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Bursting with apples and spices and topped with cream cheese frosting, this Apple Spice Cake will become your favorite fall dessert. Easy to make and completely delicious!

For more apple desserts, try my Fried Apples, Snickerdoodle Apple Cobbler, and Classic Apple Pie.

Cake in a pan, sliced into squares
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About The Recipe

This cake is a simple apple spice cake, and I added a ton of chopped Granny Smith apples for texture and tartness.

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 Cake is a comforting and tasty dessert you’ll want to make again and again!

Ingredients

  • Dry ingredients – Flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, and brown sugar.
  • Wet ingredients – Butter, eggs, vanilla extract.
  • Spices – Ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg.
  • Granny Smith apples – You can use any variety of apples you like. I prefer the tartness and crispness of the granny smith.
  • Frosting – Cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, milk.

How To Make Apple Spice Cake

See the recipe card below for full, detailed instructions

  1. 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.
  2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  3. Beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients. The batter will be very thick.
  5. Fold in chopped apples.
  6. Spread the batter into a baking dish and bake at 350℉ for 40 minutes.
  7. Cool for at least an hour before frosting.
Cake batter in a bowl.
Cake batter with apples in a baking pan.
Baked apple cake in a pan.
Apple cake with white frosting in a cake pan.

Best Apples for Cake

When it comes to baking cakes with apples, the type of apple you choose can make a big difference in texture and flavor. I like to use apples that provide a well-rounded flavor profile with both tartness and sweetness, and that tend to hold their shape well, like these:

  • Granny Smith
  • Honeycrisp
  • Fuji
  • Braeburn
  • Jonagold
  • Gala

Golden Delicious are also great for baking because they are softer and tend to melt into the cake, which can also be delicious.

Storage

Cover the cake and store in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. If you opt for buttercream frosting instead of the cream cheese frosting, it can be left at room temperature.

To freeze, wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Slice of apple cake with frosting on a small white plate with a fork.

Try These Apple Desserts Next

Recipe

Apple Spice Cake

5 from 3 votes
Bursting with apples, baking spices, and topped with cream cheese frosting, this Apple Spice Cake will become your favorite fall dessert!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 12 servings

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 melted
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 Granny Smith apples diced (about 2 ½ 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
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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

The batter will be thick, that’s okay. The apples will secrete moisture into the batter as the cake bakes.
Keyword apple spice cake

Nutrition

Calories: 356kcalCarbohydrates: 46gProtein: 4gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 71mgSodium: 217mgPotassium: 127mgFiber: 1gSugar: 31gVitamin A: 626IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 52mgIron: 1mg

Nutritional Disclaimer Kristin Maxwell of “Yellow Bliss Road” is not a dietician or nutritionist, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. For accurate calorie counts and other nutritional values, we recommend running the ingredients through your preferred online nutritional calculator. Calories and other nutritional values can vary depending on which brands were used.

Julie Espy

Food nerd. Cocktail enthusiast. Carboholic. Bacon addict. Basset nuzzler. Boy mom. Come eat something delicious with me at Bread Booze Bacon!

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Comments

  1. Stuart Watson says:

    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?

    1. Kristin Maxwell says:

      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!

  2. Michele says:

    Could you use nuts instead of apples?

    1. Kristin Maxwell says:

      Sure you could add nuts. But it’s an apple cake, so apples are necessary for the recipe to work properly.

  3. Ashley says:

    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!

    1. Kristin Maxwell says:

      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.

  4. Janey Phillips says:

    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.