This soft and super moist applesauce cake is packed with wholesome ingredients and a delicious classic apple flavor your whole family will love.
If you’ve been on a search for the best homemade applesauce cake recipe around, this one won’t let you down!
Light and fluffy, with just 9 ingredients (yes, really), it’s everything you could ever hope for in a healthy Fall dessert.
The cake is easy to make and kid friendly, with no eggs or dairy required, and it can even be oil free. This is a really great way to use up extra applesauce.
Also try this popular Crustless Pumpkin Pie
The first time I ever tried an applesauce cake was one November night back in high school, at a friend’s sleepover birthday party.
Trying to be healthier, she had substituted the oil in a boxed spice cake mix with applesauce.
Not normally a fan of low fat cakes or baked goods, I remember being so impressed with how moist and tender the cake was even without added fat.
Over the years, I’ve come up with my own old fashioned applesauce cake that doesn’t rely on a box (because from scratch always tastes better).
It envelops the entire kitchen in a sweet cinnamon aroma as you’re baking and makes you want to cozy up next to a warm fireplace, fork in hand.
How to make an applesauce cake
To make the cake, start by gathering the ingredients and greasing an 8-inch baking pan or lining it with parchment paper.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk all liquid ingredients, then stir in remaining ingredients to form a batter.
Smooth the batter into the prepared baking pan, and place on the oven’s center rack to cook for 18 minutes or until perfectly fluffy. Let cool.
Frost as desired, and serve. If you can wait, the cake is even sweeter and better textured a day after it’s made.
I recommend refrigerating leftovers for freshness, and they should be good for about 3-4 days. Or slice and freeze for up to a month.
Apple cake frosting options
The apple spice cake can be dusted with powdered sugar or iced with a basic glaze or with melted coconut butter.
You can also top it with Coconut Whipped Cream, store bought vanilla frosting, dairy free ice cream, or the homemade cream cheese frosting recipe below:
Simply whip together 8 oz packaged or homemade cream cheese or Vegan Cream Cheese with 4 oz butter or vegan butter, 2 cups powdered sugar (unrefined if desired), and 1 tsp pure vanilla extract.
Applesauce snack cake ingredients
For the applesauce: Either sweetened or natural unsweetened applesauce works. And if you wish to use homemade applesauce, that works too!
For the flour: I’ve successfully made the recipe with spelt flour (for a whole grain option), regular all purpose flour, or oat flour for a gluten free cake. In general, I’m not a fan of baked goods with whole wheat flour, so sub that at your own risk.
If you prefer a flourless cake, try either this Keto Birthday Cake or my Almond Flour Banana Bread.
For the sweetener: I used unrefined coconut sugar for the cake in the photos, but regular white or brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar also work. Granulated erythritol or xylitol are most likely fine to use as well, although I haven’t tried them here.
Above, watch the applesauce cake recipe video
The recipe was adapted from this Vegan Cake and from my Apple Bread.
Applesauce Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup applesauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 tbsp oil or additional applesauce
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp white or cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups white, spelt, or oat flour
- 1/3 cup sugar, unrefined if desired
- 3/4 tsp each: salt, baking powder, and baking soda
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and optional 1/4 tsp allspice
- optional 1/2 cup raisins, chopped walnuts, or shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk liquid ingredients, then add all remaining ingredients to form a batter. Smooth into a greased or lined 8-inch pan. Bake 18 minutes on the oven's center rack. Let cool, then frost as desired. The cake will taste even sweeter the next day!View Nutrition Facts
Notes
Have you made this recipe?
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More Healthy Cake Recipes
Mandy says
Fantastic recipe! I saw it when you posted to YouTube last night and went and made it this morning. I did use the oil so next time (and there WILL be a next time) I can do the oil free version and compare 🙂
Elle says
When you say unrefined sugar, do you mean options like honey or maple syrup? What other choices do I have? Thanks.
Barbara says
Hey Elle, she’s talking about organic sugar like Florida Crystals which you can find in most stores now. It’s amber in color and has not had the minerals removed.
