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    Vegan Apple Cake – Holy Cow Vegan

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    This tender vegan apple cake has a sticky caramel sauce glaze that makes it twice as delicious! If you love caramel apples in Fall, you will go head over heels for this amazing vegan cake.

    Fall is all about baking delicious, red and gold desserts with apples, like this vegan French apple tart, vegan apple pull apart bread and vegan tarte tatin. Another favorite for me this time of year is this yummy vegan apple cake topped with a sticky, buttery caramel sauce.

    This is an incredibly easy dessert to make, and the caramel sauce, although scrumptious and easy too, is optional. The cake itself is a revelation: the apples melt down into juicy little pockets that dot the moist, tender crumb with walnuts adding nutty crunch.

    If you are looking to make this dessert healthier, you can easily substitute the flour for whole wheat pastry flour, with amazing results. The cake is relatively lower in fat and it’s loaded with one of the healthiest fruits you can eat!

    Why you will love this recipe

    • Delicious and healthy-ish! The cake has a moist, tender crumb, thanks to the apples, and the sticky caramel makes it incredibly yummy. If you are a health fiend you can make this apple cake with whole wheat pastry flour, which gives a perfect result.
    • Easy recipe. The cake is a one-bowl recipe and you can bake it in any cake pan you have. I used a bundt pan to make it pretty, but if you have a regular round cake tin or a square brownie pan you can use those as well!
    • Make-ahead friendly. This vegan apple cake can be stored in the fridge for up to a week, or it can be frozen for up to three months.
    • Soy-free and vegan. You can skip the nuts if you are nut-free.
    Vegan apple cake slice in plate with fork.

    Ingredients

    • Apples. You can use any apple in this cake recipe, with the exception of powdery apples like red delicious. See FAQs below for more on this.
    • Flour. Unbleached all purpose flour is what I used but whole wheat pastry flour works beautifully too. You can also use a half-and-half mix of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour.
    • Leavening: Baking soda and baking powder
    • Corn starch or tapioca starch. You can use either. The starch works as an egg replacement and helps build the cake’s structure.
    • Ground cinnamon. Apples and cinnamon are a match made in tastebud heaven. You can also add ground cloves, ground nutmeg or ground ginger for more complexity.
    • Sugar. I like using an unrefined granulated sugar like turbinado sugar in this recipe. You can also use coconut sugar, brown sugar or vegan cane sugar.
    • Oil. I used avocado oil. Use any unflavored oil of your choice.
    • Non-dairy milk. I used oat milk. Use any non-dairy milk of your choice, including almond milk, cashew milk or soy milk.
    • Pure vanilla extract. This adds more sweetness and yum to the apple cake.
    • Walnuts or pecans. I use either depending on what I have on hand. They add a lovely crunch. You can skip the nuts if you are nut-free.

    For optional caramel glaze

    • Sugar. Use any granulated sugar, I used turbinado sugar.
    • Nondairy milk. This helps make the caramel glaze creamier. Use oat milk, soy milk, almond milk or any non-dairy milk of your choice.
    • Vegan butter. This gives that amazing buttery flavor to the glaze.

    How to make vegan apple cake

    Dry ingredients in bowl for vegan apple cake.

    Place the flour in a bowl along with the baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, corn starch and salt.

    Dry ingredients for vegan apple cake mixed in bowl with whisk.

    Use a whisk to mix all the ingredients.

    Wet ingredients added to dry ingredients in bowl for vegan apple cake.

    Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the bowl: sugar, dairy-free milk, oil and pure vanilla extract.

    Vegan apple cake wet ingredients mixed in bowl.

    Use a spatula to mix the cake batter. Make sure there is no dry flour at the bottom of the bowl. The batter will be very thick, but that’s okay.

    Apples added to vegan apple cake batter in bowl.

    Add the finely chopped apples to the batter.

    Apples mixed into batter for vegan apple cake.

    Mix them in. Set the batter aside for 15 minutes. This will give the apples some time to express moisture into the batter.

    Pecans added to bowl with apple cake batter.

    Fold in the chopped nuts, if using, into the batter.

    Vegan apple cake batter in bundt cake pan.

    Scoop the cake batter into an oiled and floured bundt cake pan or another cake pan. Smooth the top.

    Baked vegan apple cake on plate before glazing.

    Bake in a preheated 350-degree Fahrenheit/180-degree Celsius oven for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

    Vegan apple cake after glazing on plate.

    Let the cake cool on a rack for 15 minutes, then invert it onto a plate. To do this, place the plate over the bundt pan and flip it quickly. Drizzle the glaze over the cake with a spoon. (See recipe card below for glaze ingredients and recipe).

    Vegan apple cake slice in green plate with fork.

    Recipe FAQs

    What is the best apple to use in apple cake?

    Most apples will work with this recipe, including granny smith, golden delicious, honeycrisp, braeburn, jonagold, pink lady apples are all fine. Don’t use a powdery apple like red delicious.

    Should I peel the apples?

    No, you can leave the skin on. Apples are included in the “dirty dozen” of fruits and vegetables, meaning they contain a large amount of pesticide residues, so use organic apples, especially if you want to leave the skin on.

    Can I bake this cake in a round pan or square pan?

    Yes, you can use any cake pan on hand to bake this vegan apple cake. Just be sure to oil and flour the pan, or line it with parchment paper, for easy unmolding.

    Can I bake this cake with gluten-free flour?

    Yes. Use an all-purpose gluten-free flour baking mix.

    Pro tip

    • This apple cake contains a cup of sugar, but if the apples you have are very sweet, you can use less. You can use ¾ of a cup of sugar and add ¼ cup of unsweetened applesauce or vegan yogurt to add some moisture back in. This is a useful tip for anyone who wants to cut down on sugar in a recipe. Sugar acts as a “wet” ingredient in baked goods, because when it melts it becomes liquid. When you remove sugar from a recipe, you remove moisture and your baked good can turn out dry. Don’t overdo it, though. Replacing one-fourth of the sugar with applesauce is fine, but adding more could make your cake so tender, it could fall apart.

    Storage suggestions

    • Refrigerate: The apple cake can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.
    • Freeze: Wrap the cake in two layers of freezer wrap or store it in a freezer-safe container.
    • Thaw completely to room temperature before serving.

    More vegan cake recipes

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    Vegan apple cake in white plate with glaze.
    Vegan apple cake with caramel glaze on white plate.

    Vegan Apple Cake Recipe

    This tender vegan apple cake has a sticky caramel sauce glaze that makes it twice as delicious! If you love caramel apples in Fall, you will go head over heels for this amazing vegan cake.