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This gluten-free Almond Flour Apple Cake is a delicious healthy apple cake recipe made with an almond flour, tapioca flour and coconut flour base. It is flavored with apple sauce, apples and cinnamon.
I love this Fall inspired, cinnamon-filled fluffy cake that is brimming with apples. It smells amazing and tastes amazing with a cup of tea or coffee. Because of the ingredients in this healthy apple cake recipe, it is naturally Paleo, Grain-free, Gluten-free, and Dairy-free.
The base of the cake is made with an almond flour, coconut flour and tapioca flour mixture. And the flavors of the cake are enhanced by cinnamon, apple sauce and fresh apples. There is also only natural sugars used, which makes it an overall healthier recipe.
If you love apple recipes, try my apple gummies, Fall chocolate bark or apple pie energy balls.
Table of Contents
What makes this recipe great
- It captures the essence of autumn in cake form.
- It uses olive oil instead of butter. (If you like baking with olive oil, check out my Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake, it is divine).
- It uses maple syrup and honey instead of sugar.
- There are no refined sugars or flours in the recipes.
- It is the perfect apple snacking cake.
Ingredients needed:
- almond flour– blanched almond flour is best here because it is thinner in texture.
- coconut flour– this helps absorb the liquid in this recipe.
- tapioca flour– this gluten-free flour pairs well with almond flour and coconut flour.
- baking soda– used to make the cake rise.
- salt– sea salt or Himalayan salt works.
- cinnamon– compliments the apple flavors. Ceylon cinnamon tastes wonderful.
- maple syrup– I use a combo of maple syrup and honey to replace refined sugar here.
- honey– adds a nice sweetness to the recipe.
- eggs– they help to bind the ingredients together.
- extra light olive oil– this is used to replace butter and milk.
- apple sauce– helps replace some of the fat needed in the recipe, along with adding apple flavor.
- apples– fresh apples help give the flavor to this cake.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Additions/ Substitutions
- Instead of tapioca flour, you can use arrowroot powder at a 1:1 ratio.
- Instead of maple syrup, you can use honey.
- Instead of honey, you can use maple syrup.
- Instead of olive oil, you can use avocado oil.
- Instead of apple sauce, you can use pear sauce.
- Instead of apples, you can use pears.
Step by step instructions
Step 1: Mix the almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in one bowl.
Step 2: Mix the maple syrup, honey, eggs, olive oil, and apple sauce in another bowl.
Step 3: Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Then fold in the diced apples.
Step 4: Bake and then put on a drying rack. Then, serve.
Recipe FAQs
Honey crisp, Pink Lady, Gala, Granny Smith.
I like adding some sliced apples in a circle on top. Adding some pumpkin seeds or even a sprinkle of chia seeds could work as well.
This almond flour apple cake is amazing on its own with some tea or coffee. It’s also great with some whipped coconut cream on top or served warm with ice-cream. I also like to add an extra sprinkle of cinnamon on top.
In an airtight container at room temperature on the counter for 3 days or in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Other almond flour apple recipes you’ll love:
Paleo Apple Tart (Gluten-free, Dairy-free)
Paleo Gluten-Free Apple Crumb Muffins
Dairy Free Apple Crisp (Gluten free, Vegan)
This cake with apple roses by At the Immigrant’s Table is a beautiful almond flour cake with gorgeous apple roses on top.
Did you try this recipe? Please leave me a ⭐ review below!
Gluten-free Almond Flour Apple Cake (Paleo)
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1 cup tapioca flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, (ceylon is best)
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup apple sauce
- 1 1/2 cups diced apples, this was 1 apple for me
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch round pan and cover in parchment paper.
- Mix the almond flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a large bowl.
- In another large bowl, add the maple syrup, honey, eggs, olive oil, and apple sauce. Whisk.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix.
- Fold the diced apples into the batter
- Pour the batter into the round baking pan. Top with a few slices of apples to decorate the top.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cake is set and golden.
Notes
- Instead of tapioca flour, you can use arrowroot powder at a 1:1 ratio.
- Instead of maple syrup, you can use honey.
- Instead of honey, you can use maple syrup.
- Instead of olive oil, you can use avocado oil.
- Instead of apple sauce, you can use pear sauce.
- Instead of apples, you can use pears.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I needed more from these comments. So here’s the more I didn’t get. It was pretty easy to make. Didn’t take too much time and I had everything on hand heeded for it because we’re pretty paleocentric. I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to do honey or maple syrup or both so we did both just case. To me and my 7 year old who loves to bake this cake turned out so good. New staple for a fresh fall cake. Tasted like fall! Now we did use cinnamon applesauce to help enhance the flavor as we have found many paleo cakes to be bland.
I did mine with the whole apple bits but half my crowd could have done without them and honestly it would have tasted just as good. I also took out the cake mid bake and did a swirl of honey on top because we weren’t going to do any kind of icing with. Though my kids remembered we had apple butter and that junk on it was Gooooood.
Now I only gave it a 4 star because my husband and son were not huge fans. My son didn’t like the apples but liked everything else ok. My husband didn’t like the texture of the cake as a whole. Which I get. It’s not as spongy or soft and when you’re just getting used to paleo is a much different texture. My daughter and I on the other hand were big fans.
Also I’m a big measure with your heart kind of person. If you know you’re going to love it with more cinnamon add an extra sprinkle to that batch! If you don’t like baked apples, leave ’em out. That’s what make recipes great, you can turn them into your own
Fantastic cake, will make it again when I have apples in the house. I subbed 1 equivalent Bob’s Red Mill egg replacement for 1 egg. It dried and finished baking about 5 minutes before your minimum bake time (my bad- maybe I should add more of a wet ingredient when I experiment with egg replacer). Still amazing and moist, and easy to mix in one bowl with just with a fork no mixer! (Reduced mess). I ate 1/4 of it by myself after lunch and a long walk. Thanks for the recipe!
Great to know how it bakes with an egg replacement. Thank you!
can I replace the maple syrup and honey with sweetener like monk fruit sugar?
I’ve never tried it, but I don’t see why not!
Just waiting to take it out of the oven. Smells heavenly! Forgot to save some apple for the top but I’m very happy with the look of it. Hope it tastes as good.
I hope you like it!!
If I don’t have tapioca flour, can I use something else?
Do you have arrowroot flour?
I can not get enough apples this time of year! Can’t wait to put this one into the rotation.
Apple and cinnamon are complete each other. And with all those ingredients.. your recipe sound perfect! love to try it soon
SO perfect for fall! This looks incredibly amazing!
This cake looks so delicious! I hope you are staying safe and not too affected by Irma x