sounds like a great idea! We add between 0.5-3/4 of a cup of custard into the batter before baking.
I hope this helps 🙂 Happy baking! Kindest,
Louise
I made this with 100% whole wheat flour and it was amazing! Best vegan apple cake I’ve ever eaten in my life! It was fluffy and delicious.
Fantastic, Samara, I’m so happy you loved it! Thank you for taking time to leave a comment here 🙂
/Louise
Can you make this into an upside down apple cake? So the apples are on the bottom and then pour the batter over? That way the apples will be more caramelised
Hi Emma,
Good question – we have never tried the upside down apple cake.
It does require a different approach and baking time, so I am not able to advise yet on that. It is, however, a recipe that we have on our “to-cook-list” for autumn 🙂
Have a great rest of your week! Kindest, Louise
Do you think I can sub the sugar with a sweetener like splenda?
Hi there,
We’ve never tested this cake with Splenda (or other sweeteners), as we would assume that it requires a bit of testing 🙂
If you try it out, do let us know! Have a wonderful week ahead.
Louise
Really good! Very easy. Will be making this again and again!
Hi Myriah,
That’s wonderful, I’m really happy you liked the cake!!!
Thanks for leaving a review 🙂 Kindest,
Louise
This is such a lovely recipe. I made it the other Day and loved it. I Just made it again but forgot to put in the vanillaextract and al the Apples are already placed on top. Will it be ok or can I do something to help the flavour without pulling the Apples off?
Hi Laura,
Thanks for your message 🙂 The cake is still delicious without the vanilla extract. I would just serve it without it 🙂
Hope this help,
Nico
Delicious! I made this yesterday evening and it was hard to wait for it to cool to enjoy. I wasn’t sure how long to leave it in the springform pan before releasing it, so waited the hour. I lived in Italy a few years and this brings back good food memories. I will speed up my apple slicing for the top next time as I kept adding more (small apples) and took a long while so mine didn’t rise as high as the photos in the recipe – still superb!
Hi Bonnie,
I’m so happy you liked the cake – and that it brought you back to your Italian adventure!
Indeed, speedy apple slicing is one of the main tips for making a high and fluffy cake 😉 Thanks so much for your comment, and have a great Sunday!
Kindest,
Louise
Can you use yogurt as an alternative to milk? ♥️
Hi Melissa,
Sure you can. If you’d like an even more moist apple cake, you can replace some plant milk with yogurt. In this case, we recommend adding 2/3 cup (160 grams) of plant yogurt and ½ cup (120 grams) of plant milk.
I hope this helps. Happy baking, Melissa 🙂
Kindest,
Louise
Very good! Used applesauce instead of oil and baked a 5 extra minutes (extra minutes at 375). Cake became more solid after the hour wait time. Easy and delicious!
Hi there! I’m so happy you enjoyed the apple cake.
Thanks so much for your tip about the apple sauce, and for taking the time to leave a comment here.
Have a wonderful week ahead! Kindest,
Louise
I really liked this cake and it is incredibly easy and quick to put together, however it became a little chewy. Perhaps it was the apples but I think next time I might try it with vegan butter (Stork) instead of oil, and fluff it up nicely, see how that goes. I like that you don’t use a lot of sugar, I actually used even less (shaved off 20gr) and next time will use even less as the apples do their job perfectly and I like to really taste them.
Hi there, thanks so much for your feedback – I’m delighted you liked the cake, and you feel like making it again and experimenting with sugar content. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment, and have a wonderful week ahead!
Kindest, Louise
This cake is so yummy!!! I just made it for the first time this afternoon and was so happy with how it came out. Great flavour and so easy to make. I really thought there was going to be too many apples (my apples were huge!), I used 3 total. But it turned out perfect. Thank you for another lovely recipe!
Hey Sarah,
Oh, that’s wonderful, I’m delighted you enjoyed the cake 🙂
Thank you for your kind comment – and have a fantastic week!
Kindest,
Louise
Hi
Have you used gluten free flour for this cake?
I’m strict gluten free and diary free.
Alma
Hi Alma,
We haven’t tasted the gluten-free version, but a group of readers tried it and liked it. It’s best if you replace all-purpose flour with a gluten-free one, like a gluten-free all-purpose baking mix.
I hope that helps.
Best,
Louise
This cake is perfect. I needed to use some apples up and always thought I wasn’t much of a cake maker, but I’ve made this cake three times now and it has come out perfectly each time, moist and really tasty. Everyone who’s tried it loves it, thank you.
Hi there, thanks so much for your sweet comment – we’re so happy you feel confident baking this cake, and that you like the flavor too! Warm wishes from both of us. /Louise