Fresh Apple Cake Recipe

This fresh apple cake recipe is loaded with real chopped apples in every layer and warmed with cozy fall spices. It's frosted with a delectable brown butter cream cheese frosting and finished with a salted caramel drip. In my opinion, this is the perfect cake for fall.

If you love my applesauce spice cake or carrot cake for that same moist, spiced crumb, this one takes it a step further with real chunks of apple baked right into the layers instead of apple purée. Readers have been making this one for years; it's sitting at 4.88 stars from over 30 ratings, and one reader told me she's made it so many times that she sometimes forgets to follow the instructions properly, but it "always turns out great." It's basically foolproof!

What Makes This Fresh Apple Cake Recipe Different

A moist, spiced cake loaded with real apple chunks, a nutty brown butter cream cheese frosting, and a salted caramel drip on top. It's the ultimate apple lover's cake.

• Browning the butter gives the frosting a toasty depth that plain cream cheese frosting just doesn't have
• Applesauce and chopped apples both go into the batter, so every slice is moist with real bites of apple. If you love apples and caramel together, my caramel apples from scratch are a fun fall project too.
• Converts easily to cupcakes or an easy upside-down single-layer cake, see Make This Recipe Your Own
• Sturdy enough to stack as a layer cake, but still moist and tender to eat

Fresh Apple Cake Recipe Ingredients

This cake pulls double duty with real chopped apple and applesauce both working to keep the crumb moist, plus a brown butter frosting and a quick caramel drip on top. I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results, this recipe has a few components so the extra precision is worth it.

• Apples - Honeycrisp is a great all-purpose choice, but see the FAQs below for more of my favorite baking apples. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the chopped pieces to keep them from browning while you prep the rest of the batter.
• Cake flour - Lower protein for a more tender crumb. No cake flour on hand? My cake flour substitute (AP flour plus cornstarch) is what I reach for.
• Baking soda - For lift and flavor.
• Salt - Balances the sweetness in the cake, the frosting, and the caramel.
• Ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves - The warm spice blend that makes this taste like a true fall cake. Adjust the ratio to your taste if you want more or less of any one spice.
• Unsalted butter - commonly used for baking to control how much salt is added. Especially when you brown butter, this concentrates the butter and the saltiness, so unsalted butter is preferred.
• Granulated sugar - Sweetens the cake and helps whip air into the butter.
• Vegetable oil - Keeps the crumb moist and tender alongside the applesauce.
• Egg - Room temperature, for structure.
• Vanilla extract - Rounds out the spice in both the cake and the frosting. I recommend using Nielsen Massey vanilla.
• Applesauce - Unsweetened, adds extra moisture to the crumb alongside the chopped apples.
• Cream cheese - Softened, the tangy base of the frosting.
• Powdered sugar - Sweetens and stabilizes the frosting.
• Heavy cream - Added to the caramel to create that perfect creamy consistency.
• Water - Goes into the pot with the sugar for the caramel so the sugar crystals dissolve evenly.

How to Make Fresh Apple Cake Step-By-Step

Preheat your oven to 350º F and grease three 8 inch cake pans with cake goop or your preferred pan release. Make sure your butter, egg, and cream cheese are fully at room temperature before you start, and peel, core, and chop your apples so they're ready to fold in.

1. Prep your apples. Peel your apples, core them with an apple corer, and chop them into small ¼ inch pieces, then toss them with the juice of half a lemon to keep them from browning.

2. Sift your dry ingredients. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices so everything distributes evenly.

3. Cream the butter. Cream the butter until smooth in the bowl of your stand mixer.

4. Whip in the sugar and oil. Add the sugar and oil and whip on medium until the mixture is white and fluffy.

PRO TIP: If the batter looks a little curdled once you add the egg, don't panic. It's a temperature and emulsification thing, not a sign you did something wrong. It smooths right back out once the flour goes in.

5. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the egg and vanilla until combined.

6. Add the dry ingredients and applesauce. Add the flour mixture and the applesauce, alternating between the two, mixing on medium just until combined.

PRO TIP: Weighing your ingredients and starting with truly room temperature butter, egg, and cream cheese isn't just a nice-to-have here. This batter has to carry a lot of extra weight from the chopped apples and applesauce, and if your butter is too cold or your measurements are off, the structure can't hold onto all that fruit. That's the difference between a cake that holds together when you slice it and one that falls apart.

7. Fold in the apples. Fold in your prepped apples until they're evenly distributed.

8. Bake. Divide the batter evenly between your prepared pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. The layers will be thin.

