Learn how to make the best Italian apple yogurt cake with this easy recipe, a dense apple torte flavoured with lemon zest and loaded with thinly sliced apples. This is such an easy fall dessert with apples!
I love the crispy sugar topping that crackles as the cake cools and its crispy texture is a welcome sweet contrast to the soft, slightly tart apples. This is a great snacking cake and lovely for the end of fall.
I adapted this apple yogurt cake recipe from David Rocco's cookbook Made In Italy. Among other things, I reduced the butter because I noticed some of it leaked out of the cake while baking, and I also increased the sugar slightly to enhance the flavour. I added step-by-step photos to better illustrate how to mix the batter.
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Ingredients To Make Old-Fashioned Apple Yogurt Cake
The beauty of this old-fashioned apple yogurt cake recipe is the simplicity of the ingredients. Here's what you need:
- apples: I generally bake with Cortland apples because they hold up well to heat without breaking down. Alternatively, you can try Gala apples or Honeycrisp
- sugar: this cake is made with granulated sugar to add sweetness without any flavour that could mask the taste of the apples and lemon zest
- butter: this recipe was tested with unsalted butter. If using salted, you may adjust the salt added to avoid making the cake too salty
- flour: I bake with bleached all-purpose flour. Unbleached will work, but the cake may be less tender
- yogurt: use 2 % (low-fat) yogurt (not Greek yogurt, which is too thick)
- eggs: I bake with large eggs. If you use smaller or larger eggs, it may have an impact on the texture of your cake
- salt: I bake with Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular salt, add half the amount.
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
You can obviously add flavour extracts like vanilla extract or almond extract to enhance the flavour of this apple cake.
How To Make Italian Apple Yogurt Cake
This Italian apple yogurt cake isn't leavened. Instead, we whip the butter, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy, then incorporate the dry ingredients and yogurt, and fold in the apples. This creates an apple pound cake of sorts with a denser texture. Here's how you make it:
Step 1: Start by mixing the sugar with the lemon zest (image 1) to extract the lemon oils from the peel to bring out as much flavour as possible, then add the melted butter (image 2) and whip it for several minutes until thick before adding the eggs, one at a time (image 3). The mixture will be glossy and light at this point (image 4).
Step 2: Sift in a third of the dry ingredients (image 5) and stir them in, alternating with half the yogurt (image 6). Repeat this, then finish by mixing in the remaining dry ingredients, then folding in the thinly sliced apples (image 7), reserving a few to decorate the top of the cake before baking.
Step 3: Transfer the batter to the 8-inch springform pan, garnish the top with the reserved apple slices, and sprinkle with the extra sugar (image 8). Bake the cake until golden brown. The edges separate from the cake pan and a cake tester inserted into the middle will come out clean (image 9).
This apple yogurt cake is a dessert recipe adapted from David Rocco's "Made in Italy" (page 341). The recipe is really simple and can even be mixed together by hand (or with a hand mixer, as David Rocco recommends) if you don't have a stand mixer. The cake has a lovely moist texture and is full of apple slices. The original recipe said to bake the cake for 40 minutes, but mine took over an hour to bake.
If you tried this recipe for the best apple yogurt cake (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Old-Fashioned Italian Apple Yogurt Cake
Ingredients
- 156 grams bleached all-purpose flour
- 1.25 mL ground cinnamon
- 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 15 mL finely grated lemon zest
- 150 grams unsalted butter melted, plus a little extra for buttering the pan
- 2 large egg(s)
- 115 grams yogurt (2 % fat)
- 2 Cortland apple(s) peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
- 50 grams granulated sugar for the topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan with parchment, then butter and flour the sides.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the 150 grams (¾ cup) of sugar and the lemon zest to extract the lemon oil from the peel
- Add the melted butter and mix until the mixture thickens and lightens in colour.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low, then add the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour.
- Set aside 15 apple slices for garnish, then add the remaining sliced apples to the mixer bowl with the yogurt cake batter. Fold them in
- Transfer the batter to the prepared springform pan and smooth the top. Garnish the top of the cake with the reserved apple slices and sprinkle evenly with the remaining 50 grams of sugar.
- Bake until the edges begin to separate from the sides of the pan and a cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean. This takes about an hour.
- Let cool for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it before removing the springform ring. Let cool completely before serving.
Notes
- This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
- The recipe is very light on cinnamon. For more flavour, double it!
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Nutrition
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Anonymous says
Great cake!! Next time I'm going to add more apples (I used two small apples and it wasn't enough) and I may also add more sugar and less butter to increase the sweetness and decrease density. I may also try baking powder -- has anyone tried this yet?
Janice Lawandi says
Great suggestions! Baking powder would definitely give you a bit of extra "lift"! I liked the denseness of it, but that's just my personal preference. By all means, make it yours! And I'd love to hear how your tweaks turn out 🙂
Anonymous says
What an outstanding recipe. Love the long running comments as people find this lovely site ♥. I run a research lab so mL and grams are "natural" to me. Although you can't get 125 mL of yogurt out of a 250 mL graduated cylinder LOL. You can do weight/volume where 1 mL = 1 gram. That is what we do in the lab. You think that's crazy try and titer out to ng/ul (nanograms/microliter)with cytokines. Sheez
Anonymous says
Well I made the cake today and I did some things a little different. I only used one apple but it was a really big granny smith apple and then after I sprinkled the sugar on top I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on it too. I am a cinnamon freak. Its in there cooling down now and I can definitely tell you my husband is excited about tearing into it
Janice Lawandi says
That's amazing! I hope you both love it!
Anonymous says
A very simple recipe but a with a very good taste. I put only 150 Gr. butter in and the zest of a limon (green lemon), i love it !!! Thanks for the recipe.
Kelly @ IdealistMom.com says
Oh, this looks delicious! I love all kinds of apple desserts. I'm pinning it now 🙂
Rachel Weiler says
I made this the other night and absolutely loved it. It did take quite a while to get the butter and sugar light and fluffy by hand, so I think next time I won't melt the butter all the way...but it turned out great. Thanks for a delicious recipe!
Anonymous says
Made cake...too much butter. Must be a mistake. 14 tbs butter for this cake is unbelievable. what a waste of ingredients.
Janice Lawandi says
Hi, I'm sorry you had trouble with the cake. The problem might be that you didn't beat the butter and sugar mixture enough. If this step isn't done properly, you will end up with a heavy, greasy cake. I hope you will try this again.
Nadine says
Oh, this sounds soooo good, and I really love you for giving the measurments in grams!! This year I specially brought home a cup measure set from our vacation in the States because I love all the recipes but I cannot handle the cup thing 😉 I will try it for christmas! Thank you!
Nadine
bellwilde says
I did make this and cut the butter to 3/4 it turned out just like the picture and was soft, moist and tasty. I received many complements and will make this again. My friend made this as well and had a buttery mess and had to pour off butter after it was baked as I read above. We discussed our processes and the only real difference was I whipped the butter and sugar. o light and fluffy with an electric mixer she did it by hand.
Janice Lawandi says
Thanks so much for the input bellwilde! I agree with you: the whipping of the butter and sugar at the first step is very important!
I'm very happy to see that the cake was a hit 🙂
Anonymous says
This will complete our Thanksgiving meal this year, with the addition of a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Thanks so much for posting!
Janice Lawandi says
So happy to hear that! I hope you enjoy this cake and happy thanksgiving 🙂