Apple cake is a light, soft, spongy cake recipe perfect for both vegans and vegetarians. Made with whole wheat flour, this eggless apple cake is baked to sweet, soft perfection in one pan and under an hour.
First, combine the flour, salt, ground spices, baking soda and baking powder in a sieve.
Sift the dry ingredients twice and set aside.
Brush or grease a round 7.5 to 8-inch pan with a neutral flavored oil. You can also line the pan with parchment. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit) for 20 minutes.
Making apple puree
Take the chopped apples (rinsed, cored and peeled) and raw sugar in a blender jar or container.
Blend to a smooth purée without any chunks.
Use a spatula to pour the apple puree into a mixing bowl.
Making liquid mixture
Add oil, water, vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.
With a wired whisk, stir this mixture briskly for 2 to 3 minutes so that the oil is incorporated evenly in it.
Add the sifted dry ingredients to this wet ingredients liquid mixture.
Mixing dry ingredients
Gently mix the dry ingredients in the wet ingredients with light pressure from your hands. Don't over work the batter. It should feel light and have volume.
The batter has a medium flowing consistency.
Break large lumps of flour if any by tapping on them with wired whisk. Tiny lumps are fine in the batter.
Pour the batter in the prepared pan.
Baking apple cake
Bake at 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit) in a preheated oven for about 50 minutes to 1 hour.
Remember that oven temperatures vary, so check if the cake is done or not with a toothpick when the top looks golden.
Check the doneness with a wooden skewer. The skewer should come out clean with no sticky batter on it.
Place the baking pan on a wired tray and cool the apple cake at room temperature.
After cooling, gently use a butter knife to remove the cake from the pan.
Slice and enjoy the apple cake. Serve the cake slices at room temperature with tea or coffee.
Storage and Leftovers
Tightly wrap the cake in a cling film or keep the cake in an airtight container and refrigerate. Your leftover apple cake can be refrigerated for a week and frozen for a month.
Notes
Baking: If the top crust becomes too brown and the cake is under baked, then cover with a parchment paper and continue to bake.
Time for baking: Each oven works differently. This cake takes more time to bake than your usual cakes. So consider a time period of 45 minutes to 1 hour or more if needed while baking. When you see the top has become golden, check with a wooden skewer. If you see sticky batter on the skewer, then continue to bake further.
Healthy variations: To make this cake even a little more healthy, you can experiment with multigrain flours, nut flours and less oil.
Sugar substitute: I have used raw sugar, but you can substitute white sugar, coconut sugar, palm sugar. Alternatively, use jaggery or maple syrup in place of sugar, as well.
Other flours: If you are not a fan of whole wheat flour, then replace it with all-purpose flour or pastry flour. Add about ¼ to ⅓ cup of water if using these flours.
Whole wheat flour: I have used atta or the whole wheat flour made with durum hard wheat which we use to make roti or paratha. The recipe works well with any kind of whole wheat flour. So you could use the whole wheat flour that is available in the US, Europe or the one you get in your country.
Apple puree: If using homemade apple puree, you can add ¾ cup of it or replace with ¾ cup of apple sauce. Depending on whether your apple sauce is sweetened or not, you can alter the proportions of sugar as desired.
Sweetness: Because you aren’t using sour or tangy apples, there’s a lot of natural sweetness in this cake. You can always balance out that sweetness level by reducing your added sugar to ½ cup.
Batter consistency: Before baking, the apple cake batter should have a medium flowing-consistency — not thick, but not liquid. The batter should feel light and have volume.