Apple Custard Cake
This apple custard cake is soft, lightly sweet, and filled with tender apple slices layered in a delicate batter. It’s a simple, elegant dessert that pairs beautifully with coffee or tea.
Servings: 8
Ingredients:
- 4 apples, medium, peeled and very thinly sliced
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract, or 1 packet vanilla powder
- 6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup milk, room temperature
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ cup sliced almonds
Method:
Start Cooking- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 9.5 inch (24 cm) baking dish.
- Whisk eggs and sugar 2–3 minutes until pale and slightly thick.
- Whisk in: melted butter, milk, vanilla extract.
- Sift in: flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.
- Whisk just until smooth.
- Fold the thin apple slices into the batter until every slice is coated.
- Pour into the prepared dish and press lightly to level.
- Sprinkle sliced almonds evenly on top.
- Bake 45–55 minutes, until deep golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan so the custard structure sets before slicing. Bon appétit.
Kitchen Tools:
- Mandoline slicer or knife, for thin apple slices
Notes:
From the kitchen
- For a more elegant look, slice the apples very thin (almost paper-thin) and toss them with the batter first. Then layer the coated slices in the pan instead of pouring everything in at once. Press the layers gently to remove air pockets. This creates beautiful apple layers inside the cake and a more refined slice when served.
- For a softer, more custardy texture, you can skip the baking powder. Without it, the cake bakes into a more pudding-like dessert with a denser, creamy center around the apples.
- Add ½ tsp lemon zest for a brighter flavor.
- Replace almonds with walnuts or pecans for a different crunch.
- Use pears instead of apples for a softer, delicate variation.
- Dust the finished cake with powdered sugar before serving.
- Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
- This cake pairs beautifully with coffee, tea, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.
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Nutrition:
Calories: 289 kcal | Carbohydrates: 40 g | Protein: 6 g | Fat: 13 g | Saturated Fat: 7 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4 g | Trans Fat: 0.3 g | Cholesterol: 88 mg | Sodium: 221 mg | Potassium: 211 mg | Fiber: 3 g | Sugar: 24 g | Vitamin A: 451 IU | Vitamin C: 4 mg | Calcium: 127 mg | Iron: 1 mg
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Apple custard cake
WHY WE LOVE IT
This dessert is loved for its soft, custardy texture that pairs beautifully with tender, tart apples. Lightly sweet and rustic, it’s simple enough for a cozy breakfast yet elegant enough to serve as dessert.
A LITTLE STORY
Apple custard cakes grew from European farmhouse baking traditions, where seasonal apples were folded into simple batters to create moist, pudding-like cakes. Over time, similar apple desserts spread across Europe and North America, inspiring variations like French apple custard cakes and traditional apple stack cakes in Appalachia.
DID YOU KNOW?
The “invisible” apple cake became famous because the batter almost disappears during baking, leaving delicate layers of fruit held together by a light custard-like base.
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