Easy Apple Dapple Cake with Caramel Glaze is an amazingly simple, made-from-scratch moist apple cake.
With three cups of apples and a cup of roasted pecans, this old-fashioned cake is a cross between a coffee cake and a quick bread like my Apple Bread or Sweet Potato Bread. But when it’s topped with the luscious caramel glaze, it morphs into an apple dessert lovers’ dream!
The origin of Apple Dapple Cake is a little murky, but it appears that this decadent apple cake has been around for decades and passed down through southern families for generations.
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Cake Ingredients:
- All-purpose flour
- Kosher salt and baking soda
- Pecans – roasted and chopped
- Vegetable oil, you can substitute coconut oil
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs – room temperature
- Vanilla extract
- Apples – I love the combination of Honey Crisp and Granny Smith. However, any variety of apple works, so use your favorite or what you have on hand.
Glaze Ingredients:
- Brown sugar
- Heavy cream – half-and-half or whole milk can be substituted.
- Butter
Step by Step Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
- Generously spray the bottom and sides of a 12-cup bundt pan or angel food tube cake pan with a baking spray containing flour. Or, grease the pan with a tablespoon of butter or shortening. Then, add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and swirl the flour around. Shake or tap the pan to remove any excess.
- Add the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl. Then use an electric mixer to combine the ingredients.
- In a smaller bowl add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix well with a whisk or fork.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine using your electric mixer. The batter will be stiff.
- Add the apples and pecans to the batter and fold in with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake in the oven for one hour.
- About ten minutes before the cake is done, make the Caramel Glaze by combining the brown sugar, cream, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- After the mixture comes to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for about three minutes.
- When the cake is done, remove it from the oven and pour the caramel glaze over it while it is still in the cake pan.
- Place the cake pan on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely before removing the cake. To remove it from the pan, take a plate that is a bit larger than the rim of the cake pan, place it on top of the pan, and holding both the plate and the pan, flip it over. The pan should lift right off!
Recipe FAQs:
Yes, this cake can be made up to 48 hours in advance.
Leftovers can be stored tightly covered on your kitchen counter at room temperature for up to two days. After that, you should store them in the refrigerator.
This cake also freezes well.
You can substitute walnuts, sliced almonds, macadamia nuts, pistachios, and cashews for the pecans in this recipe. You could also add a handful of dried cranberries or cherries if you prefer.
You can substitute firm pears for the apples. If you want to spice things up a bit, you can also add about a teaspoon of cinnamon or nutmeg to the batter.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream would pair nicely with a slice of this cake, or it can be eaten as is.
Sharon’s Tips:
- This recipe calls for baking the cake in a 12-cup bundt pan or angel food cake pan. You can substitute a 10-cup pan, but be aware that the batter will rise to the top when baking and it will be hard to add the caramel glaze without it running over the sides of the pan. If you use the smaller size, you might want to add half of the glaze, then when the cake is removed from the pan, pour on the other half.
- If your pecans are not toasted, place them on a rimmed baking sheet in a preheated 350 °F oven and roast for three to four minutes for pieces or eight to ten minutes for pecan halves.
- When measuring flour, use the spoon and level measuring method. That is, spoon the flour into a measuring cup, then use a straight side of a knife and level it off before adding it to your recipe.
- Non-stick baking spray is made specifically for baking and contains flour. Regular non-stick sprays are not suitable for use in this recipe.
More Apple Recipes:
If you like apples as I do, you might also like these quick and easy recipes!
Here are a few more recipes that feature apples: Sweet Apple and Bacon Club Sandwich, Fish Taco Bowls with Green Apple Guacamole, Crockpot Pork Chops with Apples, and Fall Harvest Salad with Apples.
⭐⭐ ⭐⭐⭐ If you make this dish, please leave a comment and give this recipe a star rating. I would love to know how you liked it!
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📋 Recipe:
Easy Apple Dapple Cake with Caramel Glaze
Equipment
- 12-cup bundt cake pan or angel food cake pan
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup vegetable or coconut oil
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs large or extra-large
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups raw apples peeled and finely chopped (about 3 large apples)
- 1 cup roasted chopped pecans
Caramel Glaze Ingredients
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- ¼ cup heavy cream or half and half
- ¾ cup butter salted or unsalted
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
- Generously spray the bottom and sides of a 12-cup bundt pan or angel food tube cake pan with a baking spray containing flour. Or, grease the pan with a tablespoon of butter or shortening. Then, add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and swirl the flour around. Shake or tap the pan to remove any excess.
- Add the oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla to a large mixing bowl. Then use an electric mixer to combine the ingredients. Set aside.
