Apple coffee cake with crumb topping, layered with cinnamon sugar and fresh apples. Finished off with a drizzle of sweet apple butter glaze.
Super Moist Apple Coffee Cake
Run, don’t walk to the store (or apple orchard) to buy all the ingredients you need for this super moist apple coffee cake! That’s how excited I am about this recipe. It’s got delicious tart apples and a cinnamon crumb topping. The cake is soft, tender, and flavorful. It has fresh apples, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Almost like an apple pie but in cake form.
This is also just a perfect pairing for coffee, tea, or hot apple cider (double the apple, double the fun). I also think this is such a fun fall brunch recipe idea or something fun you can do with all the extra apples you grabbed during your latest apple picking excursion. 😊
Key Ingredients and Equipment
Equipment
I baked the cake pictured in this recipe in an angel food cake pan. You’ll need a pretty large pan for this cake as it’s quite hefty. Use either an angel food cake pan, large (at least 12 cup capacity) bundt cake pan, or a 9×13 inch rectangular pan.
In addition, you will want to make sure you have a mixer. Stand mixer preferred since there are a few steps in the recipe when you are drizzling in ingredients as the mixer runs, but hand mixer also works!
Ingredients
- Apples: It’s not apple cake without apples! The same apples that are great for apple pie also work well in coffee cake. You want something with a crisp and is a little tart. Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, or Jonagold are what I recommend.
- Butter and oil: Butter is used for both the cake and streusel topping, and oil is used in the cake to add moisture.
- Brown sugar and granulated sugar: either light or dark brown sugar work well in this apple coffee cake recipe.
- Sour cream and milk: used for moisture, fat and richness.
- Cinnamon: There’s cinnamon in the cake, there’s cinnamon in the filling, there’s cinnamon on the apples, and there’s cinnamon in the crumble. We love cinnamon here! I buy mine in bulk at Costco and couldn’t recommend it enough.
- Apple Butter: This is OPTIONAL, but a teaspoon of apple butter in the icing only adds even more apple flavor to this coffee cake. 😉
- Other dry ingredients and spices: all-purpose flour, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, and vanilla extract.
How to Make Apple Coffee Cake
There are four main components to this apple coffee cake—the batter, filling, crumb top, and icing. And I know that sounds like a lot but I promise it is absolutely worth it! Plus, you get a massive coffee cake at the end of it that will last you for days.
Step 1: Prep Streusel and filling. To make each of these, all you need to do are mix the ingredients for each component together until combined. Easy peasy!
Step 2: Chop apples. Peel apples and cut them into small cubes—think no more than ¼ inch cubes. What we’re trying to avoid are massive chunks that don’t end up cooking evenly. Toss the apples with a little bit of cinnamon and flour to add flavor and prevent them from sinking.
Step 3: The Cake Batter. The key to an ultra-moist and soft cake is using the reverse creaming method. This has become my go-to method lately for making cakes and cupcakes, and coffee cake is no exception. Reverse creaming sounds scary but I promise that it’s not! It means that you’ll just beat the flour with butter at the beginning.
To start, beat the dry ingredients and sugar with butter and oil until it resembles sand. Reference the image above to see what I mean! Then add eggs, vanilla, milk, and sour cream until a batter comes together.
Step 4: Assemble Cake and Bake. Layer half the batter, the filling, the remaining batter, some apples, and the crumb topping. Bake the cake for a little over an hour, until a toothpick comes out clean.
FAQs
How should I store leftovers?
Since there is fresh fruit in this apple coffee cake, I prefer storing it in the fridge. Tightly wrap any cake in either plastic wrap or foil, and then keep it in the fridge.
Can the cake be made dairy free?
Any of the dairy products can be substituted with non-dairy counterparts. However, given the lower fat content of these alternatives such as non-dairy milk, the texture may not be as rich but the cake will still be delicious!
Did You Make This Recipe?
If so, I’d love to hear from you! Please leave a rating and/or comment to spread the love and help others find this recipe.
Also feel free take a picture and share it with me on Instagram @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your decadent caramel mocha cupcakes!
If you’re not ready to bake yet, no problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (pick your favorite), or tap if you’re on mobile, and click the pin icon in the corner to save for later.
Other Recipes to Try This Fall
Brown Butter Pumpkin Spice Muffins
Chai Spice Monkey Bread Muffins
Warm Brown Butter Skillet Apple Cake
Apple Coffee Cake
Apple Coffee Cake with Crumble Topping
Equipment
- 1 Large tube pan or 9'x13' pan
Ingredients
Cinnamon Crumble Topping
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ⅔ cup brown sugar, either light or dark
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Apples
- 1½ pounds apples (~3 medium apples), granny smith, jonagold, or honeycrisp
- 2 tsp all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Cake Batter
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fine kosher salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp each ground nutmeg and ground ginger
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 4 tbsp oil , vegetable, canola, or grapeseed
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup milk, whole or 2% recommended
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- ⅔ cup brown sugar, light or dark
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Apple Butter Icing*
- 2 cup powdered sugar
- 3-5 tsp milk
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp apple butter , optional
Instructions
Prepare the Crumble and Filling
- In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients of the crumble topping together until moistened and a bunch of crumbs come together. Set aside for now.
- In a separate bowl, toss the cinnamon sugar filling ingredients (brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon) until well mixed. Set this aside as well.
Prepare the Apples
- Wash, peel, and core the apples. Chop the apples into small pieces no larger than ¼ inch wide. Feel free to cut a quarter of one of the apples into thin slices as well to lay on top of the cake.
- Toss the apples in a bowl with the flour and cinnamon and set aside.
Make the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and grease your baking pan. If using a bundt or angel food cake pan, make sure it is very well greased so the cake slides out easily.
- In the bowl of a mixer (or large bowl + hand mixer), combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until well mixed.
- Cut the butter into a few large slices. While running your mixer on low speed, add the butter one piece at a time. Then slowly drizzle in the oil and turn the mixer up to medium speed until the mixture resembles sand (2-3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl
- Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla, until the mixture resembles a thick paste.
- Whisk the milk and sour cream together in a large measuring cup and quickly microwave for 20 seconds to bring the mixture up to room temp. Then, while running your mixer on low speed, slowly stream in the liquid to incorporate it into the batter. Don't try to force the liquid in too quickly–it took me almost a minute to add all of it in.
- Continue beating until the batter is smooth and then fold in ¾ of the chopped apples.
- Pour ½ of the batter into the baking pan, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling on top in an even layer. Top with the remaining ½ batter, the remaining apples, and then lastly the crumble topping.
- Bake for 57-65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you're using a rectangular 9"x13" pan, place the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely. If you're using an angel food or bundt cake pan, let the cake rest for 10 minutes in the pan before flipping out onto a large plate (and then flipping again so the crumble side is facing up).
Apple Butter Icing
- Once the cake has cooled down, make the icing by whisking all of the ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Add more or less milk depending on your desired consistency.
- Drizzle the icing on top of the cake. Enjoy!
Notes
- Reverse Creaming: The cake batter uses the reverse creaming method, in which dry ingredients are mixed with fat first and liquids are added last. This creates a denser crumb and softer cake that isn’t prone to gluten development.
- Apples: Choose apples that are crisp and tart so that they don’t disintegrate during the baking process.
- Tightly wrap leftovers and store in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Leave a Reply