This soft, moist applesauce cake is packed with wholesome ingredients and a delicious classic apple flavor your whole family will love.
The best applesauce cake
If you’ve been on a search for the best homemade applesauce cake recipe around, this one will not let you down!
Light and fluffy, with just 9 ingredients (yes, really), it is 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. It can even be oil free. This is a really great way to use up extra applesauce.
Also try this popular Crustless Pumpkin Pie
“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.”
-Mina
*Featured comment*
Healthy applesauce cake from scratch
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 does not rely on a box. Cake from scratch always tastes better.
It envelops the entire kitchen in a sweet cinnamon aroma as you are baking and makes you want to cozy up next to a warm fireplace, fork in hand.
How to make the recipe
Step one: Start by gathering the ingredients and greasing an 8-inch baking pan or lining it with parchment paper.
Step two: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, whisk all liquid ingredients, then stir in remaining ingredients to form a batter.
Step three: Smooth the batter into the prepared baking pan. Place it on the oven’s center rack to cook for 18 minutes or until perfectly fluffy. Let cool.
Step four: 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 am 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. However, regular white or brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar also work. Granulated erythritol or xylitol are likely fine to use as well, although I haven’t tried them here.
Step by step recipe video
Above, watch the video showing how to make an applesauce cake.
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 vinegar
- 1 1/2 cups flour (white, spelt, or oat)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon and optional 1/4 tsp allspice
- optional 1/2 cup raisins, chopped walnuts, or shredded coconut
Instructions
- To make homemade applesauce cake, first preheat the 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
Video
Notes
More Healthy Cake Recipes
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 🙂
When you say unrefined sugar, do you mean options like honey or maple syrup? What other choices do I have? Thanks.
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.
Wonderful cake! We are eating it for breakfast again this morning 🙂
Made it for Thanksgiving and it was soft and moist. People liked it even more than some of the unhealthy high calorie desserts!
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.
Try melted coconut butter 🙂 https://lett-trim.today/how-to-make-coconut-butter/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
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. 🙂
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….
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://lett-trim.today/easy-cinnamon-rolls-recipe/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
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 🙂
Hello if I wanted to make this with almond flour what would be the adjustments if any?
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://lett-trim.today/keto-birthday-cake/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
I’ve used 1/3 of each (1/2cup each) of almond flour, oat, and Bob’s 1-1. No changes necessary. 🙂
Nutrition facts is based on oil or applesauce as an ingredient (since you gave that option in the recipe)?
The nutrition facts have a table for each 😉
Thanks ha ha sorry I didn’t scroll down, didn’t know there’s more info below.
If I wanted to make this in a Bundt pas would you suggest doubling the recipe and obviously increasing the bake time?
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.
The applesauce cake is awesome and so easy to make, it didn’t last long in my home. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for making it 🙂
Perfect little healthy snack cake! My two kids and husband all gobbled it up!
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?
Cinnamon buttercream sounds amazing! It can definitely be doubled. We’ve had good results with Bob’s gf in terms of gluten free.
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! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We loved this applesauce cake. I made a maple glaze and everyone enjoyed it. Great recipe!
My applesauce is in the fridge. Do I need to take it out to put it to room temperature?
I mixed mine with warm water to bring it to room temperature.