I love old fashioned cakes like Mom’s Best Apple Cake. It’s a soft, moist cake with lots of apples baked into it. There’s also a hot caramel sauce poured over the apple cake after it’s baked that makes this outrageously delicious!
I’ve been making an apple cake similar to this for about thirty years. I’ve got to tell you though, I like this one better. What makes this apple cake killer is the caramel topping you make and pour over the cake. Make the cake and after you let it cool, you make the caramel sauce and pour the hot caramel sauce over the apple cake. Uh huh, gooey delicious caramel over a moist apple-filled cake. *Sigh* You know you need this kids. It’s easy, fast to make and incredibly delicious.
To start the recipe for Mom’s Best Apple Cake preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 13×9 inch baking pan.
Every cake recipe has wet cake batter ingredients and dry cake batter ingredients. This homemade apple cake recipe starts out by putting all the wet cake batter ingredients into a large bowl.
Now I know you’re looking at the wet ingredient list and thinking…why is the sugar in the wet ingredient list and not in the dry ingredient list? When making most homemade cake batters sugar is almost always considered a wet ingredient because it needs the wet ingredients in the recipe to dissolve and bake into the cake.
Wet Cake Batter Ingredients:
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups white sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla
Beat the wet ingredients together until they are well incorporated.
Place the dry cake batter ingredients into a large bowl and swirl them together to combine.
Dry Cake Batter Ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 1 Teaspoon baking soda
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat the two together until just incorporated. Ok, so why is it that you can beat the wet ingredients in a cake batter until they’re well incorporated but when it comes to adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients to make the cake batter, you only beat them into the wet ingredients until “just incorporated“?
Are you still with me? The dry ingredients contain flour, the longer you beat flour into a cake batter the more gluten you produce. The more gluten you produce the tougher the cake will be.
Unless the cake recipe specifies otherwise, place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and swirl them together before you add them to the wet ingredients. If you’re adding the dry ingredients as you measure them out, one by one to the bowl of wet ingredients and you are beating each dry ingredient into the wet ingredients separately, your beating longer than you need to.
If you have the dry ingredients measured out and swirled together, your beating one time instead of several times with the addition of each dry ingredient. Does that make sense? Ok, I promise I’m done being long-winded, but it is about the best apple cake so I’m sure you understand!
Stir 3 cups of peeled, diced baking apples into the cake batter.
Pour the cake batter into your greased and floured 13×9 inch baking pan.
Bake the cake 55 – 60 minutes or until it tests done with a toothpick. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack before making the topping.
Cake Topping Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
Combine the butter, brown sugar and milk in a medium-size saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils. Boil without stirring for 3 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat and immediately spread the topping over the cake. Let the cake sit an hour before serving.
Mom’s Best Apple Cake, a tender moist and delicious homemade caramel-topped apple cake that’s irresistible, ENJOY!
PIN IT FOR LATER
Looking For More Recipes From Bunny’s Warm Oven, Try These!
Apple Pan Dowdy…Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins…Carrot Cake Cheesecake…Sour Cream Lemon Pie…Pecan Cream Cheese Pie
Mom's Best Apple Cake
The ingredients for this Mom’s Best Apple Cake are so simple and it comes out perfect every time! This is the only Apple Cake Recipe you will ever need.
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 567kcal
Ingredients
Cake Batter:
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups flour
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 1 Teaspoon baking soda
- 3 cups baking apples, peeled and diced
Caramel Topping:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- (If you would prefer to add cinnamon to the cake, add 1 tsp to the dry ingredients)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9 in baking pan.For the cake: In a large mixing bowl, beat together the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well incorporated. Place the flour, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl and swirl together. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients (oil,sugar,eggs, vanilla) until just incorporated. Stir in the apples.Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake for 55 – 60 minutes. Cool completely before adding the topping.For the topping:In a saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, and milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Boil without stirring for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately spread over the top of the cooled cake. Let sit for an hour prior to serving.
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 8g | Calories: 567kcal | Carbohydrates: 101g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 92mg | Sodium: 564mg | Potassium: 102mg | Sugar: 77g | Vitamin A: 455IU | Calcium: 49mg | Iron: 2mg
Did you make this recipe?I'd love to see your pictures on Instagram! Mention @bunnyswarmoven or tag #bunnyswarmoven!
