Mom's Jewish Apple Cake Recipe
Oh, the fond memories I have of my mom's Jewish apple cake recipe. This delicious cake is layered with scrumptious fall apples, then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and baked to perfection.
Servings: 12
Calories: 518kcal
Ingredients
- 5 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 12 thick slices
- ⅔ cup cinnamon sugar (⅔ cup sugar mixed with 1-¼ teaspoons cinnamon)
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup neutral oil
- ¼ cup orange juice
- 2-½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Vegetable shortening and extra flour for greasing pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F.
- Grease and flour tube pan.
- Peel, core, and cut apples into 12 thick slices each. Place in a bowl, sprinkle over about one-third of the cinnamon sugar mixture, and toss together with your hands.
- Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl (except apples and cinnamon sugar mixture) and mix together until the batter is smooth.
- Spoon about half of the cake batter into the bottom of your greased and floured tube pan.
- Arrange half of the sliced apples on top of the batter, then sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Next, add the remaining batter, then another layer of apples, then finish the top with the remaining cinnamon sugar.
- Bake in the oven for 1-½ hours or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out mostly clean (don’t overbake or it may become dry).
- Let cool on the counter for about 15 minutes. Then gently slide a butter knife around the sides to loosen the cake from the pan. Prop it up on top of a large can (like a large can of whole tomatoes) and drop the sides off the pan. Place it back on the countertop and run a knife between the cake bottom and the bottom of the pan. Carefully but quickly invert the cake onto a plate (to remove it from the tube), then invert it again onto another plate, so it’s right-side up.
- Store covered on the counter for several days. Serve warm with a steaming mug of of coffee and enjoy.
Notes
- What kind of apples should I use? You can use whatever apples you enjoy! For my recipe, I used a mixture of Granny Smith and Honeycrisp, to get a nice sweet-tart combination.
- Use a tube pan: You'll want to use a tube pan with a removable bottom for this recipe. It's a pretty dense cake and you may not be able to remove it from the pan very easily if you use a Bundt pan instead.
- The cake batter is thick: This cake batter will be VERY thick (it's one of the thickest batters I've ever worked with, aside from my mint chocolate ganache cheesecake, that is) and you won't be able to simply pour it into the pan. Following mom's recommendation (which works really well), use a large serving spoon to spoon the batter into the pan instead.
- How to remove the cake from the pan: Let cool on the counter for about 15 minutes. Then gently slide a butter knife around the sides to loosen the cake from the pan. Prop it up on top of a large can (like a large can of whole tomatoes) and drop the sides off the pan. Place it back on the countertop and run a knife between the cake bottom and the bottom of the pan. Carefully but quickly invert the cake onto a plate (to remove it from the tube), then invert it again onto another plate, so it's right-side up.
- Storage: Store covered on the counter for several days.
- Suggestion: If you enjoy this, then you're gonna love our apple cider muffins with cinnamon streusel!
Nutrition
Calories: 518kcal | Carbohydrates: 80g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 21g | Sodium: 132mg | Potassium: 149mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 53g | Vitamin A: 141IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 78mg