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!
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Vegan Apple Cake
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
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
This was amazing! I made it this afternoon for tonight’s dessert. It was easy to make, easy to bake and came out so light, fluffy and just delicious. Rave reviews from hubby a very picky eater! He especially loved the topping. I did not have enough apples to make applesauce so I subbed 2 tablespoons of sour cream and reduced the oil just a tiny bit (just a hair below the 1/3 cup line). I did use EVOO. Thank you so much for this go-to recipe!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Caryn!
Hi there, this looks great!
When you say a 9×13 dish – is that in cm or inches?
Also when you say brown sugar do you mean Demerara sugar or soft brown sugar?
Hi there, it’s inches and the brown sugar is regular light brown sugar.
I can’t find a better way to comment on this recipe other than by saying THANK YOU 🙏
★★★★★
You’re so welcome Karine! And thanks so much for the lovely comment and review!
Made this today and it was so delicious! Used a mix of oat, almond and plain flour and replaced the apple sauce with half a mashed banana. It turned out great!
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it Isabella! Thanks for posting!
Hello, Marta from Poland here. The cake came out really nice. Thank you! 🙂
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Marta!
Made this! I chopped up all my little gala apples to use until the chopped up chunks weighed 700 grams, but that was definitely twice as much as I needed. Needless to say at this point, she means 700 grams of the WHOLE apples. I didn’t use the topping suggested and it was still very nice. Definitely worth making vegan whipped cream for this one!
★★★★★
Hi Liz! So glad it worked out and you enjoyed it! I’m not sure where the 700g comes from though, because this only requires 188g (1 and 1/2 cups) of peeled and chopped apples. Definitely agree that it’s worth making whipped cream for this! Thanks so much for the awesome rating!
My husband and I are addicted to this ‘cake’!! After a long day at the sanctuary, making sure the elder animals get their foods….we have our treat of the apple cake! Thank you so much for this and other recipes you offer!!
So glad you like it! And that’s very well deserved cake! Thanks so much for sharing Cheri. 🙂
Hi, do you know what i would use to replace the sugar with a natural “sweet thing” like fruit or something?
What would happen if I leave out the oil? I am trying to eat wholefoods, but I am craving some cake
Hi Janine, if you read the other comments, others have replaced the sugar with other things like date paste or reduced the sugar successfully. You can try replacing the oil with more applesauce. 🙂
Thank you
Big hit, as with all of your recipes. Made it just a couple hours ago and it’s mostly gone. Used Granny Smith apples and ran out of flour so used a little mix spelt/whole wheat in place of the missing flour. Boys loved it!
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks Ali! 🙂
Hi Alison,
Please help me, how should I replace the flour to be gluten free?
Same amount of brown rice flour would be ok?
Thank you
★★★★★
Hi Lili, a gluten-free all purpose baking flour blend in the same quantity would be the best way to replace the regular flour. 🙂
I tried with brown rice flour and it works. Soft and delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
I replaced the sugar with date paste because of my baby, but its sweet enough.
Thanks again 🙂
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Lili! 🙂
Came out perfect for the topping I used raw sugar instead of white and it is perfect
★★★★★
This cake was great. I made a couple minor revisions. I used an apple peach sauce instead of regular applesauce and used 3 tbsps instead of 1. I used turbinado sugar for the topping for better texture. I also baked for just 40 mins and it came out moist and was a hit!
★★★★★
Very yummy. I used oat milk and about 1/2 the sugar topping (don’t have much of a sweet tooth). Also, I put it into 2 cake pans. It rose about 2-3 inches. And, I used Honeycrisp apples.
Thank for my family’s smiles!!
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for the great review Jim! 🙂
I have made this twice already and it’s fabulously delicious! If I want to use a round tin cake instead of the rectangular dish what would be the ideal size please. Thank you so much!!
Hi Cristina, I would imagine two 8-inch cake pans would do great here. Otherwise if you’re looking to do a single layer probably a 10-inch. I wouldn’t swear by it though, that’s a guess, but I think that would work. 🙂
Wonderful thank you so much!! 🙂 xx
★★★★★
Hi, I tried this recipe and it was delicious, except that my cake wasn’t fluffy. Where do you think I could have done wrong, not enough oil or did I mix it too much? Would like to try again with the correction!
Hi Prachi, it could be a couple of things, over-mixing can cause the gluten in the flour to activate too much which can make it more dense and chewy. So this is why you should only mix until it’s just combined and be careful not to overdo it with mixing. And then the other thing that can cause it is if you use a little too much flour accidentally, which is easy to happen if you don’t use a food scale and weigh it. The best method to measure flour if you’re not using a food scale is the spoon and level method. Hope this helps and you’ll have a super fluffy cake next time! 🙂