This is an incredibly easy French apple cake that is great served any time of day. My mum used to make it all the time – she still does. I especially love it served warm with vanilla ice cream or cream. Let’s go!
Nagi's Notes
For years I’ve been loyal to this Spiced Apple Cake. Then JB made his mum’s Apple Cake, and it completely won me over with its simplicity and the way it lets the apples truly shine. It’s unfussy, and just so damn lovely, I completely understand why it’s been a favourite in JB’s family for so long. I feel very honoured that his mother has allowed us to share it with the world. Thank you Madame Alexandre!
French Apple Cake
I have very good memories from my childhood of this Apple Cake (gâteau aux pommes). The area where I grew up was known for its apple trees, we would often come home from the local market with fresh apples just so we could bake one! You’ll find this cake all over France and everyone has their own version. This one is very close to my mum’s recipe, with a few little tweaks from me along the way (sorry, Mum!).
French Apple Cakes are all about letting the main character shine – the apples! They are less sugary and not loaded with cinnamon and other spices that dominate the flavour. Typically, the cake is not very tall, and the crumb is soft and buttery. It’s a rustic cake, simple to make and perfect to serve at an afternoon tea with family or friends.
Ingredients
We only use a few ingredients here with the apples being the stars. You can really use any apples, so this is a great recipe to make when you have a few sitting in the fruit bowl needing to be used up ☺️.
Apples – For best flavour I prefer sweet-tart apples like Pink Lady, Fuji or Jazz; Honey Crisp or Braeburn (US/UK) are also great. Personally, I don’t use Granny Smith here as I find they can be a little too tart, but they will still work if that’s what you have.
Pears will also work great here, as long as they are not overly ripe.
Butter – You need unsalted butter here, softened to room temperature.
Sugar – I use caster sugar / superfine sugar for the cake. You could use regular white sugar / granulated sugar, but I prefer the fine grains of caster sugar for baking, as they dissolve more easily.
Eggs – This cake uses “large eggs” – 50–55 g / 2 oz is the industry standard of sizes sold as “large eggs”. The eggs need to be room temperature else they will not incorporate smoothly into the batter. If your eggs are cold, you can easily bring them to room temp by placing them in a large bowl, covering them with warm (not hot) tap water and leaving for 5 minutes.
Vanilla extract – For best flavour, I like to use natural vanilla extract / pure vanilla extract.
Flour – Just plain flour / all-purpose flour.
Baking powder – Makes the batter rise and the crumb light. If your baking powder has been sitting in the pantry for a while, it’s best to check that it’s still active (it might be dead, even if it’s within use-by date!). Find out how to check it here.
Salt – Just a small amount, 1/4 teaspoon. This brings out the flavours in the cake.
How To Make French Apple Cake
This traditional French cake is easy-to-make and ideal for even beginner cooks. One thing that may surprise you is the thickness of the batter. It’s quite thick once everything is mixed together, especially after adding all the apples, but this is completely normal. As the cake bakes, the apples release moisture into the batter which creates that beautifully soft and tender texture.
Whisk dry ingredients – Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium mixing bowl.
Cream butter and sugar – In a larger mixing bowl, using a handheld electric beaters (or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment), beat the butter for about 1 minute on medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and beat the mixture for another minute until fluffy and pale yellow.
Add eggs and vanilla – Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat to combine.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients – Add the flour mixture to the bowl and beat on low speed for about 30 seconds or until you can no longer see any bits of dry flour, then stop beating – don’t overmix.
Add apple – Add the diced apple and stir it evenly into the mixture using a spatula. The batter will be quite thick and not pourable.
Add batter to pan – Scoop the batter into a 23cm/9” lined cake pan, then level the surface.
Bake – Bake on the middle shelf of the oven at 180°C / 350°F (160°C fan-forced) for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Cool and serve – The top of the cake should be a nice golden brown colour. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes in the pan before turning it out onto a wire rack. Cool for 10 minutes if serving warm or let it cool completely. Dust with icing / powdered sugar (optional) and enjoy!
