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, 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 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 vegan custard. Alternatively some vegan ice cream would be divine too.
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.
Vegan Apple Cake
Ingredients
For the Apple Cake:
- 2 and 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour (312g)
- 1 and 1/2 cups Light Brown Sugar (300g)
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1 cup Vegan Buttermilk (240ml) 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice + Soy Milk up to the 1 cup line
- 1/3 cup Vegetable Oil (80ml) or Canola Oil
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tbsp Applesauce
- 1 and 1/2 cups Granny Smith Apples (188g) Peeled and Chopped
For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
- 1/2 cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp Vegan Butter Softened
For Serving:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Spray a 9x13 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 or vegan ice cream.
Video
Notes
- Granny Smith Apples. These are the best apples to use in this recipe, but you can also use whatever you have on hand.
- Storing. Keep leftover cake stored in the fridge (covered) where it will stay good for up to 5 days. It can be reheated in the microwave.
- Nutritional information is for cake only and does not include vegan whipped cream.
Sounds divine! I will try. Can I add nuts to this cake? Thanks!
Yes I think you could add nuts, around 1/2 to 1 cup chopped nuts should work great.
Super delicious cake very moist and flavorful love it will surely make it again
Awesome! Thanks so much! 🙂
Making it a second time because it was so good the first time around!
That’s awesome! Thanks Farah!
This came out great. Added extra soy milk instead of the applesauce and skipped the topping this time. I put the batter in a 9×13 pan and it was a super thin layer, so I transferred to the next size down— took a few extra minutes but turned out great!
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Rachel!
About to make it but only have oat milk will that work?
Hi Nicole, it might not curdle for the buttermilk but you can still use it.
Thanks for this lovely recipe. Will make it over and over.
I used just under 3/4 cup sugar and replaced half a cup white flour with wholewheat flour. Added extra milk and gave the cake an extra 10 minutes as i used a smaller 61/2″ x 11″ pyrex dish. I didn’t add the topping, but the cake was delicious. Even my 15 month old granddaughter enjoyed it. .
Awesome! So happy you enjoyed it, thanks for the great review!
Fantastic apple cake. Very moist cake and delicious flavor. I subbed 2 tbsp almond milk for applesauce. It was great. Thank you for this recipe.
Awesome, thanks so much Ann!
Along with my family and friends, I am keeping my diet almost zero sugar to stay healthy. I substituted the 300g of sugar with 1/8 cup of granulated sweetener and omitted the topping. I didn’t have an apple so used 188g dried apricots snipped into small pieces. The result was absolutely great, very easy and quick to prepare, baked in exactly 45mins (as recipe shows) and made twelve slices (as recipe shows) – perfect low sugar cake. The apricots remained evenly distributed and the finished colour a pale gold – we’re calling it ‘blondy’ cake, Thank you so much for this recipe, regards Geraldine
Sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing Geraldine!
Thank you for this delicious recipe. I made it for my daughter’s birthday, and her comment was, “Best recipe ever!”. All of my picky omnivore family loved them!
Wonderful! Thanks so much Christa!
The best of the best apple cake . All my family and my friends love it .So easy Thank you for the recipe Yummy ???????? Yummy ????????
That is wonderful news Eleni! Thanks so much!
Can I substitute gf all purpose flour for regular AP flour?
Hi Lizabeth, that should be fine! 🙂
I just made this, with a few changes to sub ingredients I didn’t have already (melted vegan butter instead of olive oil, a flax egg to replace the applesauce and white sugar instead of brown). It came out absolutely perfect and is delicious, I will definitely be making it again!
Awesome, thanks Aly!
Hi Alison,
Is Applesauce essential? x
It’s for moisture, you could substitute it with extra oil or melted vegan butter or even an extra 2 Tbsp vegan buttermilk.
Could I add cranberries to the cake or the muffins? Dried or fresh/frozen? Love the muffins, have not made the cake. Thank you.
Dried cranberries can be easily added! 🙂