Gluten Free Jewish Apple Cake
Sweet, moist and packed full of tender cinnamon-sugar apples, Jewish Apple Cake is a recipe you’ll want to make over and over. More dense than your average cake, this dessert recipe is the perfect way to put apples on your table this season. Add a dusting of powdered sugar and serve warm for a treat your guests are going to love!
It’s apple season, which means sweeter, tastier, and most importantly cheaper fruit is gracing the supermarket shelves. Naturally, I am now on the lookout for any apple recipe I can share with you. This one happens to be one of my all-time favorites.
Crisp, fresh apples pair perfectly with cinnamon and sugar, adding the perfect amount of sweetness to the dense, moist cake. Powdered sugar throws this apple cake over the top, giving you something to be proud of when you make this for guests.
Or just for yourself… I don’t judge.
14 years ago I found out I had Celiac. Back then, there was very little in the way of gluten free bread products. They had to be specially ordered from the little health food store around the corner from us. To be completely honest, the gluten free products we ordered were terrible. Just terrible. Dry, crumbly, and tasteless.
The gluten free market has come a long way since then!
So, the alternative to a bread-free (or tasteless) life was to learn how to make it yourself. Which is also why you’ll always find gluten free recipes on this blog.
Enter into my life: The most delicious Jewish Apple Cake ever.
…Ever. I’m serious.
I attended the closest celiac support group meeting and was handed this recipe. It’s the very first thing I baked after going gluten free, and I still love this recipe 14 years later. The original recipe is from The Village Cook Book, 1967.
Thank you The Village Cook Book.
I owe you a cake.
I did make a small change. The original Jewish Apple Cake recipe calls for gluten free “french bread & pizza mix”. I didn’t have any on hand this time, so I used my usual Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour. It always comes out pretty good.
I also prefer granny smith apples when baking, but you can also use honey crisp, golden delicious, or macintosh. These two pretty much hold up in texture and keep their sweetness when brought to high temperatures.
I did cook mine a bit too long, so don’t worry if yours comes out a bit lighter in color. I can also assure you that this cake is being thoroughly eaten.
I still love you, slightly overcooked apple cake.
If you like this recipe, be sure to follow me here on Pinterest!
Gluten Free Jewish Apple Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 3/4 cups gluten free all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups white sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup orange juice, (no pulp)
Apple Filling
- 6 large granny smith apples, peeled and chopped into 2-inch pieces
- 5 tbsp white sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Equipment
- bundt pan
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a bundt pan and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar) in a mixing bowl.
- Add eggs, oil and orange juice. Mix batter together until completely combined (you can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer for this).
- In a separate bowl, mix together apple pieces, sugar and cinnamon.
- Pour half of the batter in prepared pan. Cover with half of the apples.
- Add the rest of the batter and top with remaining apples.
- Bake for 60-80 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
Notes
Nutrition
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Thank you for opening up about Celiac, I think people like you who prove that you can make amazing food with dietary restrictions is inspirational. I do not know Jewish food very well so I love finding recipes like this! I have a genuine curiosity about different cuisines. 🙂
Thank you so much Nagi! I’m a firm believer that gluten free food doesn’t have to mean “taste free’ food. I’m with you on learning other cuisines, there’s a whole big world of food out there just waiting for us foodies!
The gluten free market has come a long way but you know what I still think it’s a really valuable skill to be able to make gluten free food from scratch. So many of the gluten free products out there are full of additives and other unhealthy stuff I’m quite happy making my own. This cake looks so delicious I will definitely have to give it a try!
Hi Krystal, I totally agree with you! Learning to make your own foods is invaluable. You never really know how your food is made or handled, but when you make it at home you have complete control. Let me know if you make this, how it goes! I love hearing feedback. 🙂
This looks good! I’m sharing it on social media for my gluten free friends. Thank you!
Thanks so much!! This recipe was originally shared with me by fellow gluten free friends, so I love seeing it shared so others can enjoy it, too! 🙂
Hey,
I like how you honestly write your post! Beautiful recipe and photography! It is tempting me to try more baking recipes! I’ll pin it for the right occasion!
Thank you!
Simon
Hi Simon, thank you so much! This recipe is definitely near and dear to me. Let me know how it goes if you make it, I love hearing the feedback!
Hi, I was wondering if I can put less sugar than the recipe calls for?
Thanks
I’ve never tried it before with this cake. The consistency might be a little different. Here’s a good article where they tried adding 3/4 of the amount of sugar and it looks like it turned out well! https://food52.com/blog/15831-is-it-possible-to-reduce-sugar-in-a-baking-recipe
This recipe did not work for me at all! When I went to remove the bundt from the oven, what appeared to be a fully baked cake turned out not to be done. I continued to bake the cake for additional amounts of time, but it would not finish baking. I followed the recipe meticulously but was left with a gooey, half-baked mess that ended up in the trash can.