How to Serve French Apple Cake
My favourite way to serve French Apple Cake is warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side – très bon! But you can also serve it at room temperature. It’s just as good for afternoon tea as it is as the final sweet course to follow a simple French meal like Poulet rôti or Chicken Chasseur.
This cake is very close to my heart. I can’t wait for you to try it and hear what you think. Bon appétit! – JB
FAQ – French Apple Cake
I haven’t tried a gluten free version of this cake, so I can’t say for sure how it will turn out. Because this cake has very little batter and lots of apples, I think it should work quite well with a good quality 1:1 gluten free flour blend, but the texture may be slightly different. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it goes!
You can really use any apples for this cake as they won’t get overly soft. I like to use sweet-tart apples that hold their shape when baked so you still get lovely soft chunks inside the cake. In Australia, Pink Lady, Fuji and Jazz are great. In the US, Honeycrisp and Braeburn work very well too. I personally avoid Granny Smith because they are too tart but feel free to use them.
Absolutely. Pears work beautifully in this cake. Use ripe but still a little firm pears so they don’t fall apart while baking.
Watch How To Make It
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French Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 3 red apples – I like Pink Lady , peeled and diced into 1.5cm/0.6" cubes (~ 3 1/2 cups) (Note 1 for other varieties)
- 100g(7 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup caster sugar / superfine sugar (Note 2)
- 3 large eggs , at room temperature (55g/2oz each in shell)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract , natural / pure
- 1 1/3 cups plain flour / all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt
For serving:
- Icing sugar / powdered sugar , for dusting
- Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, optional for serving
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE
- Cream butter then sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then vanilla. Beat in dry ingredients, stir through apple. Bake in 23cm/9″ pan at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan) for 30 minutes.
FULL RECIPE
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced).
- Cake pan – Butter a 23cm/9" round cake pan and line the base with baking paper / parchment paper. No need to line the sides.
- Dry ingredients – In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Cream butter and sugar – Using a handheld beater or stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium until creamed. Add the sugar and beat on medium for 1 minute until fluffy and becomes a paler yellow.
- Eggs and vanilla – Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Add the flour mixture into the bowl and beat on low until you can no longer see dry flour, then stop beating. You don't want to overmix.
- Apples – Stir through the diced apples using a spatula. The batter will be quite thick, it's not pourable.
- Bake – Spread the batter evenly into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (because the batter is quite thick and if your oven runs a bit cool, it could take up to 45 minutes). (Note 3)
- Rest and serve – Let the cake rest for 5 minutes in the pan before removing. Cool for a further 10 minutes then serve warm or let it cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar, if desired. If serving warm, it's especially lovely with a scoop of ice cream.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
In Memory Of Dozer
And finally, Dozer ☺️ These photos were taken at the RecipeTin Meals kitchen before a TV shoot while we were both getting ready. As you can see, Dozer is enjoying the full hair and make-up treatment by Kristy Orr who did an amazing job that day! Two good boys getting pampered… though I think one of us was having a really good hair day 🐾🐾🐾
Merci JB!
My mum made a similar pear/apple cake (TW recipe). Made 2 of yours and truly the same taste, but better with butter 😉.
Thank you
Forgot to rate
I have done the recipe with apples the other week and today replaced apples with rhubarb. An absolute winner.
Hi JB i think the metric conversion for 1 1/3 cup AP flour is wrong. 1 cup AP flour is 120g so 1 1/3 cup should be 160g not 200g.
WOW, this French Apple Cake is delicious. Made it today and we have already eaten a piece. I tasted the batter and I questioned where it was going to have enough taste. Boy, I was wrong! Can’t wait to make it again and add a shot of RUM…Thanks for sharing your recipe. Lou
Help JB. First time I made it was amazing. Second time it just wouldn’t cook in the middle. Even tried to put back in a hot oven before serving but was def runny in middle. Any tips please for next time? Don’t worry I cooked the middle in air fryer in chunks and made some custard to serve 😂😂. No waste 😇 A. X
Hi Amanda, did you pre-heat your oven for the same amount of time for the second time?
