This apple cake is easy to make and delicious without being overly sweet. It looks beautiful and makes everybody happy!

“Versunkener Apfelkuchen” means sunken apple cake in German. The cake batter rises while baking and the apples look like they have sunken into the cake.

It’s been my favourite cake ever since I was a little girl and my Oma Helga would always make it for me when I came to visit for “Kaffee und Kuchen” which translates to “Coffee and Cake”. A German tradition where people gather around three o’clock in the afternoon to sit down and have a piece of cake with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s a time to relax and gather with family and friends while enjoying some sweet treats.

German apple cake is usually enjoyed with some homemade whipped cream on top. But it is just as delicious when it’s still warm, right out of the oven topped with some vanilla ice cream and a dash of cinnamon.

No matter if you sit down with a cup of coffee on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and savour this cake with your family and friends or if you make it as a party dessert, have fun baking and enjoy!

TIPS FOR MAKING THE PERFECT GERMAN APPLE CAKE

Pick the right type of apples. They need to be firm and crisp in order to hold their shape during baking without turning into mush. Good choices would be Honey crisp, Cortland, Jonagold or Gala- if you like it a little sweeter. I find it easier to arrange them on the batter if they’re on the smaller side.

Use a kitchen scale if you can, to weigh your ingredients rather than measuring them in cups. This will ensure accurate ingredients and will result in a great end product.

It is very important that you bring the butter and the eggs to room temperature before you start baking. If either or are too cold, you won’t be able to cream them sufficiently and you will end up with a dense cake.

Make sure to cream the unsalted butter and sugar long enough to achieve a nice spongy and airy cake. It should at least take 3-4 minutes to get it to a nice fluffy consistency.

Sift the all-purpose flour and don’t skip this step! You don’t want to get any dense floury spots in your cake.

My Oma’s recipe asks for Vanilla sugar. If you don’t have any at hand, you can easily make your own homemade Vanilla sugar if you follow the instructions in my post or you can substitute it with pure vanilla extract.

This cake lasts 3-4 days, covered at room temperature and tastes even better on the second day which in my house rarely happens;-)

If you are feeding a bigger crowd, you can make a double batch and bake it on a sheet pan (18x13 inches). That way you can cut it into smaller squares, perfect for a party.

INGREDIENTS

4-5 apples 200g unsalted butter, room temp. 150g granulated sugar 4 eggs, room temp. 2 tbsp Vanilla sugar 200g all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp salt 1 tsp lemon zest 3 tbsp lemon juice

TOOLS YOU WILL NEED

Kitchen scale Stand or hand mixer 10’ inch or heart shaped cake pan Fine mesh strainer or flour sifter Rubber spatula

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
Butter bottom and sides of a 10” inch or heart shaped springform and dust lightly with flower.

Quarter, peel and core the apples. Lay them on the core side and thinly cut them lengthwise without slicing all the way through to the bottom (see picture). Coat them with lemon juice if you’d like to prevent them from turning brown.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, add butter and sugar and cream until light and fluffy approximately 4- 5 minutes on medium speed. If you use a stand mixer, make sure to scrape down the sides halfway in between. Once you have reached the perfect consistency you can add the lemon zests until nicely incorporated.

Add Vanilla sugar or Vanilla extract to the butter mixture and eggs one at a time. Beat on medium to highspeed in between until they’re incorporated nicely.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Don’t skip this step! With the mixer on low speed, add flour mixture until well combined. Make sure not to overmix the dough.

Transfer the dough into your springform and smooth the top with a spatula. Place the apples with the cut side up onto the batter and press them down lightly.

Bake apple cake until golden brown for 40-45 min or until a skewer comes out clean.

Let the apple cake cool down in the cake pan on a wire rack and remove the pan once it’s cooled completely.

While the cake is cooling you can whip some heavy cream to serve with your cake. For a 10’ inch cake I like to use 1 ½ cups/ 360ml of cold, heavy whipping cream (35%) with 1-2 tbsp of granulated sugar and 1 tsp of Vanilla extract (optional).

For a detailed description on how to make homemade whipped cream follow the instructions in my blog post.