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2011French Apple Cake
When I was an au pair in France, my host mother loved to entertain. Her style was simple and elegant and she often finished a meal with rustic fruit desserts that highlighted the season’s bounty. This French apple cake, with chunks of sweet apples nestled in a tender, buttery rum cake, was one of her specialties. Of course she made it effortlessly, barely measuring a thing, much in the same way she’d tie a scarf perfectly without even trying.
Unfortunately, I never mastered the scarf thing, but I did learn how to bake her delicious apple cake. Here goes…
Begin with the simplest ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, sweet baking apples, vanilla, rum, eggs and salt.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a small bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time.
Mix in the vanilla extract and rum.
Slowly beat in the flour mixture.
Fold in the chopped apples.
Pour the batter into a cake pan and sprinkle with sugar. This makes a nice top crust.
Bake the cake until lightly golden. Serve warm, with or without lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!
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French Apple Cake
Printable Recipe
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned into measuring cup and leveled off with knife
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling over cake
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons dark rum
2 sweet baking apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch cubes (such as honeycrisp, fuji or golden delicious)
Confectioners’ sugar (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch springform or regular cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
3. Using a handheld mixer with beaters or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffly, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down sides of bowl after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Don’t worry if the batter looks grainy. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, fold in chopped apples.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar. Bake cake for about 40 minutes, or until cake is lightly golden and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cake to cool until just warm. Run a blunt knife around the edges of the cake and remove sides of springform pan if using. Dust with Confectioners’ sugar if desired. Cake can be served warm or room temperature, with or without lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Britt W
I’ve made something similar while camping in a Dutch oven. It was delicious but not as refined as this lol. I’ll definitely have to try this one at home!
Vaniljekjeks
That looks lovely and very easy. Living in Norway, the apple cake is a delicacy, and mine is quite perfect… however, it lacks rum. I am trying this one!
Monica S
I was wondering if I had to use real rum, or if I could use rum extract instead, since its such a small amount. We don’t usually uave hard drinks like that here for very long. Thanks!
Jennifer
Hi Monica, I’d encourage you to use real rum. The flavor is essential to the recipe and leaving it out will change the texture of the cake as well. Sorry! Sometimes I buy the mini bottles if I can find them.
Carole McKibben
I only have spiced rum, which I think might be nice. What do you think?
Beautiful1000000
I tried it and it was great! I love how your recipes are to the point, like here is what you need and how to do it. I also like that your recipes can be printed pretty much on one page as well. When I used to find recipes on other sites it used to print 3 pages of adds that could not be removed.. I have been making your recipes for a while now and they are all great. Keep up the great work!
Beautiful1000000
I also love the fact that you recipes do not require tons of ingredients like other sites most you have on hand already
Louisa
I just took mine out of the oven, and it does not look as fluffy as yours…mine is very flat…followed the directions exactly…what could I have done wrong?
Cory
I’ve already made this twice! It’s wonderful; thank you for sharing! I used spiced rum and thought it was perfect (I’m not a rum lover and find dark rum too much for me). I also added a pinch of cinnamon.
Lisa
Delicious cake!!! Made this for dessert tonight and there wasn’t a crumb left. Thank you!
Jennifer
Hi Louisa,
It’s not really a high cake. It measures just shy of 1-1/2″ tall. If you’re looking at it in a 9-inch cake pan, you should see about an inch of the pan over the cake. Sometimes the photos can be a bit deceiving b/c of the angle. If it’s flatter than mine, the only thing I can think of is that your pan is too large or your baking powder might be expired. Hope that helps, and for what it’s worth, it should still taste wonderful even if it is a little flat. Hope it turns out!
kim reaser
made this this afternoon….very good!! simple too. loved the slightly crunchy top….i did top w/ a little cinnamon along w/ the sugar.. thanks for such great recipes…have enjoyed several.
Karen Tannenbaum
I made this today and it looks, smells, and tastes delicious. I was wondering if you have ever tried vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract. I love using it especially when my baked goods are light colored because you can see the vanilla specks which I find is an added dimension, visually. I have vanilla paste in the same brand of vanilla extract you have in the picture. I used honeycrisp apples and bought extra to eat. You have done it again! Divine simplicity.
Neelu
Can rum be replaced with something else?? We do not drink ….
WeLoveChicken
I make apple cake pretty often but I’ve never added rum. I’ll try next time.
