This Easy Apple and Cinnamon Cake is a really lovely, simple cake that can be made with basic ingredients and is ready in under 45 minutes. I love baking this cake as it fills my kitchen with the lovely aromas of apple and cinnamon. It’s a good cake to make with children too – my kids love helping me make (and eat!) this cake.
Apple and Cinnamon Cake
This Easy Apple and Cinnamon Cake is such a wonderfully simple (but very delicious!) cake to make. All you need to do is beat together butter and brown sugar, then stir in some eggs, flour, cinnamon and diced apple. Tip the batter into a cake tin and top with apple slices and more brown sugar, then bake for 25 minutes and serve. Easy peasy!
Any sugar will do…
I like to use dark soft brown sugar in this simple Apple and Cinnamon Cake, as I love the dark smoky taste it gives the cake. But if you don’t have any dark soft brown sugar to hand, this cake will work just as well with light soft brown sugar, demerara sugar or even caster sugar, though the flavour will be different.
Best apples to use…
I have used 1 large cooking apple (Bramley apple) in my recipe, as I like the tart flavour, which contrasts well with the sweetness of the cake. But if you have a sweeter tooth than me, or if you can’t get hold of any cooking apples, this recipe works just fine with dessert apples too – though you will need to use 2 dessert apples, since they tend to be smaller than cooking apples.
What to serve with Apple and Cinnamon Cake?
This easy Apple and Cinnamon Cake is equally delicious served hot or cold. I like to eat it just as it is and slightly warm from the oven. But it’s also great served with cream, ice cream or custard.
Make it your own…
This Apple and Cinnamon Cake is easy to adapt. Here are some ideas:
- Use mixed spice or pumpkin spice instead of cinnamon
- Use pears instead of apples
- Swap 50g (2oz) flour for an equal amount of ground almonds
- Add a generous handful of raisins or sultanas
- Add a generous handful of blackberries
How to store Apple and Cinnamon Cake
Once cool, store this Apple and Cinnamon Cake in an airtight cake tin, where it will keep for up to 1 week.
Can you freeze Apple and Cinnamon Cake?
Yes, you can. Wrap the cooked and cooled cake in a double layer of baking paper, followed by a double layer of foil, then place in the freezer. It will keep like this for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight at room temperature. Once unwrapped, store in an airtight cake tin.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
Apple and Cinnamon Cake
Ingredients
- 175 g butter (or margarine) softened
- 175 g dark soft brown sugar plus an extra tablespoon for sprinkling on top (See Note 1)
- 3 medium eggs
- 175 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (or 2 teaspoons if you really like cinnamon!)
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 large cooking apple (Bramley apple) (or two small dessert apples)
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 180C / 160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F. Grease a 20cm (8inch) cake tin and line the bottom with baking paper.
- Put the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat until pale and fluffy, using a wooden spoon (or an electric hand whisk).
- Add the eggs one at a time. Thoroughly mix in each egg before adding in the next one.
- Add in the flour and the cinnamon and carefully mix together using a wooden spoon. Stop when all the flour is incorporated – don’t over mix at this stage!
- Add the 2 tablespoons of milk and stir in gently.
- Peel and core your apple. Cut half of the apple into 10 slices. Chop the other half into small pieces (roughly ½cm / ¼inch cubes).
- Put the small pieces of apple into the cake mixture and stir gently to combine.
- Tip the cake batter into your greased and lined tin and gently smooth the top with the back of a wooden spoon. Arrange your apple slices on top and sprinkle a tablespoon of brown sugar as evenly as possible over the top of the cake.
- Bake in your pre-heated oven for 25 minutes. Check if the cake is done by inserting a skewer (or the handle of a teaspoon) into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If the skewer is covered in cake batter cook for a further 3 minutes and check again.
- When the cake is done, allow it to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. Serve warm or cold, on it's own or with cream, ice cream or custard.
Notes
- You can use any sugar you like to make this cake. I prefer the richer, slightly smoky flavour of dark soft brown sugar, but you can use light soft brown sugar, demerara sugar or even caster sugar, if that's all you have!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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Dave says
That sounds delicious!