Looking for more apple cake recipes, try these from other bloggers…Italian Apple Cake…German Apple Cake
I have made this cake several times for various events and people and everyone, and I mean everyone, loves it. I told my boys that I was going to make it today with some apples I just got and they were excited! It is truly a keeper, so simple and wonderfully delicious.
Awe, that’s fantastic Tracey!! Thank you for coming back to tell me you and your boys loved it, made my day!
How many servings is this recipe ?
I’d say about 30 lurline, depending on how you cut it.
Tried all of your reciepes .all of them were delicious
Thank you Emma, I am thankful for you and others who love to bake as much as I do! Thank you for the kind words!!
Looks great. Its my turn to bring cake, to my work next time. Should I try this or the cream cheese applecake?
Kind regards
Janne
Denmark
janne, they’re going to LOVE it!! Thanks for stopping by! That’s a hard question janne, the cream cheese apple cake is amazing. Maybe you should make that first.
Can you tell me what type of flour you used, selfrising or plain?
Hi Shanne, I always you all purpose flour. Thanks for stopping by!
I would like to receive a copy of your cream cheese Apple cake
Hyla, if you send me your email address I’d love you send you the recipe. You can email me at [email protected].
This looks SO good! I’m pinning it to my Apple board. Thanks so much for the recipe.
Thank you so much Heather!
G’day Looks great Mary! Thanks for sharing at our #SayGdayParty! Pinned!
Please revisit (if you haven’t already); comments and shares always welcomed as well as visiting someone else at the party
Cheers! Joanne What’s On The List?
What a delicious cake! Thanks for linking up with What’s Cookin’ Wednesday!
Bunny, this cake was by far the most popular post on last week’s Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop on Ducks ‘n a Row. You had 22 views! Awesome. No wonder, this cake looks delicious. You will be featured on this week’s party, which goes live at 7pm ET Tuesday night. See you there!
Many blessings …
Sinea
Thank you Sinea!
The is a great recipe. I love apple cake. We will give it a try for christmas. Thank you very much.
Thank you Denise, let me know how it goes for you!
love your cake recipe seems easy but no baking powder…will it rise..please let me know..or do you use self rising flour….
Good morning Gloria, yes it’s just baking soda in the recipe. It’s not a tall rising cake but it’s a very good one. Let me know how it goes for you!
I made the apple cake with caramel sauce today. It was WONDERFUL. I added pecans to the top.
I’m not the best cook so I have a question. We could barely taste the apples and no pieces of apple. Do you think I cut my apples too small.? Thank you.
Also how do I follow you? On Facebook?
Thank you for coming to tell me you made it Sandy! Yes you could cut the apples a little bigger if you want to. Sandy you can join my FB group if you’d like. Here’s the URL …https://www.facebook.com/groups/556673474417403/ I am also on G+….https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/116419225775806105166/116419225775806105166/posts Twitter…https://twitter.com/BunnysWarmOven
On my blog inthe sidebar is a newsletter subscription that I send out once a week with recipes I have made that week. You are more than welcome to sign up for that as well.
Its in the oven now. looks sooo good! thanks for the recipe
Your welcome Cassie, I hope you love it!
I’m french and today, I received the brand new measuring cup and spoon set I ordered online, along with boxes of baking soda and baking powder. I tried to made this cake, which is my very first american recipe.
I am so happy with the result !!! It was easy to make, perfectly moist and soft, and the apple / cinnamon combo is to die for. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and for making my first experience with american cakes such a pleasant one !
Thank you so much Rena and I am so happy this was your first American cake!
Hi,
When you beat together oil, sugar n eggs, do you bet till light and fluffy or beat till combined?
Can I add walnuts?
Thank you
Pauline, you beat until it’s well combined. It’s not going to get light and fluffy. If you were beating butter with the sugar, that would get fluffy. Yes you can add walnuts!
Making this today for the first time–fingers crossed it comes out as lovely and tasty as yours! Curious to know if it matters –salted or unsalted butter for the topping?!
Thank you for your time!
Dianna we always use salted butter around here.
I made this on Sunday!! It’s a real keeper!! I’ve shared it on my blog, Facebook and 2 chat groups I’m in!! I had to give some away so I didn’t eat it all!! That carmel frosting takes it over the top!! Thanks for sharing!!
Could this be used as a layer cake?
Do you think this would work well in a bundt pan, and if so, what adjustments to the baking time would need to be made?