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Wholesome Vegan Apple Cake

Vegan Apple Cake dusted with powdered sugar on white plate with stone background

5 from 8 reviews

This Wholesome Vegan Apple Cake is a dense & cozy gluten-free cake filled with chunks of sweet, fragrant apples and warm fall spices. A rustic autumn treat!

Ingredients

Scale

For the Cinnamon Apples:

  • ~6 apples, diced (I used honeycrisp and granny smith)
  • 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the Batter: 

  • 2 cups rolled oats, blended into a fine flour*
  • 1 cup blanched almond flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom (optional)
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3/4 cup full-fat coconut milk
  • 3/4 cup coconut sugar (or sub brown sugar)
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Optional: powdered sugar or an icing drizzle, for serving

Instructions

  1. Prep: Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9″ cake pan and set aside. Add the diced apples, sugar, cinnamon, and salt to a large bowl. Mix well and set aside.
  2. Dry Ingredients: Sift the oat flour, almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom (if using), and salt into a large bowl. Sifting the flours creates a lighter cake texture, and I strongly recommend it. Whisk to combine.
  3. Wet Ingredients: Whisk the coconut milk, sugar, applesauce, and vanilla together in a smaller bowl. Once uniform, pour into the bowl with the dry ingredients and gently stir to form a smooth batter. Fold 3/4 of the cinnamon apples and all of their juices into the batter.
  4. Assemble: Transfer the apple-studded batter into the cake pan, then top evenly with the remaining apples. Bake in the center rack of the oven for 80 to 90 minutes, until the cake is golden and the center is cooked. Transfer the cake tin to a cooling rack and let cool; run a knife along the edges of the pan once cool, then transfer to a serving dish.
  5. Serve: serve as-is, or topped with a dusting of powdered sugar or an icing sugar drizzle. Leftovers will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days, or can be sliced and frozen for up to 2 months. This cake is delicious at room temperature, but can also be reheated in the toaster oven for an extra cozy bite.

Notes

  • Substitutions: Coconut sugar can be replaced with brown sugar. Full-fat coconut milk can be replaced with an extra creamy oat milk. I have not tested this recipe with any flour substitutions, so experiment at your own risk. I believe that the applesauce could be replaced with pumpkin puree, but I have not tested this myself.
  • Baking Apples: Feel free to use any apple combination you’d like here, but my favorite apples for baking are Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, McCintosh, and Golden Delicious.
  • Roughly inspired by the apple cake from Smitten Kitchen

Keywords: apple cake, healthy apple cake, breakfast apple cake, vegan apple cake, gluten free apple cake