Sylvia says
Wonderful cake! We are eating it for breakfast again this morning 🙂
Talia says
Made it for Thanksgiving and it was soft and moist. People liked it even more than some of the unhealthy high calorie desserts!
Judy Field says
I’d love to try this recipe this week, but wondered if you can suggest a frosting that isn’t too sugary sweet. Thanks in advance.
CCK Media Team says
Try melted coconut butter 🙂 https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/how-to-make-coconut-butter/
Kim says
I usually use canned coconut milk; refrigerate the can for at least one day, then scoop off just the solidified cream on top. Use an electric whisk to whip it up with maple syrup, as much or as little as you desire. 🙂
Nina says
Thanks for the fabulous recipe. Do you have metric conversions? Have you got a recipe for a healthy icing (not butter or coconut oil) I could top the cake with. Many thanks, stay safe….
CCK Media Team says
Hi! Frosting options are listed above the recipe box so hopefully you can find something that sounds good to you there. Or Katie has a basic glaze recipe in this post that doesn’t use oil or butter: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/easy-cinnamon-rolls-recipe/
We don’t have metric conversions for this one, so the best thing to do is just look on the nutrition labels for the ingredients you’re using 🙂
Sarah says
Hello if I wanted to make this with almond flour what would be the adjustments if any?
CCK Media Team says
Hi, unfortunately we have never tried so can’t say how or if that would work. Katie does have an almond flour cake recipe though if you want to make that one instead 🙂
https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/keto-birthday-cake/
Kay says
I’ve used 1/3 of each (1/2cup each) of almond flour, oat, and Bob’s 1-1. No changes necessary. 🙂
Shel says
Nutrition facts is based on oil or applesauce as an ingredient (since you gave that option in the recipe)?
CCK Media Team says
The nutrition facts have a table for each 😉
Shel says
Thanks ha ha sorry I didn’t scroll down, didn’t know there’s more info below.
Brittany says
If I wanted to make this in a Bundt pas would you suggest doubling the recipe and obviously increasing the bake time?
bernadettec says
same question. i almost always do bundtand just watch it closely at 15-18 min; test like mad with cake tester wire or a tooth pick.
Lynn Hutchinson says
The applesauce cake is awesome and so easy to make, it didn’t last long in my home. Thank you for sharing.
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Nancy says
Perfect little healthy snack cake! My two kids and husband all gobbled it up!
Debbie Horton says
Hi. Can this recipe be doubled and baked in a 9×13 pan? My grandson wants apple cake for his birthday and I need to make it for about 30 people. So I’ll make 2 or 3. I was also going to use 1 to1 Gluten Free flour and frost it with cinnamon buttercream frosting. Do you think that’ll work?
CCK Media Team says
Cinnamon buttercream sounds amazing! It can definitely be doubled. We’ve had good results with Bob’s gf in terms of gluten free.
Aimee says
Delicious recipe! We followed the recipe to a t and topped ours with a vegan cream cheese frosting made with miyokos cream cheese, earth balance butter, and powdered sugar. It was bakery level good! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pam says
We loved this applesauce cake. I made a maple glaze and everyone enjoyed it. Great recipe!
MJ says
My applesauce is in the fridge. Do I need to take it out to put it to room temperature?
Mina says
Absolutely wonderful! Moist, flavorful, and leftovers are going to be great for breakfast without feeling unhealthy. With just a little powdered sugar and sliced strawberries on top. Next time I might add some crushed walnuts to the batter.
M. says
This was excellent!
Elle says
I had high hopes for this cake but was very disappointed. I made the recipe as written using the oat flour option. It came out like a dense flavorless sponge. Thankfully I had some maple butter on hand to make it palatable. CCK’s recipes are very hit or miss, and this one was unfortunately a miss.
