Norwegian Apple Cake (Eplekake)

This Norwegian apple cake — eplekake — is the cake we bake when the apple trees give more than we can eat. It’s a soft, cardamom-spiced butter cake with a layer of apple sauce through the middle, studded with fresh apple slices and finished with a crunchy almond top. Simple enough for a weeknight, good enough to serve with coffee and a candle lit.

Norwegian Apple Cake (Eplekake)

A soft, cardamom-spiced Norwegian apple cake with a layer of apple sauce through the middle and a crunchy almond topping.

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Prep Time 35 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Cooling 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 55 minutes mins

Servings: 12 slices

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Norwegian, Scandinavian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Cake

• 4–5 tart apples Granny Smith, Braeburn or Pink Lady; peel only if the skins are thick
• ½ lemon juice only
• 150 g butter ⅔ cup, softened (1⅓ sticks)
• 200 g granulated sugar 1 cup
• 4 large eggs room temperature
• 250 g all-purpose flour 2 cups
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp ground cardamom

Apple sauce

• 2 apples about 10½ oz / 300 g, cored and diced small — skin on
• 50 g granulated sugar ¼ cup
• 1 tbsp water just enough to start the pan

Topping

• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 50 g almonds ½ cup, sliced or roughly chopped

Equipment

• Long loaf pan, 12½ × 4¼ × 2½ inches (32 × 11 × 6.5 cm) We bake this in a long Nordic loaf tin. A standard 9×5-inch loaf pan works too — the cake comes out taller, so add 5–10 minutes
• Heavy-based saucepan For cooking the apple sauce down without it catching
• Stand mixer or hand mixer For creaming the butter and sugar properly
• Digital kitchen scale The batter is forgiving, but weighing the flour keeps the crumb light
• Silicone spatula For levelling the batter above and below the apple sauce
• Wire rack Cooling on a rack keeps the base from going damp
• Parchment paper Line the pan so the paper runs up the long sides — the overhang lets you lift the cake out in one piece.

Method

 

1. Make the apple sauce first, or use a good shop-bought one. Core and dice the apples small, about ¼ inch (5 mm) — leave the skin on if they’re thin-skinned, it gives the sauce a pink blush. Put them in a saucepan with the sugar and water over medium heat and cook for 10–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until the fruit softens and most of the liquid has steamed off. You want it thick, not smooth. Cool it completely before it goes near the batter.
2. Peel the apples for the cake if the skins are thick — thin-skinned apples can keep theirs. Halve, core and slice them, then toss the slices in a bowl with the lemon juice so they stay pale.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.
4. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and cardamom. Add it to the butter mixture a little at a time on low speed, just until combined.
5. Butter a long loaf pan, 12½ × 4¼ inches (32 × 11 cm), and line it with parchment so the paper runs up the long sides and hangs over the edges — that overhang is how you lift the cake out later. Spoon in half the batter and level it, spread ¾ cup + 1 tbsp (200 g) of the apple sauce over in an even layer, then top with the remaining batter and smooth the surface with a spatula.
6. Press the apple slices into the batter in an even pattern, standing them up slightly so they show once the cake rises.
7. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the top, then scatter over the almonds.
8. Bake on the lowest rack at 375°F (190°C) for about 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean in the centre. In a deeper 9×5-inch pan, give it 55–60 minutes and tent it with foil if the almonds colour too fast. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Notes

Chef’s tip — the apple sauce layer is what keeps this cake soft. Spread it in a single even band through the middle rather than stirring it into the batter, and make sure it’s completely cold first — warm sauce melts the butter in the batter and the layer sinks.

Storage: keeps 3–4 days covered at room temperature, and the crumb stays soft the whole time. Freezes well in slices for up to 3 months.

Shop-bought apple sauce works. Use a thick, unsweetened one and drain it in a sieve if it’s loose.

Why this apple cake stays soft for days

Most apple cakes are dry by the second day. This one isn’t, and the reason is the apple sauce. It goes in as a single layer through the middle of the cake rather than stirred into the batter, which leaves a band of moisture that keeps working long after the cake has cooled. It works on a similar idea to the tangzhong we use in our Norwegian julekake — keeping moisture inside the crumb instead of letting it escape in the oven.

The other half of it is the fresh apple slices pressed into the top. As they bake they release steam into the batter around them, so the cake sets soft rather than tight.

Choosing the right apples

Go tart. Granny Smith is the easy answer in an American kitchen, and Braeburn or Pink Lady both work well if you want a little more perfume. What you want to avoid is a sweet, soft apple — it collapses into the batter and you lose the contrast that makes the cake interesting.

Thin-skinned apples don’t need peeling. The skin softens completely in 50 minutes and adds a little colour to the slices.

The apple sauce is the same one we cook for tilslørte bondepiker, the Norwegian apple trifle with buttered breadcrumbs — apples and sugar cooked down until the sauce holds its shape on a spoon. Here it’s scaled to exactly what the cake needs, but double it and you’ve got both desserts from one pot of apples. A shop-bought sauce works too, but drain it if it’s loose.

Serving Norwegian apple cake

We serve it the way it’s served at home: a thick slice with lightly whipped cream, unsweetened, and a few thin slices of fresh apple fanned over the top. The raw apple against the baked one is the whole point — one soft and sweet, one crisp and sharp.

Warm is best on the day it’s baked. From day two on, a slice at room temperature with coffee is what this cake is really for.

Make it your own

• Swap the almonds for hazelnuts if you want something darker and more autumnal.
• Add a pinch of ground ginger to the topping alongside the cinnamon.
• Bake it round. The same batter fits an 9-inch (22 cm) springform. It bakes a little deeper, so give it 55–60 minutes and check with a skewer.
• Baked in a loaf pan it sits closer to our sourdough discard blueberry loaf — same everyday format, same easy slicing.

More Nordic bakes you’ll love

• Norwegian Apple Trifle with Buttered Breadcrumbs — tilslørte bondepiker, the other classic way we use autumn apples
• Easy Rhubarb Cake with Almonds — the spring version, with the same toasted-almond top
• Moist Orange Cake with Sticky Orange Syrup — another simple coffee cake that stays tender for days