Apfelkuchen. Or Apple Cake. Or Bavarian Apple Cake. OR "Happy Apple Cake" as I'm calling it. A recipe from my grandmother. Like many Bavarian/German/Austrian recipes they came from our Grandmothers or "Omas", right?
This Bavarian apple cake was a common treat when I visited my grandparents as a kid, so was homemade apple strudel, spätzle and all kinds of yummy German/Austrian/Bavarian things to eat since they were Austrian.
My grandmother was an excellent baker and made everything from scratch. She even made her own phyllo dough for the strudel. That is a LOT of work, something I hope to try one day.
I first made these into two smaller loaves than a traditional round apple cake. I thought making them more like a quick bread than a cake would be a fun twist to this recipe. These were a bit of a challenge to make, but so worth it. This is a lightly sweetened yeast raised cake, and the apples bake just enough 
I had to scrape the topping off the tops of the apples so you could see them, since that is part of the decor of the cake, and I think it looks really neat. I cut into the cake for a cute "slice" pic and couldn't stop laughing at what I found. My husband was cracking up too.
The cake is SMILING at us. I so didn't plan this. When I put down the first layer of apples in the cake, I didn't realize how much the cake was going to rise, this was my first time with a yeast cake, and I didn't layer in enough apples. I was working quickly since we were making dinner at the same time and I had a cramped work space, hungry kids, hungry mom ( that would be me) etc so I was kind of rushing.
So when we cut into the cake and realized the first apple layer was closer to the top than expected I was dying laughing that it made it look like the cake had a face. I snapped pics quickly since I knew I wanted to have these in the post. I made the cake a few more times to test the recipe. Perfect ever time.
A closer look. Maybe Apfelkuchen really means " happy apple cake". Maybe its my grandmother smiling at me through the cake for making one of her recipes. I lost her when I was 16, so I hope I made her proud.
We cut another piece to show what the apples in the top looked like, and also because I told my husband there was no way I could eat the piece that was smiling at us. He said he had no problem eating it.
Vanilla ice cream always goes good with anything apple. So says my husband.
Apfelkuchen ( Bavarian Apple Cake) for #TwelveLoaves
Ingredients
- For the Cake Batter:
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour, 281 g
- ½ cup sugar, 100 g
- 1 packet of rapid rise yeast, or active dry yeast
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup milk, 178ml
- ⅓ cup butter, softened (76g)
- 1 large egg, room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 5 ml
- 2 cups baking apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 5 ml
- 1 tablespoon sugar, 14g
- 4-8 small baking apples such as Granny Smith or Pink Lady, peeled, cored, halved, and tops sliced thin but not all the way through (8 if using a larger pan)
- Topping:
- ½ cup sugar, 100g
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon, .68 g
- 2 tablespoon cold butter, 30g, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- Grease either 2 8X4 loaf pans or a 9X13 pan with butter.
- Combine the thin apple slices with the lemon juice and sugar,stirring to coat well and set aside.
- Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a fork until crumbly.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer combine half of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt and mix to combine.
- Heat the butter and milk together until the butter is melted and the temperature is 120 deg f. Slowly add this to the flour mixture. Beat on medium until combined, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg, vanilla and mix well again and then add the rest of the flour and mix on low until a stiff batter forms.
- Spread a little less than half the mixture on the bottom of the prepared pans, it is pretty stiff and stretchy so work slowly to not over work the batter. Place the apple slices over the batter and cover with the remaining batter. Gently press the apple halves into the top of the batter, arranging in any pattern desired. Sprinkle the topping over the batter avoiding the tops of the sliced apples. Cover pan with a towel and let rest in a warm, draft free area until batter has doubled in size, at least an hour
- Preheat oven to 350 deg F
- Uncover the pan or pans and bake for 20-30 minutes or until done. Let cool in pans on a wire rack. If made in loaf pans carefully remove from pans and set on a plate to cool. Can be served room temperature or warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Ron McKernan says
OK, so I made this according to your instructions and it FAILED miserably. Having made a similar recipe in the past without the apples, and made customarily in a 9x13 pan, I thought that timing might be off but having seen the rise and fall of this Eastern European cake with insufficient time, I was exceedingly skeptical about its ability to raise and hold the apples on top, much less with a layer of apples within. I was unfortunately correct. While it did initially rise, it fell under the weight of the apples and the extra moisture resulted in something which looked very much like the photographs. Interior was less-than-well cooked. I left the second loaf in the oven for an additional 20 minutes and it resulted in the same mess, albeit with topping which had completely caramelized to hardness. I'm an avid and experienced baker so I would not recommend this to anyone. I will, however, attempt to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat in the morning by slicing, dipping in some French toast batter, and cooking it in butter. Other than that, sorry, it didn't work. Not even close
Shanna says
I am so sorry this didn't work for you! I have seriously made my recipe so many times and never had an issue. It comes out like how I made it in the post every time. Maybe get an oven thermometer to make sure your oven temp isn't off? That has happened to me before and I had to get my oven repaired. The apples do sink a little, that is part of the cake for sure, but to have it super underbaked if baked according to directions is weird. The French toast idea does sound great. Thanks for that idea! I really don't want recipes on my site that fail. I do test them many times, as an avid baker myself too, and make sure they come out the same every time before I post. I am going to make this recipe again soon and I will get back to you!
Judy says
I have seen a similar cake made years ago by an older lady from Germany. But the dough seemed to have more egg in it (it made the dough rather yellow) and she rolled it out flat, put apples and sugar and cinnamon and then rolled it up like a jelly roll style. Then she placed it into a round bundt pan, making sure the ends met and pressed together. The cake rose up in a circle and then was baked. It was a delicious cake, but I've never found anyone who has made one quite like it. This sort of reminded me of it. But I think some of the old German recipes are basically lost in the new German generation. They used to be quite excellent bakers.
Shanna says
Oooh that recipe sounds amazing. Not sure I have ever had it. I want to look for that recipe now. I have a lot of my grandmother's recipes, many in German that I need to get translated, but I agree. Today's German/Austrian/Bavarian recipes aren't the same. A lot more time was put into making recipes. These days it is a lot more about shortcuts such as using store bought phyllo dough to make strudel instead of making homemade dough.