CCK Media Team says
Hi Elle, what other specific ingredients did you use? Sweetener, oil, etc. And do you live at a high elevation? Is your oven calibrated? There are already other successful reviews so it definitely doesn’t have a typo, but we’d love to help troubleshoot what you did. We just can’t try to guess without more information. Not sure if you’ve ever baked with oat flour before, but it will always be denser than spelt or white flour so it might just be that you’re not personally a fan of oat flour baked goods in general, which is completely ok.
Elle says
To close the loop on this: I used the oil-free option with the oat flour option, otherwise followed the recipe exactly (and my oven temp/timing also followed the recipe; I live at sea level). If I had to guess, the oil-free option + oat flour permutation probably made the cake too dense. I’m glad others had success with it though and might recommend others use the other type of flour for a more cake-like texture.
Kay says
I’ve used 1/3 of each (1/2cup each) of almond flour, oat, and Bob’s 1-1. I believe this makes it fluffier.
Phala Bowles says
Miyokoskitchen Butter ✅
Treelinecheese ✅
No need to harm the animals.😊
Diane says
I made mine with oat flour too and it was delicious. Five members of my family also loved it. It sounds like the commenter above probably measured something wrong.
We will be making this recipe again!
Rachel says
SO good! Making this again for Thanksgiving!
Maureen says
This was great with a cup of coffee. I sprinkled powdered sugar on top (just a little) but otherwise it didn’t need any frosting.
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Thank you so much for making it!
Sharon says
Hey Kate, thanks for this cake recipe. It turned out just as good as I hoped and looked like the pictures, which is rare in my experiences with blog recipes in general.
Allison says
Fabulous guilt-free cake recipe! It has such a nice texture and the flavor of spice cake without having that “fake” taste of boxed versions. I used spelt flour rather than oat, and added one extra TBSP of applesauce to replace one TBSP of the oil. It needed an extra five minutes to bake, but came out perfect. I cut my cake into squares and froze them individually wrapped so I can have cake anytime. I just stir up a little bit of icing with powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk when I’m ready to eat a slice. This recipe is definitely a keeper and so easy to make. Thank you!
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Lisa says
This was quite yummy. I did the fat free version.
cristin baum says
Just wanting to double check …. bake for only 15 minutes?? Super excited to try this recipe; but brought mine out of the oven to find it more underbaked rather than super moist!
Katie says
Can I use a milk alternative instead of the water? Maybe I’m crazy, but I always feel like using water takes away an opportunity for flavor.
CCK Media Team says
Hi! Sorry we have never tried it. In general, we find that recipes made with milk instead of water are a bit denser and more gummy in texture, but otherwise yes it should be fine to use as long as you don’t mind that 🙂
Jaime says
Love this! I use pumpkin instead of applesauce and it’s so delicious with some lightly sweetened cream cheese on top. I do bake it for around 20 minutes, not 15.
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Phala Bowles says
Miyokoskitchen
💯 the best (butter) hands down.
Treelinecheese
plain (cream cheese) the best I have found so far.
This recipe is great when using the allspice I found just the cinnamon is not enough and the cake had very little taste. I added nutmeg with the cinnamon which was nice but if you want a stronger spice cake use the allspice or pumpkin pie spice works as well.
Russ D says
DELICIOUS RECIPE! WE LOVED THIS CAKE!
Ellen says
Wonderful! Made it for Christmas Eve breakfast for the family (I made the cake a day ahead of time so I didn’t have to cook this morning.) No one knew it was healthy and everyone loved it. Of course they did, it’s cake for breakfast 🙂
Denise says
Can I make this without sugar or 1/2 the sugar?
Julie says
I used King’s All Purpose flour and the extra applesauce instead of oil. Cake was a bit undercooked at time/temp recommended, but made for a moist, thick, pudding-like consistency (which I was happy with). Interestingly, I made a version of your Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting and liked the caramel-y results: used the 1 1/2 cup cashews, 1/4 almond milk, 1 cup of coconut sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract, and – because it was all I had – 1/4 cup Nutiva Coconut Shortening. Definitely brown in color and like a thick caramel icing. It ROCKED! Thank you, Katie 🙂
Kim says
Very nice flavor, but definitely missing an egg to bind everything together. Used oat flour. I would add an egg next time.