9. Cool, then chill. Let the layers cool in the pan until you can touch them, then flip them out onto a wire rack. Cool completely, then wrap and chill before stacking; this makes trimming and filling much easier.

10. Start the frosting. Place the softened butter in the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and mix until smooth.

11. Add the cream cheese. Add in your cream cheese and mix until smooth.
    

12. Add the browned butter. Add in your browned butter and mix until smooth and creamy.

13. Add the powdered sugar. Add in your powdered sugar one cup at a time while mixing on low until it's all incorporated. Don't overmix.

14. Finish with salt and vanilla. Add in your salt and vanilla and mix until combined.

15. Start the caramel drip. Place the sugar and water in a medium-sized pot, cover with the lid, and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Allow the mixture to boil covered for 5 minutes to ensure all the sugar grains are dissolved.

16. Cook the sugar. Remove the lid and place a candy thermometer in the pot, then continue cooking until the thermometer reads 350º F or the sugar turns a deep golden brown color. DO NOT STIR. Stirring can cause the caramel to crystallize.

17. Whisk in the butter. Remove the sugar from the heat and slowly whisk in the butter.

18. Whisk in the cream and salt. Slowly whisk in the cream and salt until combined.

PRO TIP: Go slow when you whisk in the butter, it will bubble up fast.

19. Cool the caramel. Let the caramel cool completely before using it for the drip.

20. Place the first layer. Place your first cake layer onto a cake cardboard or a cake plate.

21. Frost the first layer. Spread a layer of frosting evenly onto the cake with an offset spatula, try to keep the frosting an even thickness. If you want even more apple flavor, you can pipe a dam of frosting around the perimeter instead and fill the center with apple filling, just make sure the dam is sturdy enough to keep the filling from oozing out.

22. Add the second and third layers. Place your second cake layer on top of the frosting and repeat the process, then add your third layer and repeat once more.

23. Crumb coat and chill. Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the whole cake, this is called the crumb coat. Place the cake into the fridge to chill until the frosting hardens, about 20 minutes.

24. Frost and decorate. Frost the cake with the remaining frosting, smooth or rustic, whichever finish you like. Chill the frosted cake for about 20 minutes so the frosting is firm, then drizzle your salted caramel over the top with a spoon, then finish with piped rosettes and a few fresh apple slices soaked in water and lemon juice to prevent browning. A 1M piping tip works great here.

Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator

This recipe makes enough batter for three 8″×2″ cake rounds. If you're working with a different pan size, use the calculator below to figure out how much batter and frosting you'll need, then adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to match.

Common Fresh Apple Cake Problems to Avoid

• Cake feels dry or falls apart when sliced. This usually means the butter, egg, or cream cheese wasn't fully at room temperature, or the ingredients weren't weighed. This fruit-heavy batter needs that precision to hold together around all the chopped apple and applesauce.
• Batter looks curdled after the egg goes in. This is normal, it's a temperature and emulsification thing, not a sign the cake is ruined. Keep mixing, and it smooths out once the flour is added.
• Apples turn brown before you can fold them in. Squeeze fresh lemon juice over the chopped apples right after cutting them and toss to coat.
• Frosting is too soft to hold the caramel drip. Chill the frosted cake for about 20 minutes before adding the caramel so it sets up firm enough to hold the drip lines.
• Caramel turns grainy. That's sugar crystals, usually from stirring the sugar, skipping the lid at the start (the steam washes crystals off the sides of the pot), or shocking it by adding cold butter and cream too fast. This caramel has no corn syrup to help prevent crystals, so don't stir it and go slow with the butter and cream.

Final Thoughts

This is one of those recipes readers keep coming back to. It's been on the site since 2019, and my readers just love it. Real apple, warm spice, and that brown butter frosting never gets old to me, especially with a little caramel on top.

Make This Recipe Your Own

• Brown butter in the cake. Brown the butter for the cake too, not just the frosting, for even more depth of flavor. Just make sure you brown more butter than you need and weigh it before adding it to the recipe. Butter loses moisture when you brown it.
• Cupcakes. This recipe converts to cupcakes. See the Recipe Card Notes for the exact bake schedule.
• Easy upside-down cake. Skip the layers and toss your chopped apples in cinnamon sugar and melted butter, spread them in the bottom of a 10 inch cake pan, and pour the batter over the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the sides pull away from the pan. Once it's cooled, flip it out onto a plate and drizzle with caramel or dust with powdered sugar, no frosting required.

More Fall Dessert Recipes to Try