Bursting with apples, spices, and topped with cream cheese frosting, this Apple Spice Sheet Cake will become your favorite fall dessert. Easy to make and completely delicious!
Apple desserts like this Apple Spice Cake, Snickerdoodle Apple Cobbler and Classic Apple Pie just scream fall!
Apple Spice Cake Recipe
Fall is my favorite season of the year. We don’t get leaves changing colors here in Arizona, but thankfully the weather cools down and I can start baking again! I love cookies, cakes, and muffins filled with baking spices and seasonal ingredients like pumpkin and apples. My house smells amazing and we all get to enjoy a delicious treat after dinner, like this Apple Spice Sheet Cake. My husband came home from work to me taking this cake out of the oven and he pestered me all evening asking if it was ready to eat yet. So be prepared to fight everyone off!
Apple Spice Sheet Cake
While layer cakes are great, sometimes I don’t want to go through all the effort. It’s nice to throw everything in a pan, bake it, cool it, and slap a bunch of yummy frosting on top. Bam. Easy. Done. Delicious!
I like topping this cake with cream cheese frosting spiked with a little cinnamon, but it would be delicious with vanilla buttercream too. If you want to get extra fancy, you could sprinkle extra cinnamon on top, some more diced apples – a combination of Granny Smith and Gala would be pretty with all the colors, or even candied pecans.
No matter how you dress it up, this Apple Spice Sheet Cake is a comforting and tasty dessert you’ll want to make again and again!
How to Make Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Preheat your oven and grab a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish. Preheating is essential to making sure your cake bakes and rises evenly.
- Measure out some flour, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. Whisk it together until it’s all combined and set the bowl aside.
- Beat together butter with some granulated sugar and brown sugar until it’s smooth, then beat in eggs and vanilla extract.
- Stir in the dry ingredients a little at a time, just until they are combined. The batter is very thick, so don’t be alarmed.
- Finally add some fresh, chopped apples to the batter and gently fold them in.
- Spray the baking dish with nonstick cooking spray and spread the batter with a spatula. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Carefully remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for about an hour, or until about room temperature.
Make the cream cheese frosting
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In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and ground cinnamon until smooth. Consistency will be thick.
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For a thinner frosting, add milk as needed, until the desired consistency is reached.
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Spread cream cheese frosting over the top of the apple spice cake in an even layer. Sprinkle with more ground cinnamon if desired.
Hungry for More Apple Desserts?
- Apple Pecan Bread Pudding
- Apple Pie Oreo Truffles
- Caramel Apple Pie Poke Cake
- Apple Bacon Oat Bars
- Caramel Apple Pie Dessert Pizza
- Apple Walnut Cinnamon Rolls
- Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Spice Cake
Apple Spice Cake
Ingredients
Apple Spice Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 Granny Smith apples diced (about 2 1/2 cups)
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Apple Spice Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch x 13-inch pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until combined. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter, sugar, and brown sugar for 1 to 2 minutes until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 2 additions, mixing until just combined after each addition. The batter will be thick.
- Use a wooden spoon or a spatula to stir in the apples. Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan and spread evenly.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Carefully remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for about an hour, or until about room temperature.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon until smooth. Add milk as needed, until desired consistency is reached.
- Spread frosting over the top of the cake in an even layer. Sprinkle with more ground cinnamon if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Is it possible to substitute the chunky apples with applesauce? And if so, how much would you recommend? OR could I omit the apples entirely and use some kind of apple spice? Perhaps this is a trial and error?
Applesauce generally will have a lot more liquid than just apples. If you want to use applesauce, maybe omit the eggs, or at least one egg. It will be trial and error; sorry, .I haven’t tried this with applesauce!
Could you use nuts instead of apples?
Sure you could add nuts. But it’s an apple cake, so apples are necessary for the recipe to work properly.
This sounds so yummy. I would like to make it as a layer cake though. Would this recipe make enough batter, or should I double it? Thanks!
It’s a sheet cake, so it probably wouldn’t be enough for a layer cake. I haven’t tried anything other than the sheet cake though so I can’t say how it would turn out.
I made this cake for visiting family a couple days ago. I made it exactly as written except I did not use the cinnamon in the frosting. THIS WAS YUMMY. I would make it again, or give as gift, or bring to a potluck, etc. We fought over the last slice.