Phala Bowles says
This is a “Vegan” page, eggs are evil.
👉Please go Vegan👈
Kay says
My neighbors keep chickens. Why are the eggs evil? They get laid even without a rooster (hmm, that sounded wrong, lol.)
nat says
youre insufferable
Kim says
Thanks Kim! I’ll try the egg.
Ilana G. in Massachusetts says
This cake is yummy and very easy to make! I added extra spices, subbed peanut butter for the oil/extra applesauce for a little more protein, and added toasted pumpkin seeds along with some raisins and walnuts to boost the protein even more. It turned out great. Thanks, Katie!
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it!
Hill says
Cake had great texture, but was bland. Needs a lot more seasoning / spices and maybe more apple sauce. It’s not especially sweet, but that’s a plus.
Bri says
Hi. Is there a way to make this chocolate?
Kay says
Sure. Add cocoa (probably start with 1-4 Tbls), add chocolate chips, add chocolate frosting… Mmm!
Nina says
Fab recipe… do you make your own apple sauce? Do I add anything to the apples ie., water, sugar. I wondered what type of apple to make it with (UK) any suggestions gratefully received. Is there a metric conversion button anywhere? I am not sure if I am missing it or if there is no conversion button on this recipe. Thanks
CCK Media Team says
It’s so strange that applesauce isn’t widely available in the UK, because it’s everywhere in the US! What about apple baby food perhaps? There’s no conversion button on the recipe, as unfortunately we have found online conversion buttons that change serving size or from cups to grams to not always yield accurate results and we wouldn’t want anyone going with the inaccurate auto generated results.
Liz says
Saw this on facebook yesterday when a friend shared your recipe and I had all the ingredients. It was even better than I expected and needed no frosting.
dunata says
This recipe is awesome! I used no oil and checked multiple times to make sure there were no eggs. I used monkfruit instead of sugar. I am shocked how moist and tasty this is! I made a protein frosting and this will definitely be made again.
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Heather says
What sort of protein frosting did you use?
Do you have a recipe you would like to share?
Thanks!
Jessica R says
Hands down my favorite thing to make for the weekends! My husband and I have it with our morning tea and it hits the spot every time!
Also tastes amazing with chocolate chips!!
CCK Media Team says
Thank you so much for trying it 🙂
Ava says
can we use coccoa powder to make it chocolate flavor? If so how much?
CCK Media Team says
We haven’t tried a cocoa version of this applesauce cake, but Katie does have a similar chocolate cake where you could sub applesauce instead of yogurt: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/vegan-chocolate-cake-recipe/
(Halve all the ingredients for a single layer cake)
Steph says
Can this be made as a Bundt cake?
CCK Media Team says
Hmm we have never tried. Be sure to report back if you try it!
Russell says
Pretty!
Chava-Shoshannah says
Very simple recipe with no special ingredients. I’ve made 3 of these in the last two days. Seriously, I want to eat this cake every day!
Sadie says
Delicious!!! I put in an egg, just to be sure it would hold its structure and lift up a bit more, so I added an extra 1/2 cup of flour. All oat flour and it tastes very nice!! Not as pungent of an apple flavour, but I noticed after adding a layer of cinnamon vanilla icing on top, it complemented the apple taste divinely!!
Highly recommend☺️☺️
hanna says
curious about adding shredded apple to this recipe? if i add a half cup do i need to change other things?
Rachna says
Hi! Planning to try this recipe. However recently shifted to a high elevation area( 1,795 metres/5,889 ft). Csn you please suggest what changes I need to make for this.
Thank you
CCK Media Team says
Hi! Hopefully there are friends, neighbors, or local online discussion groups you might find more helpful than us, because we have no experience at all with high altitude baking. Might be a good excuse for us to take a trip sometime 🙂
Ingrid says
I read through the reviews and was intrigued. I made this cake using home made applesauce, and based on the reviews instead of just using additional apple sauce instead of oil, I used: 1 Tblsp olive oil, 1 Tblsp organic peanut butter & 1 Tbls apple sauce. I also doubled the cinnamon and allspice and added 1/4 tsp of ground ginger.
