Apple-Cinnamon Snack Cake
Apples, cinnamon, honey, and oats…the perfect combination for a sweet and nutritious Fall treat. This Apple-Cinnamon Snack Cake is great to bake-up post apple picking or whenever you have a couple apples to use up. Kids will love helping stir together this easy, one-bowl recipe with you.
Cooking with Kids: Apple-Cinnamon Snack Cake
- Measure first! There are quite a few ingredients to measure in this recipe. When baking with toddler and younger kids I suggest measuring a least half of the ingredients ahead of time. You could even add all the wet ingredients to one bowl and the dry to another and just let your child mix everything together.
- Use a large bowl. Mixing in a large bowl means less mess when cooking with kids. I try and always and demonstrate what speed I’d like kids to stir before letting them have a turn. Most likely, their mixing will result in at least a little spillage, but that’s ok. With practice, kids will eventually learn to better control the spoon or spatula.
- Dice the apples. Start by cutting the apple into slices or thin stick shapes, then your child can help cut the apples into smaller cubes. If you need a child-safe knife recommendation or tips for teaching kids to use a knife, check out my blog post Teaching Knife Skills Toddlers and Kids.
Subs and Tips:
- Gluten-free? Use a cup-for-cup style gluten-free flour mix and be sure that your oats are certified gluten-free
- Egg free? I have not tried it, but since there’s only one egg in this cake, I think using a flax “egg” substitute would work well.
- No quick (instant) oats? Take 1 3/4 cups of regular rolled oats and pulse them in a food processor until it’s broken down into a rough meal (not ground all the way into flour and with a few larger pieces of oat remaining).
- Pan size. I like to use a 9-inch square cake pan for this recipe. However, you can also use an 8-inch pan or other square baking dish. Bake time will be longer for smaller pans and the cake will be thicker. I think a metal baking pan like this one works best.
- Apples: you can use any kind of apple that you like, but this recipe works best if you dice the apples super small. You can also grate the apple and add it in that way if you prefer. If you use grated apple, pat it dry with a paper towel to remove some of the excess liquid that comes out when grating.
Apple-Cinnamon Snack Cake
A healthy cake with the flavors of Fall to enjoy any time of day!
Ingredients
- 1 large apple, diced very small
- 1 Tbsp coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, divided
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 large egg
- 6 Tbsp avocado or vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup
- 1/2 cup milk (any kind)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups "quick" (instant) oats not regular rolled oats, see note above for sub
- 1 cup whole wheat flour all-purpose or gluten-free blend
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degree. Grease a 9-inch square cake pan then line partially with parchment paper (This just makes it easier to remove from the pan but you can skip that step if you’d prefer.)
- Add diced apple, coconut sugar, and a 1/4 tsp of cinnamon to a bowl then mix to combine. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together applesauce, egg, oil, honey or maple syrup, milk, and vanilla. Using a spoon or rubber spatual, stir in the remaining 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon and the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined then stir in the diced apple mixture.
- Spread cake batter evenly in your prepared pan and sprinkle on a pinch of extra oats, if you'd like. Bake until golden brown around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Cool completely then cut into 12 squares. Store in an airtight container on the counter for 2 days or in the fridge for 5 days. You can also freeze the cake, tightly wrapped, for a month or two.
Want more apple recipe that are great to get kids into the kitchen? Check out my blog post Healthy Apple Recipes to Cook with Kids.
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Made this for an afternoon snack today and it was so good! The cake is moist and has a nice texture from the oats. It has just the right amount of sweetness. My kids don’t usually like big chunks of apples in baked goods so this was perfect, with the apples diced up in smaller chunks. Great recipe!
I did this and my kid loved it! Well I love it too lol
Can you please share how I can make apple sauce at home?
Hi Maria! I’m so glad you all enjoyed the recipe. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review. My blog post on Healthy Apple Recipes to Cook with Kids has a few applesauce recipes linked there. https://happykidskitchen.com/healthy-apple-recipes-to-cook-with-kids/
Hope that helps!
🙂 Heather
I made this twice, it’s so good and healthy! Thanks for the recipe 😍
So glad you love the recipe! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review. 🙂 Heather
Just made this with my girls. We used a flax egg and made it into muffins! The batter tasted great according to them, and the muffins do too!
Hi Courtney! I’m so glad you all made and enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for leaving a comment and letting us know that the flax egg worked well. I have to try making muffins with this batter next time.
🙂 Heather
We made this after apple picking. My picky toddler (who hates every “healthy toddler recipe”) loved this! Going to try it as mini muffins or donut holes next! Thank you!
Hi Laura! So glad the snack cake was toddler approved! Great idea to make it into mini muffins or donuts. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review. 🙂 Heather
Yummy recipe! My daughter only eats muffins but not cakes..not sure why..so I made this into muffins instead. Baked for 20 mins and ended up with 16 muffins. They were moist and just the right amount of sweetness!
Wonderful! Good to know that they recipe works well as muffins too. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review! 🙂 Heather