Apple Cinnamon Cake

This flavorful Apple Cinnamon Cake is moist, soft, and one of our favorite cake recipes for fall!

Moist cinnamon apple cake layers are filled and frosted with cream cheese frosting in this flavorful dessert.

Cinnamon and apples are such a great combination, we hope that you enjoy this delicious fall cake!

How to Make Apple Cinnamon Cake

You can find the full, printable Apple Cinnamon Cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  

1. Prepare the Pans: Grease and flour 3 (8x2) inch round pans or 2  (9x2) inch pans, add a circle of parchment paper or waxed paper to the bottom of each pan.  Recipes with fruit have a tendency to stick.

2. Flour Mixture: In a medium size bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

3. Whisk for 30 seconds to blend then set aside.  

4. Milk Mixture: In another bowl or measuring cup for liquids, add the milk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract.  Set aside.

5. Butter and Cream Cheese: In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened  butter and cream cheese.  Mix at low to medium speed until blended  and smooth.  

6. Sugar: Gradually add the granulated sugar and mix until well blended.

7. Eggs: Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.

8. Dry and Wet Ingredients: Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet).

9. Shredded Apples: Fold the shredded apples into the batter and pour into pans.

10. Time to Bake: Bake at 350 degrees F. for 22 to 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the  center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.  Let cool 5 to 10 minutes on a wire rack then turn out.  

Why is there Cream Cheese in the Cake Batter?

We have several recipes that call for a block of cream cheese in the cake batter. We find that it boost the richness of the cake, the softness of the cake, and adds more moisture.

It also gives a more velvety quality to the texture of the crumb. We really love this "secret" ingredient- you likely won't detect a cream cheese flavor it in the cake layers (although you will in the frosting)!

Here are just a few of our favorite cake recipes that contain cream cheese in the cake batter: Vanilla Velvet Cake, White Velvet Cake, White Chocolate Velvet Cake, Chocolate Velvet Cake, Homemade Strawberry Cake

Cream Cheese Frosting

We love cream cheese frosting with apple cakes and spice cakes! Vanilla buttercream and cinnamon buttercream are good choices too, but cream cheese is a great option.

Because we wanted to do a little extra piping for borders, etc. we increased our usual Cream Cheese Frosting recipe by half. So, keep that it mind if you'd like to do the same!

Cream cheese frosting is softer than buttercream, but when chilled, it is great to work with. Its perfect as a filling and frosting, and is easy to pipe with too!

This recipe is a simple combination of cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Decorating the Apple Cinnamon Cake

We decorated our Apple Cinnamon Cake very simply, with a bit of texture added around the sides and on top.

First, we place an apple cinnamon cake layer on the pedestal.

We then spread the cake with a layer of cream cheese frosting. We repeated this step for the second and third cake layer.

• Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with frosting, and then crumb coat the cake (thin layer of frosting).

• At this point, I like to chill the crumb coated cake in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm everything up. This is an optional step, but cakes are much easier to decorate when they are chilled. (There is less worry of the layers shifting.).

• If you don't have the freezer space for chilling, you can chill the cake in the refrigerator for a bit longer.

• I applied the second layer of cream cheese frosting to the cake and smoothed around the sides and top with my bench scraper as well as a small offset spatula.

• I used my small offset spatula to add a bit of texture to the cake, adding just a bit more frosting here and there.

I piped a chunky braided frosting border around the top edge of the cake. (You can find more details about star tip borders here: Basics of Star Tip Piping)

And it's finished!

We hope that you enjoy this Apple Cinnamon Cake. Keep it in mind for fall birthdays, Thanksgiving, and more!

If you give this recipe a try, we would love for you to leave a comment and photo below!

Recipe FAQs

More Apple Cakes to Try

We have more apple cakes for you to try in addition to today's recipe! You can never have too many apple cake recipes on standby.

A few of our most popular are our Applesauce Spice Cake, Apple Pound Cake, and Caramel Apple Cake. Also, our Apple Upside Cake and easy Apple Spice Cake recipes start with a cake mix!

If you are looking for bundt cakes, check out our easy Apple Bundt Cake from cake mix as well as our scratch Applesauce Cake and Apple Dapple Cake!

Apple Cinnamon Layer Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist Apple Cinnamon Layer Cake is so flavorful and perfect for fall celebrations! We've filled and frosted it with homemade cream cheese frosting.

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 24 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

Apple Cinnamon Cake

• ▢ 8 oz cream cheese, softened ( We used one 8 oz package, full fat)
• ▢ 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, softened ½cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) sugar
• ▢ 4 large eggs, room temperature (Place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if you are in a hurry.)
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour (See notes for substitution)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (6g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (6g) cinnamon
• ▢ ½ cup (121g) milk
• ▢ ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil ( we use canola)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
• ▢ 1 ½ cups (140g) of shredded apples ( we used Golden Delicious and Granny Smith)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 2 sticks (226g total) unsalted butter, softened
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese (total weight 452g) , softened (We used two 8 oz packages, full fat)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (2g) salt
• ▢ 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g to 747g) confectioners sugar

Instructions

• For the CakePreheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  
• Grease and flour 3 (8x2) inch round pans or 2  (9x2) inch pans, add a circle of parchment paper or waxed paper to the bottom of each pan.  Recipes with fruit have a tendency to stick.
• In a medium size bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon
• Whisk for 30 seconds to blend then set aside.  
• In another bowl or measuring cup for liquids,  add the milk, oil and vanilla.  Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened  butter and cream cheese.  Mix at low to medium speed until blended  and smooth.  
• Gradually add the sugar and mix until well blended.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet).
• Fold the shredded apples into the batter and pour into pans.
• Bake at 350 degrees F. for 22 to 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the  center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.  Let cool 5 to 10 minutes on a wire rack then turn out.  

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
• Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
• Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
• Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
• Assemble the CakePlace the first cake layer on cake plate or pedestal. Spread the top with cream cheese frosting. Add the second layer and repeat. Add the third cake layer and frost the cake with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting (This is called the crumb coat).
• At this point, I like to chill the cake in the freezer for about 15 minutes or longer in the refrigerator to firm things up.
• Add the second layer of frosting. I smoothed my frosting with a bench scraper before going back in and adding a bit of texture with my small rounded offset spatula. I added a braided border on top with a 1M piping tip.

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