Spiced Apple Coffee Cake, made with spiced apples, a rich cake, and sweet streusel, is a dessert you can have for breakfast or any time of day!
Easy like a Sunday morning, this sweet and comforting Spiced Apple Coffee Cake recipe is a simple labor of love that the whole family will love for a weekend breakfast! Mouthwatering streusel layered over delicious apples sautéed in butter, sugar, and spices, tops a filling coffee cake that you can drizzle with cider glaze, making it a hit in the morning or anytime you enjoy this amazing cake!
Simple Sweet Mornings
Coffee cakes are simple to make in the morning and, obviously, are made to enjoy with a hot cup of coffee, but around these parts, we like to get a little “extra”. In the fall, it’s easy to get extra when the apples are ripe, and you can use all those yummy fall spices to make the morning feel more comforting. Easy Spiced Apple Coffee Cake is genuinely as simple as making a regular coffee cake, and the sautéed spiced apples, plus the cider glaze, will have everyone rejoicing that you took the time for those steps. Breakfast, snack, or dessert time will feel like a fall celebration with this sugar-spiced apple cinnamon coffee cake!
Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake is a wonderful breakfast to serve anytime of year, and for more fall flavors, be sure to check out scrumptious Cinnamon Pumpkin Coffee Cake!
Other Recipes to Serve with Spiced Apple Coffee Cake
- A great on-the-go option for breakfast is Apple Cider Muffins, loaded with spiced apple flavor, that you can quickly grab for a tasty start to the day!
- Keep dessert spectacular yet straightforward with Air Fryer Baked Apples, bursting with all the sweet, spiced apple flavor you love!
Ingredients
Fried Apples: Peel, core, and slice up a few Granny Smith apples, or your favorite sweet-tart apples, for this recipe. You will also need unsalted butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon to sauté the apples.
Coffee Cake: Set out all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, and baking powder to make the cake. You will also need more unsalted butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.
Streusel Topping: To make the topping, you will need all-purpose flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. You will also need cold, cubed butter to make the streusel.
Apple Cider Glaze: Lastly, to make the glaze, you will need apple cider, vanilla extract, butter, salt, and powdered sugar.
How to Make Spiced Apple Coffee Cake
STEP ONE: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and grease and flour a 10-inch springform pan. Melt the butter in a skillet and add the sliced apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar. Stir the apples occasionally and cook for 5 minutes or until tender. Transfer the apples to a plate and allow them to cool.
STEP TWO: Using a stand mixer or beaters, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add one egg at a time, beating each time, and then add the vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add half of the flour mixture to the mixer, followed by half of the milk. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, ending with the flour mixture. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and set aside.
STEP THREE: Make the streusel by stirring together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Add the cubed butter, and using a fork or pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it looks crumbled and the size of peas.
STEP FOUR: Layer half of the streusel over the top of the cake batter, followed by a layer of spiced apples. Layer the remaining streusel on top and bake the coffee cake for 60 minutes.
STEP FIVE: While the cake is baking, add apple cider to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring the cider to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, or until it has reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir the butter, vanilla, and salt into the cider, and then mix in the powdered sugar until smooth.
STEP SIX: Once the coffee cake is out of the oven, let it rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing (or cool to room temp). Slice, serve, and then drizzle with cider glaze.
Tips for Success
- Add up to 1/2 cup more powdered sugar to the glaze if you wish for a thicker glaze.
- This coffee cake is on the sweeter side, which is why Granny Smith apples are perfect for it! They add a wonderful tartness that cuts the sweetness a little, but you can also choose your favorite apple for this recipe.
- Store leftover spiced apple coffee cake in the fridge, covered, for 3-4 days. You can also freeze individually wrapped slices for up to a month and reheat them in the microwave for about a minute.
What makes coffee cake taste like coffee cake?
There are a few common elements that make a coffee cake a coffee cake, regardless of what other ingredients you include. Since there’s no coffee in coffee cake, what could those be? First, the cake’s dense texture and light flavor make it very recognizable as a coffee cake. Secondly, cinnamon is a traditional spice used in coffee cakes, even ones without a streusel topping, which brings us to our last coffee cake ingredient, streusel! Streusel is optional, but most coffee cakes are topped with it. From the dense cake to the cinnamon spice and streusel toppings, it’s these iconic ingredients that make a coffee cake a coffee cake.
What’s the difference between a coffee cake and a crumb cake?
It’s hard to tell. To help make things a little easier, try looking for a few differences, like cinnamon. Crumb cakes generally do not have cinnamon mixed in or a layer of cinnamon, but many coffee cakes do. Crumb cakes are also much more buttery, and the streusel topping is much thicker than on a coffee cake. Coffee cake is sometimes made without any streusel at all! The differences may be minor, but they are big enough that each cake has its own name with plenty of recipes and variations.
More Incredible Apple Bites!
- Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls
- Caramel Apple Poke Cake
- Apple Cinnamon Streusel Pancakes
- Apple Pie Scones
- Apple Cider Donuts
*This post originally posted on 06/24/2014.
Ingredients
Fried Apples
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar packed
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 large Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, and sliced
Coffee Cake
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup 2% milk
Streusel Topping
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ cup cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
Apple Cider Glaze
- 1 cup apple cider
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat the inside of a 10-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray and add a bit of flour. Set aside.
Fried Apples
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add the apple slices, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender. Transfer to a plate to cool.
Coffee Cake
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together using a hand mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs 1 at a time, and then mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix. Pour in the milk and mix. Then add the remainingflour and mix until just combined.
- Pour the coffee cake batter into the prepared pan and set aside.
Streusel Topping
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. Add the butter and use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles peas.
- Sprinkle half of the streusel topping over the top of the coffee cake batter. Carefully spoon the apples evenly over the coffee cake. Top with the remaining streusel.
- Bake for 60 minutes, or until the center is set. (If the topping starts to darken too much, carefully cover the pan loosely with foil.)
Apple Cider Glaze
- While the cake bakes, bring cider to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until reduced to 1/4 cup. Stir in the butter, vanilla, and salt. Transfer to a small bowl to cool.
- Whisk the powdered sugar into the cider mixture. (You can add up to an extra ½ cup more powdered sugar for a thicker glaze if needed.)
- Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving warm, or let cool completely to room temperature. Drizzle with apple cider glaze if desired.
Paula says
oh my , this looks so good Aubrey!
jackie dyer says
where does the coffee come in on the spiced apple coffee cake as i am confused
Aubrey says
The term coffee cake comes from the tradition years ago to eat it with coffee. There is no coffee in coffee cake. I hope that helps to clear it up.