French Apple Cake
on Aug 06, 2026
This delicious French Apple Cake is so easy to make. The cake is buttery, tender and packed with slightly sweet and slightly tart apples. It’s elegant enough for a holiday dessert yet simple enough for a snacking.
It will soon be apple season and easy to make apple recipes are my favorite! Comforting apple desserts are perfect all fall long and they always have a space on my holiday dessert tables.
If you are looking for other apple cakes try my super easy 3 Ingredient Apple Cake or possibly a Apple Cider Donut Cake.
As mentioned, this French Apple Cake has a buttery flavor. The crumb has a tender texture. And, the apples are found throughout and on top. This is different from other apple cakes. You will not find the typical cinnamon and nutmeg flavors that you associate with apple desserts.
It’s also not frosted like typical cakes. We dust it with a powdered sugar for a slightly sweet addition. I like it best when the French Apple Cake is warmed and served with a scoop of ice cream.
I like to use Pink Lady apples in this recipe. The sweet and tart combination hits the perfect flavor profile.
Save this recipe for the holidays. I promise it is a perfect addition to your holiday dessert menu, especially Thanksgiving Dessert.
French Apple Cake Ingredients
French Apple Cake, when it comes to ingredients, is a pretty simple cake recipe. We’ve got some dry ingredients, some wet ingredients, and plenty of fresh apples too- not as simple as making cake with cake mix, but still very easy to pull off! Here’s all the cake ingredients you’ll need:
- Apples – The best apples for baking are going to be firm, crisp ones and we want red apples that are a bit more on the sweet side. Try to get Honeycrisp apples or Pink Lady apples, though options like Fuji apples or Braeburn should be fine too. If you don’t care about apples that are red, Granny Smith apples are a tarter option and Golden Delicious apples might work too- just be warned they might soften up a bit too much.
- Flour – Regular all purpose flour will work just fine here.
- Baking Powder – Don’t confuse this with baking soda!
- Salt
- Butter – Ideally, let butter soften at room temperature before starting this recipe. Avoid softening butter in microwave if you can!
- Sugar – Plain old white granulated sugar works here. If you want to go the extra mile, consider using a natural cane or turbinado sugar for added flavor or a caster sugar / superfine sugar for improved texture.
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract – Some folks also like adding rum to French Apple Cake. Good rums for baking are usually dark rums or spiced rums. Totally optional though!
- Powdered Sugar – We’ll use a bit of confectioner’s sugar at the end for a sugar dusting on top of our finished cake.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to make French Apple Cake
Once you’ve got all your ingredients around, making Apple Cake like this is pretty easy to do. We’ll make cake batter, fold in some apples, do a bit of decorating, and then let the oven finish baking the cake for us. In case you need a bit of help or some visuals, here’s our complete French Apple Cake recipe- double check the recipe card at the bottom of specifics:
- First we have to prep apples. Set aside 2 apples for the apple topping. For the remaining 2-3, peel apples before coring and then dicing down into tiny bite-sized pieces. Optionally toss with a splash of lemon juice to prevent browning.
- Grab a medium-to-large bowl and add flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- To a separate bowl, add butter and sugar. Use a hand or stand mixer to cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.
- Crack eggs and add to butter and sugar mixture, one at a time. Make sure egg is fully incorporated before adding next egg. Repeat with all eggs.
- Add vanilla extract and rum (if using). Beat to combine.
- For best results, add half of dry ingredients to the wet mix and stir until just combined. Add remaining half and mix until incorporated– this should help prevent overmixing your cake batter a bit!
- Add diced apples to cake batter. Gently fold in apples to combine.
- Grease a 9-inch cake pan before adding a circle of parchment paper to the bottom of pan. Transfer cake batter to cake pan and spread evenly. Core and peel leftover 2 apples before cutting into thin apple slices and arranging them into concentric circles on top of apple cake.
- Transfer French Apple Cake to an awaiting 350 degree oven. Bake cake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center pulls out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust cake with powdered sugar before serving.
Storage / Freezing
Storage: Whatever leftover cake you have, you’ll want to transfer it to some sort of airtight resealable container- especially with all the fresh fruit in it. French Apple Cake should stay good on the counter at room temperature for up to 3 days. For better results, keep it in the fridge for 3-5 days.
Freezing: Frozen Apple Cake is another option, especially if you don’t mind the apples getting a bit soft after the freezing and thawing. Cut French Apple Pie into slices or keep whole before wrapping with plastic wrap and/or aluminum foil and keeping in the freezer. Your French Apple Pie will last 2-3 months in the freezer- let thaw in the fridge overnight or on the counter at room temperature.
Tips for French Apple Cake
- Sweet apples like Pink Lady are BEST for this apple cake recipe.
Be sure to thoroughly cream the butter, sugar and oil for BEST results. - Do not over mix when adding flour.
- Do not over mix when adding diced apples.
- DO NOT open the oven during baking. This will cause the cake to collapse.
- This cake is delicious when slightly warmed with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
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French Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 4-5 Red Apples, cored.
- 1 1/3 cup Flour
- 1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 7 tbsp Butter, softened
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 3 Eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tbsp Powdered Sugar, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Core peel and dice 3 apples. Drizzle with a little lemon juice and toss to prevent browning.
- Grease a 9″ cake pan with a little butter. Cut a piece of parchment paper in a circle and place in the bottom. Set aside.
- In a medium large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together using a hand mixer until blended and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each until incorporated.
- Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Add the prepared dry ingredients into the bowl and stir with spatula just until you can no longer see dry flour (don’t overmix).
- Add the diced apples and mix using a spatula.
- Transfer batter to prepared cake pan spread evenly.
- Core and peel the 2 remaining apples and slice into very thin wedge slices.
- Arrange in concentric rings on top of cake.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then transfer tp wire rack to finsh cooling.
- Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Notes
- Sweet apples like Pink Lady are BEST for this apple cake recipe.
Be sure to thoroughly cream the butter, sugar and oil for BEST results. - Do not over mix when adding flour.
- Do not over mix when adding diced apples.
- DO NOT open the oven during baking. This will cause the cake to collapse.
- This cake is delicious when slightly warmed with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.
Nutrition
