Oatmeal Honey Apple Cake (A Lighter Recipe)

The air is cooling just slightly and that means it's time to pull out the Fall recipes and get ready for that wonderful baking spice aroma throughout your house.

Oatmeal Honey Apple Cake will give you that cozy Fall feeling with its warm spices.

Use the best honey you can because that honey flavor really comes through in the cake and the terrific buttery, gooey topping.

This is a lighter cake because it doesn't have oil or butter in the cake part - it uses chunky applesauce instead. It also uses brown sugar vs. white sugar. There's a little butter in the topping, but you need that to help make it gooey and carmely.

So, you throw all of the ingredients together and pour it into the baking dish. Then you make that wonderful topping with butter, brown sugar, honey, and chopped salted almonds and pour it over the top of the cake.

Make sure the almonds are roasted and salted for the best result. I happened across Albertson's brand ('Signature') salted almonds and they're very salty, in a good way, and perfect for this topping.

If you can't find roasted almonds, toast them yourself in the oven for a few minutes. It's worth it to get the best nutty flavor out of the almonds.

What you end up with is a lightly spicy, spongy honey cake with a gooey, chewy, crunchy honey-butter-almond icing. The addition of oatmeal adds a nice texture to the cake, too. But that topping is my favorite part!

Top it off with a little whipped topping (I used Lite topping), sprinkle with a little cinnamon if you want to, and enjoy. You've just made a fairly light, kind of healthy cake that's also delicious. How often does that happen?

Be sure and pour the topping on while the cake is still warm. When it cools off, that buttery honey icing sticks to the cake and the almond crunch completes the whole cake-eating experience.

I guess you can tell I really like this Honey Oatmeal Apple Cake. I think you will too!

More Fall Cake Recipes You'll Love!

• One-Bowl Cranberry Sauce Cake
• Cider Glazed Apple Bundt Cake
• Pumpkin Bread with Caramel Icing

Continue to Content

Oatmeal Honey Apple Cake

Yield: 12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Spongy, lightly spicy apple-honey cake with a buttery, gooey, crunchy topping.

Print

Ingredients

• For the Cake:
• 1 C quick-cooking oats
• 1 C water
• 1 ½ C all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ C packed light brown sugar
• ¾ C chunky applesauce
• ⅓ C honey
• 2 large eggs
• For the Topping:
• ¼ C butter
• ⅓ C packed brown sugar
• ¼ C honey
• ½ C coarsely chopped salted, roasted almonds
• Final Topping:
• Lite whipped topping
• ground cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly spray an 11x7" baking dish.
2. For the cake: in a small bowl, stir the oats and water together. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a stand mixer bowl, combine the brown sugar, applesauce, honey and eggs. Beat on high speed for one minute. Pour in the oats mixture and beat on low until well blended.
5. With the mixer still on low, add half of the flour mixture and beat well. Add the remaining mixture and mix until just combined.
6. Remove the bowl from the stand and stir the batter to make sure flour from the bottom of the bowl is mixed in.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out with just a few clinging pieces of cake. Remove baking dish and cool on a rack. Set the oven to Broil.
8. A few minutes before removing the cake from the oven, start cooking the topping. In a heavy-bottom pan, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and honey. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes, until bubbling. Stir in the coarsely-chopped almonds.
9. When the cake is removed from the oven, pour the topping evenly over the cake. Place the cake under the broiler for about 45 seconds to 1 minute, until the top is bubbling (watch carefully). Remove from the oven and cool the cake completely on a wire rack.
10. Serve cooled cake with a dollop of whipped topping and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon if desired.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

If you can't find chunky applesauce, use regular applesauce.  It'll be fine.

Check the cake at 35 minutes to see how your oven is baking it.  Mine was done in 42 minutes.  Don't over bake it. 

Best served the first day.  If you want to 'freshen' it up, put it under the broiler for 45 seconds to get that topping gooey again.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 12 Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 281Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 41mgSodium: 254mgCarbohydrates: 56gFiber: 2gSugar: 39gProtein: 4g

Nutrition Values are Approximate