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This French apple cake uses simple ingredients and is made without rum. Layered, fresh apples sit atop a beautiful and fluffy vanilla cake that’s been dusted with powdered sugar to look like a snowflake.
A beautiful and light dessert that pairs wonderfully with a warm coffee or tea at the end of the meal. Would recommend serving with a Dutch Oven Pork Roast or Shrimp Stuffed Salmon for a dinner party.
Table of Contents
French Apple Cake without Rum
This recipe is actually a version of the Strawberry Peach Cake which I made during a culinary immersion class in Beaune, France. An original recipe from The Cooks Atelier which uses summer berries, in class we focused on using whatever fruit was seasonal at the Beaune market.
What I love about this French apple cake is the simplicity. All it requires is one pan, apples, and a basic mix of ingredients. You’ll love this recipe because:
- Simple – Simple ingredients with a beautiful preparation.
- Beautiful – The layered apple top is stunning and perfect for a special occasion.
- Easy – No mixer required! Although it can make life easier, I’ve made this cake many times with a wooden spoon.
- Alcohol-free – This is a great French apple cake without rum.
While many French apple cakes are made with rum, following Dorie Greenspan, I prefer this recipe without.
Ingredients
This isn’t all of the ingredients to make this apple cake, but just some details on a few main ones.
- Apples – It’s important to use apples that can hold their shape and also provide sweetness when baking, especially in recipes like pumpkin apple bread . My favorite for this recipe is honeycrisp.
- All purpose flour – I use Gold Medal or Bob’s Red Mill Organic.
- Mascarpone cheese – I’ve had a lot of readers say they’ve left it out over the years, but I find it provides great moisture and flavor. This can also be substituted with crème fraîche if not following Heal Your Headache.
- Baking powder – Because a larger amount is used here, use aluminum-free baking powder to avoid any bitter taste.
Substitutions
- Gluten free – This recipe works well with Bob Red Mill 1:1 gluten free flour.
- Dairy free – In one of my cooking classes, a student had success with omitting the mascarpone cheese, using oat milk for the milk, and a butter substitute. I haven’t tried this myself, but she seemed happy!
- Apples – I’ve had readers tell me the substituted pears instead of apple and added cardamom which sounds delicious! I also recommend trying this peach strawberry cake version.
- Cinnamon sugar – For fall, I’ve had success dusting the top with cinnamon sugar instead of powdered sugar.
How to Make
Step 1: Prepare the pan
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. To make sure the cake slides easily out of the pan, we prepare a parchment paper cut out that’s the size of the pan by using a pencil to draw a circle around the outer edge. Then cut the parchment paper to fit the circle into the bottom of your cake pan.
This gets coated in butter, along with the sides, and then sprinkled with a little bit of flour. You’ll want to dump out the excess flour and just use enough to coat around the bottom and all sides.
Step 2: Add the dry and wet ingredients
In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Then, in a separate medium bowl, whisk together the mascarpone cheese and milk until combined.
In a large bowl, mixed softened butter until light and creamy (you can do this by hand or with a mixer). Mix in the sugar with the butter, then add 1 large egg and vanilla extract, stirring with a spatula till combined.
Step 3: Mix the batter
Alternating flour mixture and milk/mascarpone mixture, add them in small increments, stirring after each addition until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, tapping the pan a few times on your counter to get it smooth and level.
Step 4: Layer the apple topping
Thinly slice the peeled apple into half moon pieces, leaving out the core. Place sliced apples in a layered pattern on top of the cake batter, then slide extra apples in between each slice. Make sure the fruit doesn’t touch the side of the pan, but is still very close.
Step 5: Bake the apple cake
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake should be a lovely golden brown on top. Allow it to cool at least 30 minutes then slide a knife along the sides of the pan.
The cake should release easily. Place it on a serving platter and serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Once the cake has cooled, dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
Recipe Tips
- Use baking apples – Pink lady, honeycrisp, and fuji apples are my favorite for this French apple cake.
- Measure the flour correctly – Because we are not using weighted measurements here, it’s important to use the spoon and level method.
- Room temperature ingredients – Leave the butter, egg, milk, and mascarpone out at room temperature at least 1 hour before starting the cake.
- Oven temperature – When I first moved into my house, I kept burning my baked goods. I had my oven professionally calibrated only to find that it was running 50 degrees higher than the temperature it was set to. The previous owner had just lived this way for years! All this to say, having an accurate oven temperature is essential. I recommend Thermoworks to help with oven readings.
Storage Recommendations
Room temperature – If serving the same day, you can keep this cake at room temperature, or serve slightly warm.
Refrigerator – Store in the fridge if planning to serve within 1-3 days. The cake will begin to dry out in the fridge as time goes on, but is great for the first few days.
Freezer – This French apple cake freezes beautifully for up to 3 months for best results. I’ve frozen slices and the entire cake before. Let it thaw at room temperature for best results.
Serving Suggestions
For an elegant dinner party or holiday meal, I would recommend starting with this shrimp stuffed salmon, dutch oven pork roast, or cast iron roast chicken. For sides I love boursin mashed potatoes and a butter lettuce salad.
Serve this cake warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or mascarpone ice cream, which is a great way to use up the leftover mascarpone cheese!You could also make this mascarpone pasta.
