Light and fluffy vegan apple cake with a cinnamon sugar topping. Packed with fresh apple flavor and absolutely divine served warm with vegan whipped cream.
I am totally in love with this vegan apple cake. And so is Jaye, he hasn’t been able to stop eating it to tell you the truth.
I actually started out with the goal of making a vegan apple pie. But at the last minute switched gears and made an apple cake instead (and then I made a vegan apple crisp!).
And it is honestly so good, no one will miss apple pie when you present apple cake, I promise you.
And even though I have yet to make an apple pie, I reckon this apple cake is heaps easier.
The hardest part of making this apple cake is peeling and chopping up a few apples. So basically, not hard at all.
It’s totally divine served warm and topped with some vegan whipped cream.
It has all those gorgeous fall flavors like cinnamon and nutmeg and it’s topped with a cinnamon sugar combination that creates the most delicious caramelized crust on top of this cake.
How to make vegan apple cake
Add your dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg) to a mixing bowl and combine.
Make up some vegan buttermilk by mixing some lemon juice and soy milk together and letting it curdle.
Add the vegan buttermilk and some oil, vanilla and apple cider vinegar to the dry ingredients and mix together. Then you add your chopped apples and mix them in.
Smooth down into a 9×13 dish.
Mix up some cinnamon, sugar and softened vegan butter and sprinkle this on top. Bake for 45 minutes. Serve with vegan cream. Be very very happy!
Tips for making a perfect vegan apple cake
Granny smith apples. They are wonderfully firm and have a great ratio between sweet and tart. They work great for this apple cake.
Vegan Buttermilk creates a wonderfully moist texture to this cake and is so easy to make by simply mixing lemon juice into soy milk and letting it curdle. Almond milk works too, but I prefer soy milk for buttermilk if you don’t have an issue with soy as it is thicker/richer so works extremely well.
Brown sugar goes beautifully with the fall flavors of this cake so is a much better fit than white sugar.
Bake at low heat. This cake bakes for 45 minutes at 325°F (160°C). Most cakes bake at 350°F so I definitely don’t want you to make the mistake of baking this cake at that temperature if you go on automatic pilot when you set the oven (happens to me all the time!).
Weigh your flour. Want to have perfect accuracy with your cakes? Weighing your flour will do that for you.
How to Serve Vegan Apple Cake
Serve warm topped with vegan whipped cream or custard. Custard powder is often vegan so if you’re a custard fan then make it with some non-dairy milk and you have a winner.
You will totally love this vegan apple cake! It is:
- Fall-flavored
- Light and fluffy
- Perfectly sweet
- Topped with cinnamon sugar
- Packed with fresh apple
Keep leftover cake covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to 5 days.
More delicious vegan cakes!
- Vegan Pumpkin Cake
- Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake
- Vegan Coffee Cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
Also check out our vegan apple muffins that are adapted from this recipe.
Leave a comment below and tell us what you think of this vegan apple cake and please rate the recipe too. Thanks!
Sign up to our email list before you go, you’ll receive a fabulous (and free) vegan recipe ebook containing 10 delicious dinner recipes and you’ll be the first to know when new recipes are posted to the blog.
Vegan Apple Cake
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12
Description
Light and fluffy vegan apple cake with a cinnamon sugar topping. Packed with fresh apple flavor and absolutely divine served warm with vegan whipped cream.
Ingredients
For the Apple Cake:
- 2 and 1/2 cups (312g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 and 1/2 cups (300g) Brown Sugar
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 cup (240ml) Vegan Buttermilk (fresh lemon juice mixed with soy milk)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil*
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) Chopped Apple (Peeled)
For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
- 1/2 cup (100g) White Sugar
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp Vegan Butter (Softened)
For Serving:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Spray a 9×13 dish with non-stick spray and set aside.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix together.
- Prepare your vegan buttermilk by adding 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding soy milk up to the 1 cup (240ml) line. Leave it for a minute to allow it to curdle.