Delicieux
My family and granddaughters love it
What a winner. Thank you Nagi and JB. I did this with 2 ripeish pears and it was a delicious texture. I confess to using my air fryer. It’s got shelves not a basket 175 for 40 mins … perfect. In fact, I have taken to using the air fryer and a square tin for all your cakes ! Haven’t had a dissapointment yet.👏👏. An ideal snack size with a cuppa.
Welcome to little “Jaffle” Looking at those paws, I suspect he won’t be little for very long. He’s a lucky puppy to find such a wonderful mum.
Thank you for your kind comment Chris, I’m glad it worked in the air fryer.
Finally tried this yesterday, it was excellent. All of the family agrees it’s a keeper. Used regular sugar and salted butter because that’s what I buy. Turned out perfect. I can’t wait to try it with pears. Thank you so much.
You are welcome Theresa, thank you for leaving a comment 🙂
Loved this – though I’d put more apple in next time – and would add a little cinnamon too maybe.
I’d also like to try this with a tin of apples
Easy to make!!
Thank you for the feedback Dianne, please let me know how it turns out using tin apples 🙂
I have made a gf version of this delicious cake several and I don’t think anyone could tell the difference.
That’s what I want to hear 🙂 Thank you Sandra!
I combined this recipe for the French Apple Tea Cake with the Cinnamon Struesel from the coffee cake. What an amazing combination WOW. Thanks JB! 💕
That is such a great idea. I bet it was delicious, thank you Jennifer!
My French Apple cake turned out lovely! I plan to serve it warm tomorrow as desert. What is the best way to reheat?
Hi Lynne, either slowly in a low temperature oven or just pop it in a microwave for a few seconds. Thank you!
This cake definitely deserves 5 stars. Just delicious and was moist for the four days it lasted. Not a crumb left and thoroughly enjoyed.
Thank you for the great report Bella!
I’m not a cook, nor a baker. But, JB, this cake is phenomenal. The instructions are so clear & easy that I’m pleased to say mine looked exactly like your recipe photos.
We ate it warm from the oven topped with powdered sugar, fresh strawberries, & blackberries. It’s so good that my adult daughter requested that I make it for her birthday (which is in about a week).
Thank you. Nagi & JB, every recipe I have tried from your website or cookbook has turned out wonderfully. As a non-cook, I really appreciate the clear instructions, the chatty tips, & the great food.
Thank you for this amazing feedback Stacia, it really means a lot 🙂 I had this cake as a birthday cake as a kid so many times!
I have been making one very similar to this, for over 40 years now but my recipe also has cinnamon and chopped walnuts in it as well.
Your version sounds delicious too Lyn 🙂
Currently living in a tiny flat abroad, so had no beat mixer, terrible oven, the incorrect sort of apples, questionable baking powder, and eggs that were definitely dicey. And, yet, this turned out perfectly – and just like my grandmother’s. Merci mille fois !
Sounds like you were off to a bad start but you still managed to nail the cake 🙂 Great job james!
Beautiful!! So easy to make. Had with home made custard while both still warm…what a winner
Awesome! Thank you Kye 🙂
French apple cake is my absolute favorite. Love how chunky the apple pieces look in this recipe! going to bake this for tea time tomorrow.
Thank you Paul, I hope it turned out well 🙂
Thank you Chef JB! Yes it turned out absolutely amazing and super delicious. Everyone in my family loved. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Can this be done in muffins? if so what would the cooking time be?? have had this at a friends house and was SOOOO good 🙂
Hi Grace, yes you can. Cook it at the same temperature for 20 to 25 minutes.
I made this for a work morning tea. Took less than an hour including cooking, so simple. Highly recommend eating it still warm from the oven with a little bit of cream. It was a hit, first item on the table to go.
I used granny smiths because that’s what I had; I think it was the perfect amount of sweetness. I sprinkled a tiny bit of sugar over the batter before baking as well and it got a beautiful, sweet crust.
Sounds like you nailed it Jemma! Thank you!
Made this cake last minute for a treat today
YUM!
So very sorry to hear about Dozer, I lost my 2 bulldogs and my sadness just won’t go away
💕
Thank you for your kind words Jenn ♥️