Name: Apple Coffee Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 16
Ingredients: 8 tablespoons butter, softened; 1 cup sugar; 2 large eggs, room temperature; 1 cup whole milk Vanilla Yogurt; 2 cups all purpose flour; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; pinch of cloves; pinch of allspice; pinch of ground nutmeg; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 cups chopped, peeled apple pieces (about 2 medium apples) - see note; Caramel Sauce for topping - see note; ½ cup brown sugar; 1 cup all-purpose flour; 8 tablespoons butter, softened; 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon; pinch of salt

This scrumptious Apple Coffee Cake is made with tart fresh apples, topped with a sweet crumble, and drizzled with Caramel Sauce. It's the perfect treat to usher in the Autumn season.

Today is the first day of Autumn! While summer will always have my heart, I have a special fondness for Apples in September.

It's time for Caramel Apple Muffins, and Apple Cider Scones. And since I can never have too many delicious Apple recipes, I bring you this new Apple Coffee Cake with Caramel Sauce and a sweet crumble topping. It's absolutely scrumptious!

What Makes a Coffee Cake a Coffee Cake?

A classic coffee cake is a simple one layer cake, usually with a pound cake texture, often made with fruit, nuts, spices, and a crumble or streusel topping. They are typically baked in a circle shape, but that's not a requirement.

Broadly speaking, the term "Coffee Cake" refers to any cake intended to be eaten with Coffee. Some coffee cake recipes actually use coffee as a flavoring in the cake, but that's not a requirement. In fact, it's rare for a coffee cake to actually have coffee as an ingredient.

While this type of cake may be a perfect compliment to a cup of coffee, we don't actually drink coffee at our house so we always just serve it with milk or tea.

What are the best apples to use in a fresh apple cake?

When baking with apples, the key to great flavor is to use a variety of apples. When baking cakes or pies, you'll get the best flavor by combining tart and sweet apples, like Granny Smith and Honeycrisp, or Gala and Braeburn.

Delicious apples add the most flavor to baked goods, so choose wisely. The best apples to use in a fresh apple cake like this Apple Coffee Cake are:

Honeycrisp
Granny Smith
Gala
Fuji
Jonagold
Cortland
Braeburn

Should Apples be peeled for Apple Cake?

Most of the time, you should peel your apples before baking. If the apples don't cook long enough, have thick skins, or are waxy, they can be tough to eat in the finished product. However, certain apple varieties (like Gravenstein Apples) have soft peels that melt away during baking. Also, if you are slicing the apples very thin for a recipe, you can often leave the peels on.

For this Apple Coffee Cake recipe, I used chunkier apples so I opted to peel them. I used this apple peeler (affiliate link), and it did leave a little bit of apple peel here and there, which still worked fine in this recipe.

How to Make an Apple Coffee Cake

First, make the crumble topping (a simple blend of butter, flour, brown sugar, and spices) and set it aside. Then, peel and chop your apples into chunky bite size pieces, and set those aside too.

The cake batter is simple and whips up quickly. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add in the Vanilla Yogurt (I like to use this Chobani Less Sugar Madagascar Vanilla Yogurt) and eggs. In a separate bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients, then add them to the butter mixture. Mix just until smooth, being careful to not over mix. Fold in the apples.

This Apple Coffee Cake recipe makes TWO 8 inch round cakes, so you'll divide the batter between the two pans (prepared with parchment and cooking spray), then top with the crumble topping. This bakes up beautifully in 30 minutes!

It's a soft, moist cake, studded with apples and cinnamon flavor. Every bite is delicious!

The Caramel Sauce + More Serving Options

This Apple Coffee Cake is excellent without the caramel sauce. It is, however, absolutely phenomenal with the Caramel Sauce. I like this simple Caramel Recipe (I just cut back the salt to ½ teaspoon). It makes more sauce than this recipe needs, but I never mind having a little extra caramel sauce around . . . especially during apple season.

If you are serving this for dessert, definitely don't skip the caramel sauce. It's also good with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.

However, if you're serving this for brunch, it's really good with a dollop of Vanilla Yogurt on top (with or without the caramel).

Yield: 16 slices - 2 (8 inch) Round Cakes

Apple Coffee Cake

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

Crumble Topping

½ cup brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons butter, softened
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Cake Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup whole milk Vanilla Yogurt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of cloves
pinch of allspice
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped, peeled apple pieces (about 2 medium apples) - see note
Caramel Sauce for topping - see note

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease two 8-inch round pans.
Prepare streusel: In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and pinch of salt. With your hands, work the softened butter into the flour mixture until resembles a coarse crumble.
Prepare Cake: In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs, being careful to beat after the addition of each egg. Beat in vanilla yogurt.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.
Stir flour mixture into the wet batter until just combined - be careful not to over mix. Gently fold the apples into the batter.
Pour into prepared pan(s) and spread evenly. Top with streusel until batter is completely covered.
Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving.
When ready to serve, drizzle with caramel sauce. This is also excellent served plain, or with a dollop of Vanilla Yogurt or Vanilla Ice Cream.

Notes

* Using two apple varieties (one tart and one sweet) gives this cake the best flavor. I like Honeycrisp and Granny Smith, or Gala and Braeburn.

* I use this caramel sauce with only ½ teaspoon of salt: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/homemade-salted-caramel-recipe/

Apple Coffee Cake with Caramel and Crumble

What Makes a Coffee Cake a Coffee Cake?