- Add the vegan buttermilk, oil, vanilla, apple cider vinegar and applesauce to the mixing bowl and mix in properly. The batter will be thick.
- Add in the chopped apple pieces and fold in.
- Transfer to your prepared baking dish and smooth down.
- Prepare the cinnamon sugar topping by adding the sugar and cinnamon to a bowl and mixing together. Then add in softened vegan butter and mix it in until properly combined and the mixture is crumbly.
- Sprinkle over the top of the cake.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Serve warm with vegan whipped cream.
Notes
*You can use a different oil such as canola oil if you prefer.
*Nutritional information is for cake only and does not include vegan whipped cream.
*Recipe adapted from our Vegan Vanilla Sheet Cake with inspiration from Pinch Of Yum.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 12)
- Calories: 301
- Sugar: 34.6g
- Sodium: 289mg
- Fat: 7.3g
- Saturated Fat: 1.2g
- Carbohydrates: 56.3g
- Fiber: 1.4g
- Protein: 3.4g
Keywords: vegan apple cake
I made the cake – best ever! I only used 1 1/3 large granny smith apples, and substituted 1 1/2 Tbsp vegan mayo for the applesauce (and I didn’t have any). Also, I cooked the cake in two 8×4 pyrex loaf pans, which took about 55 minutes (so I could fit them in the fridge and give one away). Even better after overnight in the fridge! Thanks for the recipe.
So glad it worked out well! Thanks so much for sharing Dona!
Thank you for a really fab recipe! The cake is amazing, so moist and very moreish! I reduced the sugar to 250g, but otherwise followed the recipe. It was done (toothpick test) at 38mins. Big hit with family and friends!
★★★★★
Wonderful! Thanks so much for the great review!
We tested this cake this weekend as we want to make it for Thanksgiving and it was AMAZING! So moist and so full of flavor. It’s a definite winner and I can’t wait for everyone to enjoy it.
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks so much Tara!
Hi everyone,
The batter was very thick. Was not at all pourable into the baking pan. I added more liquid but was reluctant to overdo it. Thought I would trust the recipe and that the apples would add moisture. Not so. The cake turned out very dry. Next time, I would add a cup of boiling water. That usually does the trick.
★★
Hi Carole, the most common reason for this would be over-measuring your flour. If you don’t weigh it on a food scale then the correct way to measure it is the spoon and level method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup. I would not recommend using a cup of boiling water. Our cake was not dry at all so my guess is that too much flour was used.
Hi got the apple cake in the oven now and the smell coming from the kitchen is unbelievable. Could you tell me where you get the cannister and nozzle for piping the cream. When I use a piping bag the cream melts with my hand as I am not quick enough. Will update once we sample the cake. Many thanks for all your brilliant recipes.
★★★★★
Hi Val! We used a piping syringe in the video, ours is from Wilton. It’s not a canister. These days we are using a piping bag with the Wilton 1M tip a lot of the time and prefer it now to the piping syringe.
I LOVE this recipe! I’ve made this cake maybe five times in the last month. Very easy, flexible, and most importantly, delicious. I sometimes cut the sugar back to one cup and haven’t noticed any significant difference in texture or flavor. Yay delicious vegan cakes that don’t use any funny ingredients!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Mira!
This was an amazing cake. I used white sugar instead of brown as that was all I had, and I used only 250 grams. May even use less next time. Used a squeeze of orange juice instead of lemon because, again, that was all I had and added half a teaspoon of mixed spice (sorry for all those changes). It was such a light sponge and soooooooooo tasty, oh my god. Glad I’ve got about 5 kilos of cooking apples from my friend’s allotment. I will be making this a LOT! The only bad thing is that 2 of us ate the whole thing in 2 days eek!
★★★★★
Hahaa no judgment at all on finishing it in two days! 🙂 So glad it was good! Thanks for the awesome review Pam.
I’m making this for only the 4th time. Reading several of these comments suggests 4 is not keeping up!
★★★★★
Hahaha, thanks so much for the wonderful rating Jim! 🙂