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 sultana loaf 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.
Ingredients
- applesauce. I use this unsweetened one.
- plain flour
- vegan butter
- sugar
- cinnamon and ground nutmeg
- sultanas
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.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
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.
See more guidelines at USDA.gov.
