This warming cinnamon apple spice cake is healthy, moist, and incredibly delicious. Made with stewed apples, fall spices, and a cinnamon sugar crust, this apple bread is a slice of heaven you won’t want to miss out on. What’s more, this recipe also happens to be gluten free and made with no refined sugars!
A Childhood Favorite
Growing up, one of my favorite desserts I used to beg my grandma to make around this time of year was this buttery, melt-in-your-mouth apple sauce snack cake from one of her recipe books. My grandma makes some of the best food around and her love of cooking and using fresh ingredients in the kitchen has been a great source of inspiration for my own recipe ideas.
I have fond memories of sitting on a barstool at the kitchen counter and watching attentively as she poured warm melted butter into a bowl and carefully folded in the chunks of dried apples that had been slowly simmering on the stove.
When I close my eyes I can still taste the buttery flavor of the moist cake with its rich apple flavor and streusel topping. This recipe was so delicious that I thought I’d take on the challenge of creating a healthier alternative without all the sugar and butter that comes with the traditional recipe.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s room for the buttery apple cake too 😉 but when you’re looking for a healthier snack or dessert to eat without sacrificing the rich flavor, this healthier version is just the recipe you need.
Melt-in-your-mouth Goodness
This cinnamon apple spice cake is made with healthy, natural, and unprocessed ingredients, is lower in sugar and made with olive oil for a boost of heart healthy fat!
It is naturally sweetened with a 1/3 cup of maple syrup to add depth of flavor and richness. The moist consistency and rich flavor comes from the combination of using olive oil, unsweetened apple sauce, and diced apples stewed in apple cider!
This delicious bread, cake, loaf (whatever you choose to turn it into) is the ideal afternoon snack to have alongside some tea or dunked in a cold glass of milk.
Stewed Apples
The key to getting a rich apple flavor is to stew the diced apples in about 3/4 cup of spiced apple cider for 20-30 minutes. You want to first add your diced apples (about 2 small apples or 3/4 cup of diced apples) to a saucepan and turn the heat to medium.
Once you hear a hissing sound from the pot you want to add in the apple cider and stir. Once the mixture comes to a boil, turn the heat to low and cover it. Let the apples simmer for about 20-25 minutes with a lid on, stirring occasionally until most of the liquid is gone. Lastly, you want to drain the rest of the liquid out so you are just left with you apples.
Cooking the apples in apple cider infuses them with even more apple flavor and softens the apples so that your bread remains moist.
The Batter
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a loaf pan with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, add the applesauce, maple syrup, egg, olive oil, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Once the apples are done stewing, drain the liquid from the saucepan and add only the stewed apples to the bowl. Mix to combine.
In another bowl, whisk together the flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
If you don’t have any oat flour but have a big bag of rolled oats lying around like I do, don’t fret! All you have to do is blend rolled oats in a food processor or blender until it resembles a fine flour!
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold the mixture with a spatula to combine. Once combined, pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
Cinnamon Sugar Crust
Trust, me you’re not gonna want to skip out on this cinnamon sugar topping. It covers the apple cake in a thin layer of crunchy, sugary goodness that is hard to resist.
In a small bowl, mix the coconut sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle this mixture all over the top of the batter to coat in a thin layer.
Note: if you do not have coconut sugar you can also substitute it for regular dark brown sugar!
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing from the pan and serving. Enjoy!
I hope you get to give this recipe a try while apples are in their prime season! If you have a bunch of apples lying around from a recent apple picking adventure, you might want to give this recipe a try! You’ll be thanking me later 🙂
Can’t wait for you guys to try this recipe! If you make my healthy apple snack cake I’d really appreciate if you could leave a comment and star rating on this post.
As always, be sure to tag me on instagram @sipandscone if you want to share this recipe! I can’t wait to see your re-makes of this delicious treat 🙂
Liked this recipe? Check out some of my latest recipes!
- Butternut Squash Carrot Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
- Apple Cinnamon Scones
- Sausage, Kale, Butternut Squash Pasta
- Mushroom, Sun-dried Tomato, and Jamón Serrano Pasta
- Roasted Red Pepper Pumpkin Pasta
Have a wonderful week,
Sip & Scone
Cinnamon Apple Spice Cake
Ingredients
- 2 small apples; diced about 3/4 cup diced- reduces to about 1/2 cup once its stewed in the apple cider.
- 3/4 cup spiced apple cider substitute for regular apple cider
- 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cup almond flour
- 3/4 cup oat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
Cinnamon Sugar Crust
- 1 1/2 tbsp coconut sugar substitute for dark brown sugar
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Heat a saucepan on medium heat. Dice 2 small apples (about 3/4 cup chopped) into small pieces and add them to the saucepan. After about a minute, add the 3/4 cup of apple cider to the saucepan and increase the heat. Once bubbling, reduce the heat to low and simmer the mixture for 20-25 minutes on low heat with the lid on, stirring occasionally. You know the apples are done when most of the liquid is gone and the apples are soft. Drain the liquid and save only the apples.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a loaf pan with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl add the applesauce, maple syrup, egg, olive oil, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine. Add the stewed apples to the bowl. Mix to combine.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold the mixture with a spatula to combine.
- Once combined, pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
- In a small bowl mix the coconut sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle this mixture all over the top of the batter to coat in a thin layer.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing carefully from the pan and serving. Enjoy!
So delicious and nutritious, I love it!
It’s the first rainy cold day here. I think I will cheer up with this recipe. Thanks. Beth and Jim
You’re going to love this recipe! It is especially ideal for a cold and rainy day!
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!