Easy French apple cake
This delicious and easy to make French apple cake recipe is made with only four simple ingredients: apples, sugar, flour and eggs. No baking powder is needed.
I’ve mentioned before that I prefer desserts that are easy and simple to make. Whenever I have friends over for dinner, I usually get caught up in making several different courses and tend to run out of time for dessert. I’ve learned to delegate dessert to Nicolas, who likes to keep it simple. He loves making this apple cake and considers it an example of a delicious dessert can be simple to make.
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Last summer we were lucky enough to spend some time in the south of France. We stayed with Nico’s aunt Lilou, who happens to be an amazing cook and spoiled us with some of the best meals ever. One of her desserts was this apple cake, it was so good, I had to ask her to share the recipe. Nico was in charge of taking notes for Lilou’s recipes and he also prepares this cake most of the time when we make it at home.
This delicious apple cake is one of the easiest cakes you will ever make. I was actually somewhat scared the first time I saw Nico make it. I was sure he had missed some ingredients, how can you make a cake without baking powder or butter or milk? But, it worked and the cake turned out just like Lilou’s.
This apple cake can be served warm or cold; it can be served as is or accompanied by ice-cream. You can also serve it for dessert or have a slice with cup of afternoon coffee. This cake can also be made with a variety of other fruits: strawberries, blueberries, pears, pineapple, peach, etc – the only adjustment is that based on the amount of moisture in the fruit, you might need to bake it for slightly longer (or less).
Easy French apple cake
Ingredients
- 6 ounces of sugar (regular) 6 oz of sugar = 170 grams of sugar = ~3/4 cup
- 6 ounces of flour (all purpose) 6 oz of flour = 170 grams of flour = ~1 1/3 cups
- 3 large eggs
- 3 large apples peeled and cut in small chunks
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400F degrees.
- Mix the eggs with the sugar using an electric mixer for about 2 minutes.
- Use a flat wooden spoon to slowly stir in the flour until the batter is smooth.
- Mix in the apple chunks, pour the cake batter into a buttered and floured cake mold – we used a round 9 inch cake pan.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 400F, then lower to 360F (or 350F is your oven doesn’t have a 360F option) degrees and bake for the approximately 30 minutes or until it turns golden. To test if the cake is done insert a toothpick into the middle, if it comes out clean, then the cake is done.
Video Recipe for French Apple Cake
Step by step preparation photos for this simple french apple cake
I absolutely LOVE this recipe. It is my go to when I need an impressive dessert and I’m short on time. Or crave something sweet but not too sweet. (I also use this as a breakfast food). My favorite version is with strawberries. Apples are good. I’ve tried pineapple but had to cook it for about an hour- that was good but not as great as strawberries. Thus try not to use a juicy fruit. For the Americans here- the flour is about 1 1/3 cups and sugar about 2/3. It comes out kind of thick as batter. Like a watery bread dough. Don’t worry. The cake is so lite and spongy. There really isn’t another cake like it. Perfect with tea or coffee for a light snack or creme fraiche or ice cream as dessert. But better yet it’s amazing by itself.
I appreciate you sharing this recipe.
That apple cake looks so divine and the recipe is so simple. Love it ! :)
So when you say ounces in this recipe are you going by weight or like 6 ounces as in 3/4 of a cup
It’s based on weight
silly question probably .. but i dont cook much cakes from scratch .. so when you say flour is that plain flour or self raising ?
:)
It’s regular all purpose flour :)
Looks delicious, I’m a little skeptical but I can’t wait to try it.
On the rare occasions that I make dessert, I serve it with coffee about an hour after dinner. I made your apple cake today and no sooner than my husband finished his last bit of dinner he grabbed a knife and headed over to the cake. He loved it! We all did. I made it just as your recipe says. Why change perfection. It is going to be a regular at our house. I’ve also pinned it on Pinterest and posted it on Facebook. When I find something this easy and this perfect I’ve just got to share. Thanks! I’ll be checking out your other recipes too.
Cynthia
Hi, I want to bake this apple cake, it looks amazing. What baking pan size did you use? 8″ or 9″?
I used a 9″ pan
I made it and it is the best! Thank you!!
I made this and it looked nothing like the picture. Next time I will use a smaller pan, (I used a 10 in springform) less apples and more flour. There were too many apples and not enough cake… but it still tasted delicious since I served it heated with the Miel de Panela and whipped cream.
Oh and also made cake with cage free large eggs, grass feed cow butter, organic brown sugar and all organic ingredients. Big difference!!!
Added some powder cinnamon and it end up just amazing, highly recommended. :)