Eb Gargano says
Thank you! It is, or rather it was…it disappeared very quickly!
jenny paulin says
i love apple and cinnamon together and especially inside a cake! love that it is easy to make aswell x
Eb Gargano says
Glad you like the recipe, Jenny! Thanks for commenting. x
Kath says
This is one of my family’s favourite cakes, in fact I will be baking one tomorrow for my son who requested it specially
Eb Gargano says
Yay! I am so happy to hear that 😀 Thanks for taking the time to let me know. I love hearing that my recipes are being made and enjoyed! Eb 🙂
Marcus says
Hey, Eb! Im quite the novice baker. Tried this recipe (as a massive apple-pie/cake fan)
What does the term you’ve used, creaming, mean ? What is the difference?
Eb Gargano says
Hi Marcus. Great question! Creaming is really just beating together the butter and sugar until they are well blended and a soft, creamy texture. Hope that helps! Eb 🙂
Rochelle Clark says
This cake was absolutely fabulous, even for me..a novice Baker. I want to make it again. Can you tell me how to calculate calories please ? Do I add up all ingredients and divide by portion size ?
Eb Gargano says
Hi Rochelle, thank you so much for this lovely feedback! I am currently working through all my recipes to add nutrition information to them… and so I have just added it to this recipe for you! If you cut the cake up into 8 slices, each slice has 357 calories (if you cut the cake up into a different number of slices, just do 357 times 8 divided by the number of slices). Hope that helps! Eb 🙂
Patricia Potter says
Exfellent, really lovely cake. Cooked on160°C in my fan oven. Also added 5 minutes and it was perfect.
Eb Gargano says
Yay! So happy to hear this. Thanks for this lovely feedback and especially the 5* rating! Eb 🙂
Loretto Gillespie says
I’m not a baker but tried this recipe. Only had White caster sugar too and turned out to be the best cake I’ve ever made. Everyone loved it! Thank you so much for this recipe❤️
Eb Gargano says
Yay! I am so happy to read this. Delighted you and your friends all loved this cake so much 😀 And thanks especially for the 5 stars! Eb 🙂
Lauren says
Brilliant recipe – ours didn’t rise but I think our self raising flour has gone off ! Will try again next week when I get some more! It still tastes delicious 😋
Eb Gargano says
Aw, sorry to hear it didn’t rise (hopefully the new batch of flour will sort that out), but great to hear it still tasted good 😀
Julia Dunlop says
Another great recipe, although I had to adapt it a bit – I was craving apple cake but had no fresh apples or milk, so I substituted with two heaped dessert spoons of Greek style natural yoghurt and half a jar of Bradley apple sauce – wow, the smell when it was cooking was amazing and it was so very tasty. Of course it was devoured by the family in two sittings – one warm with crème fraiche and blueberries and the other cold with a cup of tea. I also did the 50g ground almonds as you suggested – Delicious!
Eb Gargano says
Aw, yay – I am so pleased to hear you enjoyed this recipe so much 😀 And so great to hear it also works well with apple sauce and yoghurt!
Ava says
I made this cake and it was delicious! I had to bake it for 20 minutes longer than stated though. The only thing I’ll change next time is using less butter as the centre was a little greasy. Otherwise a perfect cake!
Eb Gargano says
Hi Ava, thanks for this review – great to hear you liked this cake so much. Interesting that you felt it was a little greasy. Equal weights of butter, sugar, flour and eggs, as is the case here, is a very standard sponge recipe. But I guess we all have our own personal tastes! As for the oven, I’m not quite sure why it took so much longer in your oven than mine, except to say that ovens do vary – it’s possible yours is a touch cooler than mine and so it took a little longer. Or maybe the apples you used were juicier than mine, that could also account for it. Eb 🙂
Quetzi says
Can I used cooked stewed apples instead of fresh ones, like the one you use when making apple crumble, is that an option or is it better with fresh apples ?
Eb Gargano says
This cake is best made with made with fresh apples. Eb 🙂