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Home » Sweet

🍏Dutch Apple Cake

Published: Oct 8, 2021 · Modified: Feb 1, 2023 by Lisa Russo

Spread the hangry love....

Like cake with your apples? You'll love Dutch Apple Cake! Starring loads of cinnamon-sugared green apple slices on a thin cake layer. This is teatime done right.

This is very much an apple-first-and-cake-after kind of cake for those of you who claim ‘not to love cake’. The cake layer (which is very lovely) serves as the vessel. It transports many apple slices, strewn with sugar and cinnamon to your mouth.

What’s so good about Dutch Apple Cake?

  • perfect tea-cake. Cuppa in one hand, cake slice in the other
  • slices nicely and isn’t crumbly. Great for picnics and lunchboxes!
  • looks pretty. you can see exactly what kind of cake it is 🍏
  • so much apple! Surely this counts as a bonafide serving of fruit?
  • fresh, zingy apple on top of (not hidden in) cake. A party in your mouth.
  • crispy, caramelised cake between and around apple rows. Soft cake underneath
Finished cake in the baking dish. The apple slices are dark brown with cooked cinnamon sugar.
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Jump to:
  • 🥘 Ingredients
  • 🔪 Instructions
  • 📖 Recipe

🥘 Ingredients

Nothing fancy. All the usual suspects - butter, flour, sugar. Of note:

Raising agents - self-raising flour, baking powder, egg. Plenty of lift is required here to overcome the weight of the apples. A relatively high oven setting helps too.

Granny Smith apples - these green apples work best here. They're not overly sweet and they retain good texture when cooked

🔪 Instructions

No specialist equipment needed. No need to cream butter and sugar; we use melted butter for the batter.

We combine the wet ingredients. We combine the dry ingredients. We keep wet and dry separate until the apple and topping is prepared and we're ready to roll. The lift of the cake is maximised the quicker we can get it in a hot oven after combining the batter. Follow the step-by-step instructions in the recipe card below.

The wet ingredients get shaken up in a jam jar

Any recipe where you can shake up wet ingredients in a screw-top jar is a winner - quick and easy! Plus, it justifies the hoarding of way too many Bonne Maman jam jars 😛. We combine melted (and cooled) butter, egg and milk. Please make sure the egg and milk are at room temperature. You risk getting scrambled egg or solidified butter otherwise. And PLEASE make sure you screw the jam jar lid on tight!

The dry ingredients are sieved together. This serves to mix them and incorporate air for a lighter cake

We fold the batter just enough so that no dry bits remain. We want to preserve all the wonderful bubbles of air that are created when the dry raising agents in the flour and baking powder are activated by the moisture in the egg and milk.

Did I do something wrong? The batter is such a thin layer!

I guarantee that the first time you make this you’ll think it’s never going to work. The amount of batter seems ridiculously little. Have faith; this batter grows a lot. You can see all the bubbles of air in it. The self-raising flour, baking powder and egg all work to give it this lift. Despite the weight of the apples too.

Thick bubbly batter in a black bowl. Groups of thinly sliced apple in a chopping board to the side.

Slice the apples as uniformly thin as you can. Arrange them as you like - rows or columns.

Top view of 3 rows of overlapping thin slices of apple on batter in a baking dish.

Brush the top with melted butter for colour and flavour. Sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar.

Apple cake ready for the oven. The apples have been sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

The cake batter rises during cooking and bulges around the apple rows. This exposed batter gets covered in a dark caramel as the cinnamon sugar melts in the hot oven. The 'naked' parts of the cake get crisp and caramelised. This gives great contrast to the soft inside.

Side view of a rectangular piece of apple cake showing the thin cake and very thinly sliced apples on top.

If you love fruity sweet treats, try my Raspberry Oat Bites. Half a kilo of fruit masquerading as dessert in bite-size form. Perfect for picnics and lunchboxes too!