My favorite way to top this cake is with a dollop of fresh whipped cream!
Frequently Asked Questions
While many recipes include alcohol, you can make a delicious French apple cake without rum. I love that this recipe is a little unique in that it uses crème fraîche or mascarpone cheese, depending on what you can find and tolerate. Plus the extra vanilla provides a boost of flavor.
Yes! That will help with removing the cake. Although I’ve never had any issues with the cake sticking when I use the tips for greasing and dusting the pan, with the bottom parchment paper.
Any mixture of firm baking apples can be used, although my favorite is honeycrisp. I’ve also had readers tell me firm pears work well too for a way to mix it up.
Apple Recipes
For more recipes like this apple cake, see these posts. And don’t miss other French recipes like this pear clafoutis.
Breakfast
Apple Oat Smoothie
Dessert
Apple Pie Bites in a Muffin Tin
Drinks
Apple Ginger Fizz Mocktail
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French Apple Cake without Rum
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups all purpose flour, *If gluten free, use 1:1 baking flour
- 2½ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup crème fraîche or mascarpone cheese at room temperature (see note)
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3 honeycrisp apples, peeled
- Optional: powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Prepare a 9 inch cake pan by lightly greasing it all over (I use the butter wrapper), and placing a parchment round inside at the bottom. Do this by placing the bottom of the pan over the sheet of parchment, tracing around it with a pencil, then cutting into a circle to fit at the bottom of the pan. Take a small spoonful of flour and shake the pan around to thoroughly coat the inside. Dump out any excess flour and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the mascarpone cheese or crème fraîche and milk until combined. In a large bowl, mixed softened butter until light and creamy (by hand or with a mixer). Add the sugar and mix until thoroughly combined. Then add 1 large egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract – mix this with a spatula until well combined and smooth. Do not overmix.
- Alternating flour mixture and milk mixture, add them in small increments, stirring with a spatula after each addition until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, tapping it a few times on the counter to get it smooth and level.
- Thinly slice the peeled apples into half moon pieces, leaving out the core. Place sliced apples in a layered pattern on top of the cake batter, then slide extra apples in between each slice. Make sure the fruit doesn't touch the side of the pan, but comes close to the edge.
- Bake at 350 degrees ℉ for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake should be a lovely golden brown on top. Allow it to cool at least 30 minutes then slide a knife along the sides of the pan. The cake should release easily.
- Place the cake on a serving platter and serve slightly warm or at room temperature. Dust with powdered sugar once cool, if desired.
Notes
- Use honeycrisp, pink lady, or fuji. Granny smith can be used, but I recommend alternating them with honeycrisp.
- Crème fraîche is the more traditional way to make this, but for those on HYH, substitute mascarpone.
- Because this cake has a higher amount of baking powder, please use aluminum free powder to avoid a bitter taste.
- I love to top this with powdered sugar in winter because it looks like a snowflake. During fall, cinnamon sugar is amazing on top – although not very French!
- This is best served with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.
- I suggest Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 flour for gluten free. For dairy free, see post for adjustments others have used.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This French apple cake was posted November 17, 2020 and has been updated November 2024 with new pictures, tips on substitutes, and serving suggestions.
Absolutely delicious!
I’m the baker of the family & was recently diagnosed with VM & needed to find a cake I can eat now rather than what I typically do since i can’t eat mine anymore & this was a hit! I sprinkled pumpkin spice on top & drizzled some sweet & condensed milk. ✨️
Sounds amazing!!
This makes a tasty dessert. I’ve also made it with the peaches and strawberries. Should this cake be refrigerated? I left it on the counter. We are a small family, so it takes us several days to eat a rich cake like this. By day 4, the apples were turning moldy.
Hey, yes! You can leave it out the first day, but after that it needs to be put in the fridge. It freezes very well too so that’s what I usually do. I’ll update the post with recommendations.
So good!
Turned out perfect and looked so beautiful!
I cook a fair amount but rarely bake, so was eager to try this for Christmas. I followed the recipe meticulously, but it overflowed as it baked (fortunately, I had a cookie sheet below), and I lost roughly a third of the cake portion. It set up after it baked, but I referred to it as “Sunken French Apple Cake” and it had good flavor. My baking powder was fresh. Could it be a tablespoon is too much? Would love to get an update so I can make it again!
Hey Sara, I’ve never had this happen over the years, and I’ve also made this for several cooking classes and it has not happened to a student so I don’t think it’s the amount. Did your batter fill all the way to the top? I should update this with more pictures but you should have at least close to 1/2 inch of space at the top. Did you use a 9 inch cake pan? Also make sure you’re measuring and leveling, not a heaping scoop. I’d also double check you’re using a large egg and not extra large. That’s all I can think of for now.
Was just thinking about this…are you at a high altitude? That can cause the issue you’re talking about so you would need to decrease the leavening. But being in Dallas, I’m not sure how to test that to see how much it would be.
This is delicious!! I actually made then as muffins and this will be on weekly rotation! I am new to the VM world and you and your recipes have made my life easier. Thank you for all you do!!
Thank you, Irma!
Very delicious!! Received many compliments when I served this cake at a dinner party.
So happy to hear that, Rachel! It’s a beautiful cake.