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Teddie's Apple Cake

Name: Teddie's Apple Cake
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 15 min
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups olive oil/vegetable oil/canola oil; 1 cup (200 gram) sugar (Note 1); 3 large size eggs; 3 cups (360 gram) all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon vanilla; 3 cups peeled, cored, and diced apples; 1 cup chopped walnuts; 1 cup raisins/dates/cranberries (Note 2)

Last updated: Dec 1, 2020 — Published: Dec 1, 2020 — By: Anita — 5 comments

If you need an apple cake recipe, I highly recommend this classic recipe from the New York Times. This cake is so delicious, and it doesn't need butter nor icing.

This apple cake recipe a classic that makes its first appearance in The New York Times in 1973. It is the perfect recipe to use up those extra apples that are sitting on your kitchen counter, and if you bake regularly, you most probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry.

Although there is no butter in the cake, it is very moist and delicious, and the apples shine through because of it.

And it is quite adaptable too. Feel free to use pecan instead of walnut, or cranberries, dates, sultanas, or prunes instead of the more traditional raisins.

Ingredients for Teddie's apple cake

We will need olive oil (or vegetable oil/canola oil), sugar, eggs, all-purpose flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, vanilla, apples, walnuts, and raisins/dates/cranberries.

If you want to, you can replace olive oil with the same amount of melted butter, though I highly suggest replacing only 50% of the amount with butter and keep the remaining 50% as oil.

Although most people will automatically reach for Granny Smith for baking, you can use other varieties, such as Jonagold, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, and Pink Lady.

If you want, you can soak the dried fruits in dark rum or brandy (about 1/4 cup) for extra flavor.

(1) Beat olive oil and sugar. (2) Add eggs and beat until creamy. (3) Sift in all-purpose flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking soda. (4) Add vanilla, apples, walnuts, and dates.

How to bake the cake

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit (180 Celsius). Butter a 10-inch bundt pan and coat with sugar.

Beat oil and sugar in a mixing bowl for 5 minutes. Add eggs and beat until creamy.

Sift in all-purpose flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and beat until just combined. Add vanilla, apples, walnut, and dried fruits and stir until well mixed.

Transfer the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 65-75 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 10 minutes in the pan, then remove to a wire cake and cool completely. Cut the cake into serving slices and serve at room temperature.

(5) Generously grease a bundt pan with butter, and coat with sugar. (6) Pour batter into the bundt pan. (7) Bake in 350 Fahrenheit oven. (8) Remove the apple cake from the pan and cool on a wire rack.

Other cake pans to use

If you don’t own a bundt pan, you can use other cake pans too, such as:

a 9" tube pan, the same baking time
four mini loaf pans, bake for 30-35 minutes
two 8-inch round pans, bake for 40-45 minutes
a 9"x13" pan, bake for 40-45 minutes

Storing the cake

Store any leftover in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

If you plan to freeze the cake, wait until the cake is cool before wrapping it with two layers of saran plastic and place it in the freezer. It should stay fresh for two months at a minimum.

Remove frozen cake from the freezer and let it thaw to room temperature on the kitchen counter.