vegan apple cinnamon cake

vegan apple cinnamon cake

• 18 May 2026

The seasons are changing and with it the contents of my fruit bowl which is now filled with apples and bananas. I was running low on eggs but high on apples and I wanted to bake a cake so I turned to this Phil Khoury vegan apple cinnamon cake from his first cookbook, A New Way to Bake. I adapted the recipe to make a deep 17-cm cake or it would work just as well in baked in a 20-cm tin.

The cake is whizzed up in a food processor or high speed blender and as you don't even have to peel the apples, it's very quick to make. I think slicing the apples and decorating the top of the cake took longer than making the batter. The cake is topped with an oaty crumble but rather than using Phil's version, I used my own tried and true recipe. If you'd like to make Phil's version I've attached a link which includes both the cake and the oaty crumble recipe.

Here's the recipe for you which makes a 17 or 20-cm cake adapted from here and a video of Phil making the cake. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Apple cinnamon cake

Crumble
25g vegan butter or unsalted butter

25g plain flour
30g raw sugar
1 heaped tbsp rolled oats
pinch of cinnamon

pinch sea salt flakes

 
Cake
200g unpeeled apples, cored (about 2 small)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
135g caster sugar
55g extra virgin olive oil
60g plant-based milk
150g plain flour
1¼ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch sea salt flakes

 
Topping
1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
oat crumble
 
To serve
Icing sugar

Crumble
Make the crumble by rubbing the flour and butter together, and stirring in the sugar, oats, cinnamon and salt to make large crumbs. Place in the fridge until needed.

Cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan (350°F/gas 4). Grease and line the base of a 20cm or a 17cm-cake tin with baking paper or a 12-cup muffin tray with paper cases.

Wash, core, and quarter the unpeeled apples. In a blender or food processor, combine the apples, cinnamon, sugar, olive oil, and milk then blend until smooth.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt flakes. Pour the apple mixture into the dry ingredients and mix gently with a spatula until just combined — no dry streaks.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin, top with sliced apple, and sprinkle the cake with the oat crumble. Place the cake on the centre rack of the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes for the 20 cm cake or up to 1 hour for the 17 cm cake or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. For muffins, bake for 8–10 minutes.

Place the cake on a cooling rack. Just before serving, dust the cake with icing sugar. Keeps well in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

I shared the cake with my neighbours and they gave the cake a double thumbs up.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian