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
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Looking for more apple cake recipes, try these from other bloggers…Italian Apple Cake…German Apple Cake
Haven’t made this yet, but love how you get “long winded” & explain the whys & how’s of the ingredients. I appreciate any & all tips like this. Thank you!
Thank you Diana, I like to pass information along that I’ve learned that helps you understand why we do what we do when we’re baking. If I know why I’m doing it, I have a tendency to want to do it to get the best final product I can get. Thank you sweetie for taking the time to come back and comment, I appreciate it!
i had printed the recipe a while back..lost the recipe..very upset too..i made this cake with big can of peaches..used some of the juice & put some in the cake & icing too. it was so good. everyone luved the cake.so glad that i found it..thank you so much..i luv all your recipes..have a good day..i turned 67 yesterday..take care..
Wonderful adaption Maria!! Thank you for coming back to tell me, it’ll be helpful to anyone else wondering if they could make it with peaches! I just turned 65 this month, Happy Birthday Maria!!
do you store room temp or in fridge? I was thinking of trying to day before serving next day
Store at room temperature Tara, there’s nothing in the cake that would require it to be in the fridge.
I forgot to include a couple of questions in an earlier comment. When you explained the reason why sugar is part of the “wet” cake batter ingredients as opposed to “dry” for this recipe, it makes sense. Just wondering though, should this same principle apply when making all scratch cakes? Also, would Gala apples work in this cake? Thank you!
Made this for the family tonight for pudding. We are in lockdown in New Zealand for 4 weeks and I’ve been baking my little heart out-this was definitely a favourite. The caramel sauce makes it perfect. Thanks so much for the recipe , it’ll be on repeat here while we’re locked down for sure!
I MADE TODAY ADDING TO BATTER SOME ALL SPICES AND ALMOND EXTRACT THEN FOR TOPPING I ADD COCONUT FLAKES AND CHOPPED ALMOND AFTER THAT SPREAD ON THE CAKE WITH ANOTHER SPRINKLE COCONUTS AND WALNUTS , IT SO DELICIOUS AND TASTEFUL AND MOISTURE . THANKKS
Great easy recipe! Made a test version and made a few mistakes but it was still good! Be sure to use room temp eggs, do not sift the dry ingredients, and cut your apples bigger than you would normally so they don’t totally melt into the cake. For the topping, I semi-packed the brown sugar since it wasn’t specified in the ingredients, used half and half (non-fat milk won’t work here), and started with a medium-low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved – taste it to make sure! Enjoy!
I make this quite often, I send it to work with my husband and his buddies to eat. They LOVE it. I add a tsp. Of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. Of nutmeg to the dry. Sometimes I roast some pecans and chop them up and add to it. Make mine in a Bundt pan.
Maureen I bet you are very much appreciated making these for your hubby’s buddies! Thank you for telling me about the cinnamon.roasted pecans and nutmeg, will try it that way too! Thank you for taking the time to comment, I appreciate you!
Simply Delicious!
Thank you Karen! And thank you for taking the time to come back and comment, I appreciate you!
I made this cake and it is fantastic! It doesn’t even need the frosting. Yum. Thank you for the recipe.
Your welcome Cindy, thank you for taking the time to comment, I appreciate you!
Can you use red delicious apples for this recipe?
Always use baking apples Julia, an apple like a red delicious will break down to much in the recipe when it’s baked.
Made this for the first time to take to dinner with friends. Altered recipe: Substituted 1cup of unsweetened applesauce for the one cup of oil. Added: 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to dry ingredients. Bake time was reduced to 45 minutes. Delicious! Will surely make again. Thank you!
So glad to hear it turned out well, thanks for letting us know! <3
This cake is wonderful, it tastes like an apple fritter! When i was making the sauce my husband said it reminded him of the “poke” cakes from the 80s, I decided to poke the cake with a wooden spoon handle before adding the sauce. It was perfect!
My granddaughter’ s comment was “Grammy, it’s so good!”.
I’m so glad you loved it! Thank you for letting me know, have a blessed day!
THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR MOM’S BEST APPLE CAKE RECIPE. IT’S ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. I’VE MADE IT TWICE ALREADY AND SHARED IT WITH FRIENDS. EVERYONE LOVES IT. IM MAKING IT AGAIN THIS WEEKEND. THANKS AGAIN
This cake is amazing! It will be added to my favorites!
I’m so glad Janet!
This sounds delicious! Can’t wait to try it. September is all about the apple recipes!