- In a smaller bowl add the flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix well with a whisk or fork.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and combine using your electric mixer. The batter will be stiff.
- Add the apples and pecans to the batter and fold in with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared cake pan, level it with an offset spatula, and bake in the oven for one hour.
Caramel Glaze
- About ten minutes before the cake is done, make the Caramel Glaze by combining the brown sugar, cream, and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- When the cake is done, remove from the oven and pour the caramel glaze over the hot cake while it is still in the cake pan.
- Place the cake pan on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely before removing the cake. To remove it from the pan, take a plate that is a bit larger than the rim of the cake pan, place it on top of the pan, and holding both the plate and the pan, flip it over. The pan should lift right off!
Notes
Nutrition
Special thanks to my friend Mary Carroll for sharing this recipe with me so I could share it with you!
I am so glad to be on your mailing list and enjoy your recipes so much. I have been kind of looking for a good apple cake recipe. This one caught my eye. I was wondering if it would be OK to cook it in a 9X13 cake pan or glass pan?? If so, would you suggest any changes to the recipe as far as cooking time, temperature, and what to treat the pan with prior to baking. Thank you.
Hi Sandra, I’m so glad you are enjoying my recipes! Thanks so much for letting me know! For a 9×13 pan, bake it at 350 degrees F. for 45 to 50 minutes. Also, if you use a glass pan, you might want to reduce your oven temperature by 25 degrees. I hope you enjoy it!
All the best, Sharon
The recipe sounds so good and wondered if you could make it in mini bundt cake pans? I know you would have to adjust the cooking time.
Hey Judy, I haven’t ever made it in the mini bundt cake pans, but I’m sure it would work just fine! I hope you enjoy it!
Sharon
Just made the Apple Dapple Cake with Caramel Glaze using mini bundt cake pans and it turned out wonderful. I cooked them for 30 minutes and that was perfect. This is definitely a KEEPER Recipe and if I could give it a “10” I would. I am so glad to be on your email list and always look forward to trying your recipes. Thanks so much.
Hi Judy, thank you so much for leaving such a sweet comment! I’m so glad you like this cake. It is one of our favorites too! In fact, I just had a slice of it for breakfast!
All the best,
Sharon
I don’t suppose this cake works very well with canned apple? Just looking to try and use some up that I had and I love apple dapple cake and would love to know if it worked
Hi Anne, I’m sorry, but I have never made it with canned apples, so I can’t say how it would work out. If you do decide to try it, please let me know how it turns out!
All the best,
Sharon
This cake was so good!! Made it for thanksgiving dinner and everyone loved it!! In one of my bites, I tasted liquor flavour but not sure why but it tasted so good. I think this cake with bourbon liquor will be a bomb. Will try it next time
Made this apple cake for Christmas dinner. The whole family’s new favorite! It’s so great and really easy!
Hi Micki,
I’m so glad you enjoyed this cake. It is one of my husband’s favorites too! Thank you so much for letting me know and Happy New Year!
Sharon
This cake is ohhhh sooo good! I added some cinnamon because you NEED it with anything apple (though in this house anything with nutmeg gets tossed out …I’m one of those people that can’t stand that flavor lol) and when it was done i poked holes all over the cake before spreading on the caramel so it could seep inside easier. I may get creative in the future and add peaches or something in place of the apples – I’m sure that would be just as delicious!
Thanks, Jane! You are right and I’ll bet the cinnamon made it even better!
I made this today, for Thanksgiving. It was delicious! And the caramel sauce…oh man! (I had some left over and my husband ate it with bananas! It was so good!)
I was a little worried because, once mixed, the batter was very dense and thick…very unlike a traditional cake. I should have checked the cake after 50 minutes, it was just a tad over done. I also would have saved half of the sauce to put on top of the cake after it was inverted.
I will certainly make this cake again. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thanks so much for sharing Cindy! I’m so glad you liked it. It’s my husband’s absolute favorite cake. I wish I had made it yesterday, I tried a new recipe and unfortunately it bombed…
I don’t usually comment unless I’ve made the recipe but I think it would work well if the apples were not peeled and were grated instead. I too would add cinnamon and save half the sauce. Then serve it with vanilla ice cream and pour the rest of the sauce on top. Any thoughts please?!
Hey Kathleen, I agree with you and think your ideas should delicious! I hope you enjoy it!
Sharon
This recipe sounds good. I’m going to add some spices to it when I make it, maybe some cinnamon and/or nutmeg.
Hi Mary,
I think you will love it and I imagine it will be delicious with some cinnamon and nutmeg.