📖 Recipe

Close up of apple cake removed from baking dish and set on baking paper. Whole green apples and cinnamon sticks to the side.
Print Recipe
Like cake with your apples? You'll love Dutch Apple Cake! Starring loads of cinnamon-sugared slices on a thin cake layer. Teatime done right.
Before you start
As with most baking, it’s best to have your ingredients at room temperature. When you’re combining the wet ingredients, you don’t want to be adding cold milk or egg to hot melted butter.
Prep Time30 minutes mins
Cook Time40 minutes mins
Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins
Servings: 8 slices
Author: Hangry Miss

Equipment

  • Baking dish, 30x20cm (or equivalent)

Ingredients

  • 30 g butter
  • extra butter
  • 165 g self-raising flour
  • teaspoon baking powder
  • 80 g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 120 ml whole milk

Topping

  • 25 g granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • pinch salt
  • 500 g Granny Smith apples (about 4 medium)
  • 20 g butter

Instructions

  • Preheat Oven - to 180°C
  • Butter - melt directly into a heatproof screw-top jar (without the lid). Allow it to cool slightly
    30 g butter
  • Prepare Dish - generously grease the base and sides well with butter. Line the base and up two opposite sides with baking paper. Leave some overhang for easier removal of the baked cake
    extra butter
  • Dry Ingredients - weigh the flour, baking powder and sugar directly into a sieve over a large bowl
    165 g self-raising flour
    teaspoon baking powder
    80 g caster sugar
  • Wet Ingredients - to the melted butter, add the egg and milk. Put the lid on tight and shake until blended. Keep separate from the dry ingredients for now while you prep your apple slices
    1 egg
    120 ml whole milk
  • Cinnamon Sugar - combine the sugar and cinnamon together well so that it becomes an even colour
    25 g granulated sugar
    ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
    pinch salt
  • Prep Apple - cut each apple in quarters. Closely peel off the skin using a small sharp knife. Cut out the core and cut very thin slices (about 2mm thick). Try to keep the slices grouped together in order for easier arranging later
    500 g Granny Smith apples
  • Melt Butter - in the microwave and set aside
    20 g butter
  • Combine Batter - shake up the jar again. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry. Fold gently with a silicone spatula until no dry bits remain (try not to overwork)
  • Spread Batter - dollop batter into the prepared baking dish. Using a wet spatula, spread out into an even thin layer
  • Apple Layers - pick up a sliced apple quarter. Drag the slices slightly apart so that it becomes a flattened layer of slices. You can be as OCD as you like with this - you might want to make there is the same distance between each slice. You may choose not to include smaller pieces of apple. It will taste good however you arrange your apples.
  • Topping - brush the butter over the apple slices and any exposed batter. Sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar
  • Bake - for about 40 minutes (turning the baking dish halfway though). A skewer/thin knife inserted at a slant through the middle of the cake should come out clean. The sugar on the top will have melted. Allow dish to cool on a cooling rack before loosening around the non baking paper-lined sides. Lift out the cake by pulling the baking paper overhangs away from each other

Notes

The apple slices may brown slightly as they get exposed to the air. Don’t worry about this. It doesn't affect flavour and the cinnamon sugar and browning will mask this anyway.
 
Leftovers
Keep well covered in a cool place (not the fridge - it will dry out the cake) for up to 3 days. 

💭 Other Teatime Bakes

  • Slice cut into small rectangles on a wooden chopping boards. Some loose crumbs around the edge.
    Raspberry Oat Bites
  • Partly sliced ginger loaf cake. A heavily buttered slice on a blue plate with a bite taken out of a corner.
    Ginger Loaf Cake

More Sweet

  • Slices cut from a banana cake loaf and smothered in butter.
    🍌Banana Cake
  • Sugar-crusted blueberry muffins cooling on a rack.
    🫐Blueberry Muffins
  • Custard being poured over a whole steamed pudding.
    Syrup Steamed Pudding
  • A tall stack of buttermilk pancakes. There is some melted butter at the top and maple syrup drizzled all over.
    Buttermilk Pancakes

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me using a pasta machine with one of my sons.

Hello! I'm Lisa. I’m the recipe developer, cook, photographer, and author behind Hangry Miss. I am a genuinely angry/often hungry person, who finds it convenient to blame my Sicilian parents for both attributes.

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