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This moist apple coffee cake is full of fall flavor with warm apple spices, fresh diced apple, and cinnamon crumble topping.
If you’re like me, you love a good, tender, flavorful cake to serve guests at tea time or to serve yourself at breakfast with a hot cup of coffee.
This apple coffee cake is layered beautifully with a delicious, moist cake, apple pie spiced apples, and a deep, sweet brown sugar crumble.
Served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream, or a drizzle of vanilla glaze, this coffee cake is absolute perfection.
Get ready to be invited to everyone’s tea time after they try a slice of this apple cake.
Craving more fall cake? Try my Pumpkin Spice Latte Coffee Cake or my Sourdough Discard Cinnamon Crumb Cake. What about more apple recipes? Try this apple crostata!
Ingredients for apple coffee cake
For the cake:
- All-purpose flour – A simple cake ingredient that helps hold your cake together.
- Brown and white sugars – The brown sugar will add a deep molasses flavor, while the white sugar will add sweetness.
- Unsalted butter – This is the fat of choice for our cake, to add moisture.
- Baking powder – Baking powder helps give the cakes a tender crumb.
- Vanilla extract – Vanilla extract helps bring all of the flavors together and adds sweetness.
- Eggs – Eggs help to emulsify and bring the batter together.
- Kosher salt – Even desserts need balance with a little salt to help bring out the flavors.
- Milk – Milk will add moisture and fat to our cake to keep it moist.
For crumble:
- Brown sugar – The brown sugar will add a deep molasses flavor.
- All-purpose flour – This will help create the crumbles.
- Melted butter – Melted butter is the fat of choice used here to help bring everything together.
- Diced apples – Take care to dice the apples as uniformly as possible so they cook evenly!
- Cinnamon or apple pie spice – This will add warmth and flavor to our crumble.
Apple varieties
In your local grocery store, there’s usually a huge variety of apples to choose from!
So how do you know which ones will be best for this apple coffee cake?
My favorite type of apple to use for this recipe is granny smith, pink lady, or Honeycrisp because they are crispy, crunchy, sweet, and tangy.
They also hold their shape and don’t dissolve when cooked down.
I would stay away from McIntosh, gala, fuji, or red delicious. These are often mealy apples and are not very good to use in this application.
Making your own apple pie spice
Apple pie spice blends can vary by brand, but it’s oh-so-easy to make your own!
My favorite combination is equal parts cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.
But feel free to throw in some ginger, or cardamom too!
Vanilla glaze for coffee cake
A simple vanilla glaze would be perfectly drizzled on top of this apple coffee cake.
Simply take a cup of powdered sugar, a tablespoon of unsalted butter, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, stir together and add just enough milk until the mixture comes together in a loose, runny consistency.
Storage and leftovers
Leftovers of this apple coffee cake can be stored in an airtight container and left at room temperature on the counter for up to 2 days.
More apple recipes
- Craving a warm crisp? Try my Brown Butter Vanilla Bean Apple Crisp.
- Love hand pies? Try my Easy Apple Turnovers.
- Need something sweet? Try my Caramel Apple Dump Cake.
- Want apples and pumpkin together? Try my Streusel Topped Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie.
Apple Coffee Cake
Ingredients
For cake:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
For crumble:
- 1-1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons apple pie spice
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 apples, peeled and diced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick spray, set aside.
- Place softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in a large bowl.
- Use an electric mixer to cream your mixture until light and fluffy. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Note: it’s essential that ingredients are at room temperature so butter and sugar emulsion don’t break when adding the eggs.
- Add one egg at a time and mix after each addition.
- Next, add vanilla extract and combine.
- In a different bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add ⅓ of the flour mixture into the egg mixture bowl.
- Stir to combine and add ¼ cup of milk and combine.
- Follow with ⅓ of flour, stir, and then another ¼ cup of milk. Finish by combining the remaining flour. Set it aside.
- Prepare the apple crumble by mixing all the crumble ingredients until well combined.
- Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared baking pan, followed by ½ of the apple crumble.
- Then, add the remaining batter and the crumble on top.
- Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick, comes out clean.
- Let it cool to room temperature before unmolding it.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My husband loves the taste of coffee in his dessert. This will be my project for this afternoon, thanks!