Apple Tea Cake

This cake is made with sour cream for extra moistness and is the perfect afternoon treat with a cup of tea! I love this recipe because it's simple to make and really focuses on the flavour of the apples rather than a heavy sweet frosting!

If you love dessert recipes that celebrate apples, then you have to try this recipe for an Apple Crumble Tart or this recipe for Apple and Blackberry Crumble. 

Ingredients

To make this delicious apple cake, you will need the simple ingredients listed below. Remember to always use fresh room temperature ingredients when baking. 

• Unsalted butter 
• Caster sugar 
• Eggs 
• Vanilla extract 
• Cake flour 
• Salt 
• Baking powder 
• Sour cream 
• Apples 
• Lemon juice 
• Cinnamon 
• Granulated white sugar 
• Powdered sugar

Unsalted butter - use room temperature butter for this recipe, and choose unsalted for the best results. 

Caster sugar - this recipe uses superfine sugar for a finer cake texture. 

Cake flour - choose to use cake flour for this recipe, you can also use all-purpose flour. This recipe can also be made using self-raising flour, just omit the baking powder.

Sour cream adds a rich flavor to this butter cake and gives it a moist crumb. 

Green apples - I don't love red apples! So, I always use green tart apples when baking. For this recipe, I used Granny Smiths and they worked wonderfully. Other types of apples you can try are Pink Lady apples or Honey Crisp. You want to choose a firm flesh apple that will hold its shape during cooking and baking. I recommend using fresh apples not tinned apples.

Cinnamon - apples and cinnamon are the best of friends when it comes to flavor combinations. This cake is sprinkled with a sugar and cinnamon mixture before baking. This gives the top of the cake a delicious sugary crust. 

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Follow the easy instructions below to make this simple cake recipe.

STEP 1: Preheat the oven. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a 22cm (9 inches) round cake tin with vegetable oil and parchment paper. Line the sides and bottom of the cake tin. 

STEP 2: Prepare apples for cake batter. Peel and slice the apples into fine slices of about 5mm (about ¼ inch) in thickness. Add the apple slices and lemon juice to a large bowl and stir to combine. 

STEP 3: Cream butter and sugar. Add the butter and sugar to a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat until creamed, about 3 - 5 minutes. 

STEP 4: Add eggs and vanilla. With the mixer at medium speed, add the eggs to the creamed butter and sugar mixture one at a time, be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula between each addition. Add the vanilla and beat again.

STEP 5: Sift dry ingredients. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl. 

STEP 6: Add dry and wet ingredients. Add the wet and dry ingredients to the cake batter by alternating between the two. Starting with the flour mixture and ending with the sour cream. 

STEP 7: Add apples. Add the sliced apples to the cake batter and mix through using a rubber spatula.

STEP 8: Pour batter into cake tin. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and smooth over the top with an offset palette knife. 

STEP 9: Cinnamon sugar. Combine the ground cinnamon and granulated sugar in a small bowl then sprinkle this evenly over the top of the cake. 

STEP 10: Bake. Bake the cake in a preheated oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

STEP 11: Cool. Allow the cake to cool in its tin for 10 minutes before turning it onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, transfer it onto a serving plate and dust it with icing sugar. Serve and enjoy. 

Hint: Make sure you are using room-temperature butter, otherwise creaming the butter and sugar together will be difficult. 

Variations

This cake is delicious served on its own but if you'd like, serve it with vanilla ice cream, sweetened whipped cream, or drizzle it with custard. 

Equipment

For this buttery moist cake, you will need one 22cm (9 inches) diameter round cake tin, a cooling rack, and an electric stand mixer or hand mixer.

I recommend using an accurate kitchen scale when baking for the best results, rather than relying on cup measurements. 

When it comes to cake tins, I prefer using a straight-sided plain tin rather than a springform pan. This is because I find them easier to line and they bake a better-shaped cake! Either will work but I do recommend giving traditional cake tins a try!

Storage

Butter cakes are always best fresh from the oven! But if you do have leftovers store them in an airtight container at room temperature for about 3 days. 

To freeze this cake, cut it into slices then wrap each slice in a piece of plastic wrap, and freeze for up to two months. Defrost at room temperature before consuming. 

This is the perfect cake recipe to try if you are new to baking and still a little scared of stacking cake layers and then frosting them! This tender fluffy cake is perfect to serve for an afternoon tea and I promise it'll be haunting you from the kitchen until it's all finished!

If you love this apple cake recipe as much as I do, please leave a comment and star review below - I would love to hear from you!

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Happy Baking

With Love,

Kitty