Fresh Apple Cake (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep apples from sinking in a cake? ›

The best way to avoid sinking fruit is to toss the fruit in a couple of tablespoons of the flour (just use some from the measured amount for the recipe) to coat it lightly. Once added to the cake mixture the flour coating will thicken the batter immediately surrounding the fruit and help suspend the fruit.

A dry cake is usually the result of one of the following pitfalls: using the wrong ingredients, making mistakes while measuring or mixing the batter, or baking the cake too long or at too high a temperature. Once you understand which common cake-baking blunders to avoid, you'll know how to bake a moist cake every time.

Why Did My Apple Cake Fall Apart? There are two main reasons why an apple cake would fall apart: (1) it was simply too warm when you were trying to cut and serve it or (2) you used too many/the wrong kind of apple.

For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

You can use any eating apples that are in season, or any that you have to hand, but my favourites are Cox's Orange Pippins and Braeburn apples for flavour.

Wrap each cake in several layers of cheesecloth and then in plastic wrap. Store the cakes in airtight containers in a cool dry place, but not in the refrigerator or freezer. Check carefully at least once a week, as rich, moist cakes mould very easily.

Whether store-bought or homemade, unsweetened applesauce is just cooked and puréed apples. It contains lots of water, some natural sugar, fiber, and pectin. This high water content is both good (because it adds moisture to the final product) and bad (because high moisture = more gluten development = tough cakes).

A fully baked apple cake should be golden brown and may start to pull away from the sides of the pan slightly. Knife Test: Similar to the toothpick test, you can insert a thin knife into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready.

Does sour cream make a cake moist? ›

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

Cakes crumble because they've dried out too much. From years of baking, I know that dry cakes happen for one of two reasons; using too much of your dry ingredients or over-baking your cake.

Your cake is often subject to sinking in the middle due to various factors, including inaccurate oven temperature, excessive or insufficient leavening agent, overmixing of the batter, or premature opening of the oven door. Moisture loss or incorrect ingredient ratios may also play a role.

Give It A Coat

The “added support” comes from tossing the blotted fruit in a thin layer of flour or cornstarch. You'll find this technique across professional baking cookbooks, but it's a step often missed by home bakers. “Use a sieve to gently toss fruit in flour or cornstarch,” instructs Wise.

Honeycrisp. One of the sweetest apples around, this Midwestern favorite is good for anything—including baking. It boasts a distinctive juicy crispness and is firm enough that it won't cook down much. It complements just about any other apple variety to make a stellar pie.

Honeycrisp apples: The name says it all—these crisp apples are sweet like honey. Similar to Golden Delicious apples, Honeycrisps take on a more complex flavor as they bake and the sugars concentrate.

The best varieties for canning apples are crisp, not mealy, types. Some of the best apples for canning include Fuji, Braeburn, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Jazz, Honeycrisp, and Cortland.