Easy Vegan Spiced Apple Cake
A traditional vegan cake, perfect with a cup of tea, my easy vegan spiced apple cake is sweetened with plump sultanas, enhanced with the flavours of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Inspired by other simple, old-fashioned bakes like my Danish apple cake, sultana loaf, quince cake and rock cakes, my vegan apple spice cake is so simple to whip up, lasts ages in the tin, and has such a delicious flavour.
This cake looks deceptively plain, and dare I say it, a bit dry. Like all the best fruit cakes, it certainly isn’t a moist, sticky cake, but more reminiscent of a farmhouse fruitcake, which is one of my favourites. Lighter than a regular fruitcake, the sponge is a simple white sponge, suspending juicy sultanas in its thrall.
It reminds me of the kind of cake that my nan loved, a lighter fruitcake with lots of juicy sultanas. This was the kind of cake that, as a child, I would have ignored, choosing a rich, heavily iced slice of chocolate or coffee cake instead. But nowadays my tastes are a little simpler, and this just hits the spot.
You could make a light sugar icing for this cake if you wanted to fancy it up a bit; I think a lemon water icing would be delicious! Or you could sprinkle some demerara sugar on the top before baking.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- applesauce. I use this unsweetened one.
- plain flour
- vegan butter
- sugar
- cinnamon and ground nutmeg
- sultanas
This is ONLY a list of ingredients for the recipe; please see recipe card below for complete printable recipe.
Instructions
Cream the butter and sugar together
Add the applesauce
Sift in the flour and spices
Fold in the sultanas
Hint: I cover the sultanas with a little boiling water (2-3tbsp) whilst I make the cake batter. This allows the sultanas to plump up, but more importantly, it stops them sinking to the bottom of the cake.
Substitutions
- Sultanas – feel free to use raisins, glace cherries, currants or even dried cranberries
- Flour – use gluten free self-raising white flour instead of white to make this gluten free
Equipment
This cake originally required a 7″ cake tin, although I have used an 8″ tin (you will have a slightly more shallow cake, and remember to reduce the cooking time) because 7″ tins are quite hard to come by these days.
Storage
This cake lasts for quite a while! At least 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
You can freeze this cake once baked and cooled. Wrap in two layers of clingfilm, followed by a layer of tinfoil. To defrost, remove all the layers and thaw at room temperature.
Vegan Spiced Apple Cake
Equipment
- 1 7" cake tin, lined (note: I used an 8" cake tin, but reduced the cooking time)
Ingredients
- 100 g Butter - vegan, softened
- 100 g Sugar
- 100 g Applesauce - unsweetened
- 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 175 g Plain flour
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ tsp Nutmeg - grated
- 75 g Sultanas - softened in a little boiling water, then drained
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150c
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
- Stir in the applesauce. At this point the mixture will look split and curdled. Don't worry, this will rectify as soon as you add the flour.
- Now sift in the flour, bicarb and spices.
- Gently fold into the creamed mixture until all the flour is absorbed.
- Fold in the sultanas.
- Spoon mixture into your lined cake in, levelling with a spatula.
- Bang the tin down on the work surface a couple of times to remove any air bubbles.
- Bake for between 45-50 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool on a baking rack for 5 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely.
Please note that where the recipe asks for milk, butter or yogurt, this refers to any plant-based version that you prefer.
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
