Apple Cinnamon Cake with Maple
Diced apple through a cinnamon-swirled sponge, with warm maple syrup poured over the slice and apple fanned on top.
- Total
- 1 hr 15 min
- Prep
- 25 min
- Bake
- 50 min
- Serves
- 10
- Level
- Easy
- Tin
- 20 cm springform
An apple cake goes wrong in the middle, where the fruit sits, holds water, and leaves a seam of raw batter that no amount of extra time on top seems to fix.
The answer is distribution rather than duration: two-thirds of the apple folded through the batter, the last third on top, and the cinnamon sugar scattered in a layer rather than mixed in, so it melts into a dark seam instead of disappearing.
Warm maple over each slice. It finds the cinnamon layer on its own.
Ingredients
For the cake
For the cinnamon swirl
To finish
You will need
- 20 cm springform tin
- Small bowl
- Sharp knife
Method
Oven 175°C · fan 155°C · 345°F
Dice the apples
Peel, core and dice the apples into 1 cm cubes and toss them with the lemon juice. Dice rather than grate, because you want distinct pieces of apple, not apple sauce running through the crumb.
Tip Braeburn holds its shape; Bramley collapses into pockets of sharp purée. Both are good, but they give different cakes.
Heat the oven and mix the swirl
Heat the oven to 175°C / 155°C fan. Butter a 20 cm springform tin and line the base. Stir the swirl sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.
Cream, then add eggs
Beat the butter and brown sugar for 4 minutes until pale and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour each.
Fold in the rest
Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt, then the milk and vanilla. Fold in two-thirds of the diced apple.
Layer with the cinnamon sugar
Spoon half the batter into the tin and level it. Scatter over two-thirds of the cinnamon sugar. Add the rest of the batter, then the remaining apple and cinnamon sugar on top.
Bake for 50 minutes
Bake for 50–55 minutes. Wet fruit means this one takes longer than it looks like it should; test in two places with a skewer, avoiding an apple pocket.
Release and top
Cool 20 minutes in the tin, then release the ring. Fan thin apple slices over the top while it is still warm so they soften slightly.
Warm the maple and pour
Warm the maple syrup for 30 seconds and pour it over each slice as you serve it. It soaks straight into the cinnamon layer.
Baker's notes
- Real maple syrup, not pancake syrup. The difference is the whole finish of the cake.
- A handful of toasted pecans folded in with the apple makes this considerably more of an autumn cake.
Keeping it 4 days in a tin at room temperature. The apple keeps it moist; it does not freeze as well as the drier cakes here.
Questions, answered
Why is the middle of my apple cake wet?
Under-baked rather than over-wet. Apples release water as they cook, so this needs the full 50–55 minutes, and a skewer can pass through an apple pocket and come out wet even when the cake is done. Test twice, in different spots.
Can I use the same method with pears?
Yes, and it is excellent. Pears are wetter, so dice them a little larger and add 5 minutes to the bake.
If it goes wrong
Three things account for most of what happens to a cake in a domestic oven. Each has its own guide.
- It sank in the middleSeven causes, told apart by the shape of the crater.
- It came out raw in the centreBrown outside, wet inside, and how to rescue the one you are holding.
- The caramel seizedIt is almost always fixable. The lump re-melts.
