Fall is my favorite season – I love the crisp air, football games, scarves, boots, crunchy leaves, and pumpkin spice lattes. And most of all, I love fall baking! What better time of year for apple cobbler fresh from the oven? And what other season can you get away with drizzling caramel on everything, or depleting the supermarket bounty of pumpkin puree?
I’ve been so swamped with schoolwork, studying for one last SAT, and writing sitting in front of a blank page waiting for inspiration for my college essays, that I haven’t even done any fall baking and it’s already October. Thank God I am never, ever, ever (a la Taylor Swift) taking the SAT again after today; this calls for celebration, in the form of Jewish apple cake!
My mom first bought these round cakes with a crunchy outside filled with tender apple slices from Whole Foods. They came in a paper liner, which I would scrape the crumbs off of because it was that good. I scoured the Internet for a copycat recipe, but never found one that was specifically for the Whole Foods version. I did find out though, that this cake is not called ‘Jewish’ because it is particularly religious, but because it is made without dairy (orange juice and oil instead of milk and butter). It’s also apparently more regional than cultural.
P.S. I had the kitchen window open when the loaves were baking, so there was this glorious breeze and the cinnamon and apple scents wafted all over the house and I really just can’t get over how perfect the weather was for making this cake. Also I took these pictures during the sunset and got this gorgeous golden wash of light.
- 4 large granny smith apples
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 C sugar for batter
- 4 TB sugar for apples
- 3 C flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 1 C vegetable oil
- 1/2 C orange juice
- 1 T vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350 F, and grease 2 8.5×4.5″ baking pans. Set aside.
- Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples and toss with the cinnamon and 4 TB sugar, until all the surfaces are coated.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and rest of the sugar. In a large bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl in 2-3 additions, incorporating each time. Mix on medium speed until smooth, then divide the batter into two bowls.
- Pour half the batter from one of the two bowls into a greased pan. Generously layer apple slices on top, then pour the rest of the batter on top of the apple slices. End with pressing a single layer of the apples into the batter. Repeat with the other loaf pan and the second bowl of batter. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top (optional), and bake for about 1 hour 15 min, or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Adapted from Curiously Ravenous and With a Grateful Prayer & Thankful Heart
this is such a delicious recipe! i’ve made it a few times following the recipe but this time I tried making a healthier version (so my diabetic grandma could have more) which was also delicious. I used whole wheat flour and Baker’s blend Truvia instead of regular sugar. And the biggest tweak of all….my oven stopped working so I made this in my toaster oven at 300 degrees for an hour. Still came out amazing though, thanks Christina!!
It says to add 4TB of sugar and 2 cups sugar. Later when reading it mentions salt, which is mot a listed ingredient. Am I to assume that the 4TB of sugar is salt? It seems like a lot so I jut wanted to check.
Good catch! I accidentally left out the amount of salt, which should be 1 tsp. The 4 TB sugar is to toss with the cinnamon and apples, and the 2 cups goes in the batter, which is why they were listed separately. I’ve edited the recipe to hopefully be more clear. Thanks for pointing that out!
just baked this cake and it’s heavenly — the best apple cake ever. i’ve changed a few things (used butter instead of oil, powdered sugar instead of granulated, vanilla and not plain sugar to cover the apples, added grated orange rind to the apples and used all-purpose gluten-free flour with a little coconut flour as i didn’t have enough GF flour for the recipe). can’t wait to give your other recipes a try!
This is a great recipe, thank you. My husband is particular about his food, especially, what I fix from scratch. If he says it’s good, it’s great! I usually get it’s fine, so it passed with flying colors. I did use half oil/half applesauce. Next time I may try adding some nutmeg or mace, just for fun. Off to try some more new recipes, after 27 years, we need to add new, healthy foods! Thank you!
I made this, and I cannot seem to get the bottom cooked without the top burning. I have left it in over an hour and I have a convection oven. I adjusted the temp from a standard oven to convection. By any chance, is your oven convection? Thank you!
Hi Francesca,
I have never had a convection oven, unfortunately so I can’t speak to that, but perhaps you could bake it in a more shallow dish and adjust the baking time accordingly?
Kudos to you for an amazing recipe!! I followed your recipe and did not change a thing and it came out perfectly. DELISH!!
Thanks, Noreen! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Convection cooks hotter then normal. I usually have to adjust my temperature 15 degrees less when using convection
thanks for the tip, marybeth! hope this helps other readers!
This will now be my fourth time baking this incredibly addictive cake for Thanksgiving. I don’t think my mother-in-law will allow me to attend Thanksgiving, unless I bring it, b/c now its a ‘tradition.’ So warning this cake is so fantastic once your family has a taste you may be responsible for baking it for all foreseeable holidays. So thank you for this recipe…I think (wink)
1 T of vanilla? Is that teaspoon or tablespoon?
Big T for Tablespoon! I switched recipe programs so I can’t go in and edit it, but let me know what you think!
I am so late but wow am I stunned about the ability to change the serving size! This alone makes me super excited about the recipe xD
Me too, because I almost always cut every recipe in half. This made it a lot easier!!
I’m so glad it’s a useful feature! Enjoy 🙂
Thank you!!!! Make this cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas but is great anytime.
I just baked this cake and found that 1 hour is too long. It’s my fault that I didn’t check the loaves at about 45 minutes
Thanks for reporting back! Baking times can be affected by a number of things, from altitude to what type of pan you bake in, to your individual oven temperatures and what part of the oven you place the pan in. Sometimes it takes a little trial and error, but always a good idea to start checking earlier than later 🙂
I adjusted ingredients for one loaf and used one tablespoon of cinnamon with apples and tossed with half a cup of sugar. I still used 1 cup of sugar in the batter. Yes, I like my sweetness. My only issue is apples sink to the bottom. I just saw a video where the person dusted apples with flour as to not sink. I’ll try that next time.
Love this recipe. How long to bake if you make one cake instead of 2 loaves?
I’ve never made it with just one loaf (trust me, it goes fast!) but probably around the same time – just keep an eye on it!
Thanks for this recipe. I discovered this a couple years back and will not make this apple cake any other way. I like that it makes 2 loaves! Delicious!