Gluten-Free Apple Cake
Posted Sep 09, 2018, Updated May 22, 2024
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This gluten-free apple cake is the best apple cake recipe ever! It’s an easy, healthy paleo dessert that’s made without refined sugar and bursting with cozy fall flavors.
Fall is my favorite season. While I definitely enjoy summer, I am always ready for the cooler temperatures, changing colors and fall recipes – including this gluten free apple cake.
This paleo, gluten-free apple cake recipe comes together in no time and is packed full of nutritious ingredients! Eat it for breakfast, eat it for brunch, serve it warm for dessert smothered with some Paleo Vanilla Ice cream. You really can’t go wrong.
This Paleo apple cake is irresistible! It’s perfectly sweet, seriously moist, and bursting at the seams with bits of apple goodness!
Gluten-Free Apple Cake: Ingredients & Substitutions
As always it is best to follow this gluten-free Paleo Cake recipe as it’s written, but here are a few potential substitutions!
- Tapioca Flour. Arrowroot powder is an acceptable substitute for tapioca flour! You can also use corn starch but it’s not paleo.
- Coconut oil. Butter is a super yummy (but not dairy-free) substitute for coconut oil! Ghee is also a great substitution!
- Coconut sugar. Any granulated sugar works great in this recipe, just be sure it complies with your dietary needs.
- Pecans. I have used walnuts with delicious results as well!
How to Make Gluten-Free Apple Cake
- Finely dice the apples. This will ensure that the apples in the cake are fully baked (and not hard and crunchy)
- No Peeling Required. Since peeling is unnecessary, this best Apple Cake recipe is SUPER easy to make. I love that keeping the skin on the apples adds nutrition and fiber to this fabulous fall dessert!
- Making the topping. I know I say that the topping is optional, but really the sweet and salty crunch of the pecans is SO good I don’t recommend skipping it! I use a nut chopper to finely chop the pecans, but you can use a knife and cutting board if you don’t have one of those!
- Let it cool before removing from the cake pan. Please be sure to give this gluten-free apple cake recipe plenty of time to cool in the cake pan. This ensures that it will hold it’s shape and not fall apart when it’s removed from the pan.
Serve
Serve this healthy apple cake warm with a scoop of paleo vanilla ice cream or homemade whipped cream!
Store
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up 5-7 days.
Gluten Free Apple Cake Recipe FAQs
I believe the absolute best apples for baking are Pink Lady apples. They are a little sweet, and a little tart, and absolutely perfect in this Gluten-Free Apple Cake recipe! Some suggestions include (but are not limited to):
Pink Lady Apples. Must mention again because they’re my favorite!
Honey Crisp Apples. These are a sweeter variety, but super crisp with amazing flavor.
Granny smith. The traditional tart baking apple! They hold up well and add a nice little sour kick to the recipe!
Jazz apples and Gala apples. These varieties are very similar. They are great for baking but are mostly sweet with little (if any) sour taste!
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Gluten-Free Apple Cake (Paleo)
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 Tablespoons tapioca flour
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups chopped apples
Topping:
- ¼ cup pecans chopped
- 1 Tablespoon coconut sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9" round cake pan, set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together almond flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt, and ½ tsp of cinnamon; set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together melted coconut oil, coconut sugar.
- Mix in egg and and vanilla until well combined.
- Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.
- Stir in the apples, pour into prepared pan.
- Sprinkle pecans on top.
- In a cup or small bowl, stir together the remaining cinnamon and sugar; sprinkle over pecans.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven until the cake springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack. Then slice and enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Tapioca Flour. Arrowroot powder is an acceptable substitute for tapioca flour! You can also use corn starch but it’s not paleo.
- Coconut oil. Butter is a super yummy (but not dairy-free) substitute for coconut oil! Ghee is also a great substitution!
- Coconut sugar. Any granulated sugar works great in this recipe, just be sure it complies with your dietary needs.
- Pecans. I have used walnuts with delicious results as well!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Girl, you have done it again! This looks amazing!
We go apple picking every fall and end up picking and eating WAY TOO MANY apples 😛 We choose an orchard that allows you to pick whilst eating and tasting as you go along and usually bring home around 15 lbs (no joke!) of apples between the two of us. And then we look at each other and wonder what we were thinking in the car on the way home hahaha!
Thank you Kristy! There is NO such thing as eating too many apples! 😉 Sounds like SO much fun! That is one of the best parts….picking an apple straight from the tree, rubbing it on your shirt and taking a big old bite! 😉
your creations always amaze me! This apple cake is nothing short of SPECTACULAR! Pinned 🙂
Thank you Rachel! 🙂
These need to get in my belly now!!! Yummy!
LOL Rebecca! It’s super easy to make! 😉
It is so true that there are some apples that I really love; when we were in Europe, I discovered varieties I’d never heard of; It gave me more of an appreciation for apples. 🙂 AND I LOVE this cake so much already; the versatility of it (breakfast, lunch, snack, dessert) is wonderful.
My favorite apple is probably Honey Crisp or Gala or Fuji.
Thank you Emily! I love how many varieties of apples there are! 🙂 Honey crisp are the best!
These look SO FABULOUS!! I’ve never been apple picking but would absolutely love to go sometime. Honey Crisp are definitely way superior to most varieties (I tend to be a little apple snobby myself, hehe), but there can be such a huge variance in quality across types. I just bought a big ol’ bag of Honey Crisps at WF yesterday so now I know their destiny! 😛
You MUST go apple picking it’s seriously the best! Fresh apples straight from the tree! Hay bales! Apple Cider! Apple Cider donuts! Ahh I’m feeling nostalgic just thinking about it!
This looks amazing! Perfect for when we go apple picking later in the fall. Pinning!
Apple picking is my favorite ever! I need to find an orchard near where we live!
Looks so moist and delicious!!
Yum, this looks SO good! My mouth is watering just looking at the pics! I might have to make this for a treat this weekend!
What a lovely recipe! Great for dessert 🙂
These look perfect for fall!❤️