Ground walnuts fold into the batter alongside butter, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, and baking powder. Apple slices get pressed in the batter just before the tin goes into the oven. As the cake bakes, the apple softens into the surface and the ground walnuts make the crumb closer and more tender than a standard sponge. The loaf pan is the right format here; it keeps the bake contained and produces clean slices.

Brown sugar rather than white gives the cake a warmth that suits the walnuts and apple. This is the kind of cake that improves slightly the day after baking, once the flavors have had time to settle. If it lasts that long.

What Makes This Work

Most nut cakes use chopped nuts for texture, you see them in the crumb and feel them when you bite. Grinding the walnuts here does something different: they disappear into the batter, lending fat and flavor without a chunky interruption. The result is a crumb that’s denser than a standard sponge and more tender than a pound cake, closer to the texture of a financier than anything you’d call a typical loaf. The apple quarters pressed in from the top don’t just add fruit; as they bake, their moisture migrates into the surrounding crumb and keeps the cake from drying out, which is why it’s genuinely better on day two.

Apple Walnut Cake on wooden board with a few slices.

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Key Ingredients in This Recipe

You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.

Butter
Light brown sugar – dark brown works as well, but you cake will get darker.
Vanilla extract
Egg
Baking powder
All-purpose flour
Walnuts – alternative nuts may be pecans, hazelnuts or almonds
Apple – select an apple that does not become applesauce during baking. A crunchy and tart Granny Smith or a sweeter Honeycrisp Apple are excellent choices.

One slice of apple walnut cake on a plate with some walnut and an apple in the background.

How to Make an Apple Walnut Cake

Step 1 – Pulse the walnuts in your food processor until fine meal.
Step 2 – Beat butter with the light brown sugar until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time and incorporate each one, before you add the next.
Step 3 – Mix baking powder and flour. Add flour mixture and walnuts to butter-egg mixture, as well as the vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
Step 4 – Peel and core the apple. Cut in quarters and slice thinly, but don’t slice all the way through.
Step 5 – Pour the batter in a greased cake form and level the top. Place apple quarters on top of the cake and push them into the batter, bottom down, sliced side up.
Step 6 – Melt butter and pour this over the apple pieces. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Step 7 – Place cake in an oven of 350°F and bake for approx. 1 hour. Check the cake before the recommended 1 hour baking is over, as you might create a drier cake than you want with a thicker crust than you prefer.

Alternatives & Substitutions

Instead of walnuts, you could use hazelnuts or pecans.
The apple variety you choose will determine part of the flavor. Select the most popular apple for a dessert, the Granny smith (firm, tart and definitely present) For a sweeter variety think about Honeycrisp (crips and sweet), Pink Lady (a balanced sweet-tart flavor) or Braeburn (very sweet and mildly tart).

Other Apple Desserts You May Like

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