What Makes The Best Apple Oatmeal Cake
The key to the best apple cake ever is lots of apples, some oatmeal and a secret ingredient I will soon reveal. This cake is easy, moist and quick to mix up and I promise you’ll get rave reviews from your family.

Crisp Sweet Apples Perfect For Baking
I have partnered once again with Cosmic Crisp apples to showcase these beautiful and versatile apples. Classically bred at Washington State University, these non-GMO apples are crispier and sweeter than other varieties. These are now available across Canada at most major retailers.

An Apple That Doesn’t Brown As Quickly
You might have tried my Crisp Apple Fennel Salad recipe made using these apples. Cosmic Crisps are perfect in raw recipes because they take longer to get brown after cutting but they also make a beautiful baked apple too! A cross between Honeycrisp and Enterprise, they have taken on the best qualities of each of these apples.

Pantry Staples
I almost always have apples in my crisper (the best place to store them). They are versatile in school and work lunches, handy for salads (dress up your usual coleslaw with some shredded apple!), and always a crowd favourite in desserts from cake to pie, crumble to baked and everything in between. I bet most of you can relate.

A Moist And Tender Cake
I developed this recipe with a few things in mind. Most importantly it has to be tasty, tender and moist! Next, I like to have a few healthy ingredients in my dessert. It makes me feel better enjoying it with coffee midday or adding to my daughters lunch bag. In addition to apples (full of vitamins, antioxidants and fiber), this apple oatmeal cake is enriched with eggs and oatmeal which add even more fiber and lots of protein while creating a moist cake with a good crumb.

The Secret Ingredient
Mildly spiced with cardamom, cinnamon and cloves and loaded with 3 cups of apples, this whole cake disappeared within 36 hours. I should mention that there are only 3 of us here and one of us is only 7. And now for the secret ingredient reveal…..apple cider vinegar! Just a tablespoon of this apple vinegar adds some acidity and an extra lift to the baking soda keeping the cake nice and light.
I have made this cake both with and without peeling the apples. I am sure many of you have strong feelings on this. The peels soften during cooking and hold much of the fiber and vitamins so I am happy to simply core and chop my apples. This is purely personal preference but I’d love to hear below what you all do-to peel or not to peel?
Everyday Ingredients, Extraordinary Cake
Simple right?! Normal everyday ingredients that most of us have in the pantry and fridge come together to make this luscious apple dessert. You can also bake this in a bundt pan, it will take approximately the same length of time.

Look for the Cosmic Crisp Apples and try them next time you’re at the grocery store. Here’s the link to Cosmic Crisp Washington Apples if you’d like to find out more about them.
(Did you know they got their name from the “cosmic” shaped little markings on them coupled with their crisp texture?)

Cheers friends, Have a great day!
Sabrina
PS. If you love the linens and other items in these pictures, check out our West Coast Kitchen Garden shop for all of these and more.

Best Apple Oatmeal Cake
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 1/2 c Butter, unsalted (Bring to room temperature) (If you use salted butter, reduce salt to 1/4 tsp)
- 1.5 c Brown Sugar
- 4 Eggs Standard size large eggs
- 1/2 c Milk I used whole milk, 1% and 2% work well too
- 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Dry Ingredients
- 1 c All Purpose Flour
- 1 c Quick Oats
- 3/4 tsp each, Baking Soda and Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt (use only 1/4 tsp if you've used salted butter)
- 1/4 tsp each, Ground Cinnamon, Cardamom, Nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
- 3 Cosmic Crisp Apples, chopped in 1/4" pieces (Peeled or unpeeled are both fine) (Approx 3 cups of chopped apples)
Instructions
- Place oven rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350'F. Grease and flour a 9" round pan or line with parchment paper.
- In a bowl with mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, beating until combined, then add the rest of the wet ingredients and beat until mixed. ( Your mixture may be a bit lumpy looking if your milk and eggs are cold as they will firm up the butter. This is ok, but if you want to avoid this, you can bring all your ingredients to room temperature before starting.
- In a separate bowl, mix together all dry ingredients except apple.
- Gently fold or beat dry ingredients into the wet until mixed. Do not overmix, a few small lumps are fine. Then fold in the apple. Pour batter into pan and put in oven. Bake 50 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Optional: Sprinkle with a little powdered sugar once cake has cooled.

What a delicious cake. I love how it’s filled with apples and healthy oats. I must make this asap for my family. They will love this.
Oh I bet this is fantastic with those chunks of apple! We just made something similar and loved it. Bookmarking this recipe for later!
Awesome Wanda!
Apples and oatmeal are so great together and it totally makes this cake ok to eat for breakfast right? It’s delicious!
What a beautiful cake! I love all the spices used in here, looks delish!
I made this apple oatmeal cake yesterday and I just wanted to come back and tell you how much my husband and daughter liked it. I’m definitely putting this on my baking rotary. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for the feedback Amy! I truly appreciate it. Have a great weekend!
I’m fascinated by apple varieties, and by the non-browning apples in general. There are some interesting old-school apples that don’t brown much, but many of them are very hard to come by. I haven’t tried the Cosmic Crisp apples yet, but I’m eager to do so.
Great recipe, and I love the big pieces of apple. I find oatmeal cakes can be a little crumbly, and the big moist chunks of apple really help balance the textures out. Lovely recipe, and I’m so happy you shared it. Cheers!
Aw thanks so much Sean! The cosmic crisps are really a great all round apple for eating and baking with. Cheers!
I had no idea that apple cider vinegar was the secret ingredient – great idea! This cake sounds delicious and since I was able to get my hands on some cosmic crisp apples recently, I’ll be trying them in this one1
Awesome Terri!