Jennifer
Neelu, Rum is an important flavor in this cake but perhaps you could try apple cider instead for a more intense apple flavor. You might also want to bump up the vanilla a bit, or even add a teaspoon of cinnamon to replace the rum flavor.
Tamyla Abraham
I have made this cake eight times and everyone loves it. The rum and apples were hit at school and at our community Rosh HaShana party.
Lora
This cake is delicious! And the texture is divine. I actually used almond extract since I didn’t have rum or vanilla on-hand. Thank you for sharing!
John S
Chef,
I’m a recent culinary school graduate and enjoy your e-mails. I tried this cake, my wife loves it and I also introduced it to the chef that I work under and it has been added to our desert menu.
Thank you.
Mrs. KD
Thank you for your input regarding substitutions for the rum. I often shy away from recipes that include alcohol because I understand that it is an important factor to the overall results. I can not use any alcohol, whether or not the recipe is cooked. Having options is encouraging me to attempt this recipe. Much appreciation!
Elizabeth
Thanks so much for the wonderful recipe. I read your post, realized I had everything on hand and needed to kill time my kids (2 and 4). With my two helpers we had this baby in the oven in about 20 minutes or so. Super easy. It came out so moist and tasty. Mine stuck to the bottom of the pan, but I think I didn’t flip it soon enough. I don’t really taste the rum now, but maybe that is because I was drinking a rum and coke with dinner
.
Patti
Made this for the third time to bring to a friend’s house for Thanksgiving. Each time it came out great … wonderfully simple & tasty. Thanks for this recipe.
Cory
I have made this several times, and it is wonderful. I use spiced rum and add a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon. Thanks for sharing your great recipes and ideas with us!
Andrew
This is one of my favorite recipes from your site. Hard to find a dessert that isn’t so heavy. I love apple pie but I might like this apple cake better!
Danita
I need to add this to my pinterest recipe board so I can remember to make it once we move into our new home and I get my kitchen stuff out of storage.
Kelsey Quane
Love this recipe. Ate it for dessert and breakfast with coffee the next day. Can’t wait to try it with other fruits.
Linda
My mother made this cake way back when. I hadn’t thought of it until I read your recipe. There were 6 of us in our family so there were never any leftovers. I always wished she would make two, so there would be an extra piece for the late-night snack. I have to make this. Thanks for the memories.
Victoria
I have made this like … five times. For myself. I eat all of it. I justify this by the fact that it is mostly apple, which is healthy, right??
But seriously, this cake is SO GOOD. I love apple pie, apple crisps, and apple muffins … this apple cake has joined my list of favorites.
I was worried when I baked it for the first time, because it seemed like there wasn’t enough “cake,” but it bakes up so nice and fluffy. I also use whiskey instead of rum and it goes very well (smells and tastes delicious!); also I like to dust some powdered sugar on top. Deeeelicious.
Mary
This cake is very elegant and in appearance and taste. My son-in-law, who lived in France as a child loves it! Thank you for the recipe!
Liesel
Ooh la la! This has become one of my husband’s favorite desserts. The rum favor and the texture of the chopped apples is perfect. It is so simple to make. I have started sprinkling a bit of turbinado sugar on the top before baking, which adds a nice crunch. We typically serve with whipped cream. My oldest son usually finishes any leftovers for breakfast.
Jenn
Love your idea on the turbinado sugar, Liesel. Thank you for the suggestion.
Brecken
I must try this! I don’t care if I’m on a diet. It’s all in your head anyway… right? … Right?
Marsha in FL
I’m not a great cook but this recipe turned out really well. I think the cake is good even two days later after being in the refrig. I did not have dark rum so bought a small airline bottle size of Bacardi Gold, a lighter rum and it worked fine. I’m not a rum fan and I did taste a slight rum flavor at first but found it was ok for me. My husband did not even taste the rum. I used a 9 1/2 inch springform because that is what I had but otherwise followed the recipe exactly.
Carol
I’m thinking about serving this for Easter breakfast!!!!
Cake for breakfast!!!
debb
Oh this was good, this was very good. I have a friend who loves apple cake so I made this for his birthday. I was lucky to get a bite of this. Rich and full of lovely flavors!
Schmidty
I used the light rum and it came out just fine. The powdered sugar adds the perfect amount of sweetness.
Lisa Ballantyne
This is definitly going to be made soon. I LOVE your site!
Cheryl
Very nice cake that can be for a brunch as well as an any time dessert.