For the flour: I used a combination of oat flour, einkorn flour and all purpose – in equal amounts.
Results: Pretty good. It needed more baking time – 25mins @350 (sea level) and turned out moist – if I had taken it out at 18mins, it would have been under cooked. Next time, I’ll try with spelt flour which has a milder taste than the einkorn.
Happy to find a recipe that uses so little processed sweetener and fats. A great base to play around with and see what works best!
Olivia says
Thanks for the recipe!
Made with an extra 3 TBS of applesauce and 1 TBS olive oil, omitted the sugar entirely, baked for 22 minutes and served to my son for his first birthday smash cake. Super soft and fluffy. Delicious left overs and maybe even better the next day for coffee. Thanks!
Rachna says
Assist with changes for high altitude pls. I’m at 1795 mts/ 5998 ft. Thank you
CCK Media Team says
Hi! Hopefully there are friends, neighbors, or local online discussion groups you might find more helpful than us, because we have no experience at all with high altitude baking other than knowing it can require changes in baked good recipes. Might be a good excuse for us to take a trip sometime 🙂
Rachna says
Hi! Tried and it came out really good. Here are the changes I made for high altitude, hoping it might help somebody. Increase flour by 2tbspn. Reduce b soda & pwdr by abt 1/8 tsp. Baked at 190-200C.
Maram says
Hi Katie,
I’m just wondering if I can use gluten free flour for this recipe?
Thanks
CCK Media Team says
Hi! We have not tried this particular cake with a gluten free flour blend (only with oat flour as the gf option). But in general, we have good luck with Bob’s gluten free all purpose mix in baking so hopefully something like that can work here too!
Zoe says
Do you think I could substitute mango purée for the applesauce?
CCK Media Team says
We don’t see why not!
Erica says
Actually followed the recipe. Made it with oat flour; was totally OK !!! Finding a low sugar baked cake is fabulous.
Han says
Stellar recipe.
Katie says
Not enough apple flavor to me. Toying with the idea of replacing the water with apple cider, or chopping up some freeze dried apple pieces to put in it next time. I did oat flour and it did have a good texture!
Bret Rice says
I was getting ready to make this as a cake for our county fair in a few weeks just to see if I could make a cake. Well, I saw my bread pans and had a senior moment and made it into a quick bread (with cranberries). Oh well, now it’s an Apple bread…lol It’s delicious and my wife even likes it. I might try to make it as a cake also minus the cranberries.
Marilyn says
I added a pinch of nutmeg and ginger and cloves, turning it into a spice cake recipe. Delicious apple flavor!
MG says
Wow ! This cake was amazing. It reminded me of bread pudding actually.
I added part brown sugar/white sugar and chopped apples into the cake.
Thanks !
Kate says
Delicious delicious applesauce cake! We cannot get enough of this recipe!
Penny says
Just made today. Good recipe, my was not nearly as dark as your picture showed. Nice and moist though.
Karen says
My family loved this applesauce cake recipe. We didn’t find that it needed any topping but my daughter added Reddi Wip whipped cream to her slice.
Margaret Arpero says
My friend has MS looking for a receive with no butter,oil,sugar..what can I substitute for oil,butter and sugar on the apple cake?
CCK Media Team says
Hi, for an apple cake recipe without sugar or oil, we recommend this loaf cake instead: https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/flourless-apple-cinnamon-bread/
Kait says
Made this and devouring it! Doesn’t even need frosting but I ended up making a coconut oil + almond milk frosting. 1 cup coconut oil and 1/4th cup almond milk with just a little powdered sugar, not a lot. It’s sweet enough and satiates that sweet tooth. I can’t eat eggs and this has been the perfect fall treat! Yum!!!
Chardonay says
Thank you for this I was just thinking about what to put on top as a frosting. I am new to seeing this recipe. I’m excited to try !