Apple Pound Cake
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This old-fashioned apple pound cake recipe is tender and just bursting with that sweet fresh apple and cinnamon flavor.
This is an old-fashioned cake recipe that really has the texture and taste of a pound cake with delicious apple-y goodness tossed in. Although the traditional ingredients for pound cake aren’t there (there is far less sugar and no butter), you’ll still get the feel and taste of pound cake with the dense moistness.
The fresh apple pound cake itself is clean and simple in flavor, just slightly sweet but not enough to fight the apples for the main attraction. This is a great treat to have with coffee or as an afternoon snack. Wouldn’t blame ya if you had it for breakfast too!
Ingredients include kitchen essentials like sugar, vegetable oil, baking powder, vanilla, eggs, and flour. But to give it that apple cake edge, we add fresh Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, and orange juice. Yes, orange juice is a secret ingredient that adds so much flavor. Just you wait and see!
Before we dive in, I just wanted to make a note that this is not a really sweet cake. It is more filling like a coffee cake or pound cake. If you’re looking for a sweeter apple cake, I suggest trying apple dapple cake. Actually, the best thing you could do is make both 😉. Let’s get baking!
Recipe Ingredients
- Sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Orange juice
- Baking powder
- Vanilla
- Eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Ground cinnamon
- Apples
How to Make Apple Pound Cake
Place sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, oil, vanilla, and orange juice in a large bowl.
Blend with an electric mixer until smooth and well blended.
In a small bowl or cup, combine sugar and cinnamon.
Stir them together until they’re mixed up well.
Grease the living daylights out of your bundt pan.
Pour in half of your cake batter and top with half of your chopped fresh apples.
Generously sprinkle those with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Then top with the remaining cake batter.
Now add the rest of your apples to the top and sprinkle them with the remainder of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake at 350 for about an hour to an hour and 10 minutes.
This is what it looks like after about 15 minutes.
It was pretty cool looking so I took a photo in case any of y’all are as easily amused as I am.
Whoops! Is that the oven timer?
Our apple bundt cake is done!
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out to cool completely.
Before serving, dust with confectioner’s sugar.
Enjoy this dense, moist, and lightly sweet cake!
Storage
Store covered leftover cake at room temperature for 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also freeze cake slices for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before dusting with confectioner’s sugar and digging in.
Recipe Notes
- For added flavor, substitute the granulated sugar in the cinnamon mixture with brown sugar.
- Speaking of added flavor, another way to add some texture to your cake is to fold some other ingredients into the cake batter, like raisins, sweetened coconut flakes, and/or chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, or pecans).
- If you like, top your apple bundt cake with a caramel glaze.
- If you can’t resist the combination of cinnamon and nutmeg, add 1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg to the cinnamon mixture.
Recipe FAQs
What are the best baking apples to use in apple pound cake?
I’m personally using a mix of Gala and Granny Smith Apples. But other great baking apples include Honeycrisp, Jonagold, and Fuji.
What do you serve with apple cake?
Serve a slice of apple pound cake on its own or with whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel sauce.
Check out these other appetizing apple recipes:
Apple Snack Cake (Right From The Orchard)
Apple Crumble Cake (Good & Easy)
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 4 eggs
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
Filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cinnamon
- 5 medium apples, peeled and chopped
Instructions
- Generously grease a bundt cake pan and preheat the oven to 350.
- Combine all cake ingredients in a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth.3 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup orange juice, 4 eggs, 3 teaspoons baking powder
- Pour half of the cake batter into the bundt pan and top it with half of the chopped apples.5 medium apples, peeled and chopped
- Stir together 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of cinnamon. Sprinkle 1/2 of this over the apples.1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons cinnamon
- Pour the remaining batter over the apples and top this with the remaining apples and remaining cinnamon sugar.
- Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning it out to cool completely.
- Dust generously with confectioner's sugar before serving.
Nutrition
“Good nature will always supply the absence of beauty;
but beauty cannot supply the absence of good nature.”
~Joseph Addison
At first i was going to make this cake, but soon realized i didn’t have orange juice. I had everything for the apple dapple cake. WOW!!! It was so-o-o good.mmmm.
I am so glad to hear that you liked it Evon!! It is one of my favorites!!
My fridge is full of ripe pears, could I sub out the apples for the pears do you think???
Yummo! Looks good. I really love apple cake actually. It just bakes so well. I don’t have a bundt pan either! So Jyl was not alone with that one.
I made this cake and it is so yummy but some of the first layer of apples and cinnamon sugar sank to the bottom and caramelized making it hard to get out of the pan. It left big chunks in the bottom. Still tasted great tho. Just not as pretty as I had hoped it would be.
This sounds so good I’m taking it to the potluck at church tomorrow. Love the autograph too. My husband and his buddies used to hang around with David Hasselhoff. Met up with him one afternoon and asked him to autograph a photo for an adoring fan girlfriend of mine – so he signed, “Thanks for last night, Chickie”. (David’s naughty streak came out – tee hee). Gotta’ say she loved it!
I made this cake right after dinner. Easy and straight-forward. It’s past midnight now, where I am… The kids and the mister are asleep. I couldn’t wait to have it for breakfast. So I did what every sane mum would do…I snuck into the kitchen and cut myself a slice. You know, for testing purposes. After the first bite, my eyes nearly rolled all the way back and my knees nearly gave way under me. This cake is THAT good!!! Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
would love to be able to make these with my overflow of apples and throw it in the freezer, have you ever tried freezing it anyone? Did it change the texture of the apples??