Hi Katherine, I’m sorry to hear about your cake! This sounds like it might be a case of oven temperature. I recommend buying an oven thermometer, setting your oven to the recipe temperature and seeing if it matches what you set it for. I used to have this problem in an apartment we used to live in. Other thoughts, did you sub any ingredients?
I have had trouble with this cake taking forever to cook. Was wondering if it could be make in 11 by 13 inch Pyrex. Or 13 by 15.
Can this. Be made in 13 by 15 Pyrex mine takes forever to cook in tube pan too.
It can be, but your cooking time will be different. I would check it at about half the time, and you can kind of guess how much longer by how done it is. If it has a way to go check again in 15 minutes, if it’s pretty firm then 5 or 10.
Just made in 13’ by 15 inch Pyrex it came out beautiful. Took 45 minutes to cook
Awesome! I’m so glad to hear that!
Turned out great! Can’t tell it’s gluten free at all. My mom’s oven is a little temperamental so it took a little longer to cook but was still really great. I used a cake pan instead of a bundt cake pan and it flipped over without any issues.
Thank you for the recipe. It tasted absolutely delicious and I use the ingredients you suggested, with the exception of half cup apple sauce and half cup oil rather than a whole cup of oil. Only one major issue… I wasn’t sure whether to let the cake cool first before trying to remove it from the pan. I turned the pan upside down after about 15 minutes of calling… And the cake completely fell apart! So basically it’s more like an apple cobbler now. But like I said, absolutely delicious either way. I just wish it would have held together.
My cake fell completely apart, into 2 sections.
, when I tried to remove it from the bunds pan. I even went around the edges first with a very pointed knife. I let it sit in the pan for 10 mi utes. Ecker trying to turn it out. The top part was in chunks that I attempted to fit on the bottom half. The taste seems to be OK but my celiac grandson will be here tonight to give the final approval. I definitely will not throw it away
OMGosh, this is the recipe I grew up with! It’s a Philadelphia Jewish Deli specialty! I have been making this for many years and have found that the baking time is VERY long – 90+ minutes. I live outside Denver so I’m baking at high altitude, so that might make a difference. I use either a 2-piece angel food cake pan (tube pan) or two loaf pans. I do cool the cakes for 10-15 minutes in the pan(s) before removing and, sometimes, they fall apart. I have not tried a bundt pan but, if I did, I would generously grease the pan then dust with white flour.
I have also found that I need to be very careful to not put too much batter in the pan for the first layer.
I recommend covering the cakes loosely with foil while baking to avoid burning the apple pieces on top.
Thank you so much for sharing and rekindling this recipe for me!
GF for 18 years!
Just made this cake. The texture is great. However, I just taste oil when I eat it. I wonder if substituting some applesauce for part of the oil would work..maybe some spices in the mix?I notice there is no vanilla in it either.
I just made this. I didn’t have granny smith apples so I used what I had. Other than that I followed the recipe to a T. I found it to be flat in flavor. It needs salt and vanilla. Also with gluten free I find adding a couple TB of coconut flour in place of a couple TB of the flour mix removes the wet grainy texture. I ended up baking it for 1 hour and 40 mins. Next time I will add salt vanilla and coconut flour.
Oh my goodness!! This cake is delicious. It’s also so simple that no mixer is required. I scaled the recipe in half because I wanted a smaller cake, added orange zest with the juice, and used two huge Granny Smith apples. I used cup for cup gluten free flour. My baking time was about 50 minutes. You’ll not be able to stop eating this delicious cake!
This apple cake is delicious! Yes it does take longer to bake. Mine was in a dark bundt pan for 75 minutes. Cooled for 5 mins but should have waited longer. It started to split, left it upside down on the plate and was able to get the test out. Husband wanted to eat it right away! Yumm
Lovely recipe – I’ve made it a number of times now but this time divided the recipe into two silicone loaf pans. Turned out perfect in 70 mins. I also reduced the sugar by 100grams and added some coconut. Felt confident enough to tweak it having made it successfully before and it’s a firm favourite with my family! I’ve been coeliac for over 20yrs and the flours and recipes are now incredible. Gone are the days of trying to bake but throwing everything in the bin. Thank you Jacqui and everyone else who is creative enough to share your recipes. Ps I wondered if it would freeze well – have you tried??
Thank you, I’m so glad you like it! This recipe was shared with me at my first gluten free meetup group, and we’ve been making it ever since. I haven’t tried freezing it, but I think it would be fine. I would defrost it in the refrigerator the night before, then put it out at room temperature at least 20 minutes before eating it, as cake can taste dry if it’s served too cold.
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, in 2017 in my research I found that gluten was very bad for fibromyalgia. And have searched around for great recipes to feed my family without gluten. I love this one for dessert I always grew up eating apple cake as a child. And this one is delicious.