Improving an Apple Cake recipe - Very crumbly!

I would add another egg,

thanks! do you think I need to increase the flour if I add another egg?

I looked up some other recipes and some used 4 eggs to 2 c flour so I don't think adding flour is necessary and would defeat the purpose of adding the egg. Look at some other online recipes to get a sense of proportion of ingredients to see how yours compares.

A foolproof cake is the weight method. Weigh 2 eggs. Take the same weight butter, sugar and SR flour. No need to sift flour these days.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs and flour. Then, whatever you like. Chopped apples, vanilla....... SOmetimes I make some caramel, put that on the bottom of the tin lined with baking parchment, add the apples to that then the cake mix. You can't go wrong.

That's exactly as my mother taught me, Islay. And with balance scales you can actually use the eggs as the weights. It's essentially a Victoria sponge recipe and I use it for all kinds of cake: apple, banana, coffee, chocolate, lemon drizzle etc.

For apple cake you can either mix in chopped apple, stick slices into the top on their sides or lay them out in concentric circles. Add spices, nuts, streusel, caramel, whatever you fancy.

There are many different cake textures. The OP recipe is odd, and mixes cups and ounces, but I don't think the solution is to dump it for something different, given that it's delicious. Olychick's egg might be all it needs. Eggs act as glue as well as moisture. The temperature may be an issue as well. Try baking it at a slightly lower temperature, like 325-330F, and make sure to test before it's done so you don't over bake.

I make Torta di Mele when I have ripe apples on my tree, but this recipe does not have the spices that yours does - but you could add them, if you wanted to.

Note the proportions of apples, eggs, etc in this recipe - it is not crumbly at all when done.

“Look at some other online recipes to get a sense of proportion of ingredients to see how yours compares.”

Agree!

Unless Victoria means butter, I’m thinking Islay’s ingredients sound like pound cake not sponge cake.

The proportions do sound like pound cake but we'd call this a Victoria sponge. It's made using the creaming method ie cream sugar and fat. Add eggs. Add flour.

Never having made or eaten pound cake I don't know what the differences might be.

I've made that cake, but it's been years ago. As I recall it is a very moist cake and delicious. I pulled my older cookbooks and found a number of recipes for Raw Apple Cake, with a few variations. My recipe:

Raw Apple Cake

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. allspice

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

2 cups A.P. flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 cups raw, peeled, tart apples- diced or chopped small

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Cream sugar and shortening, then add beaten eggs. Sift all dry ingredients together, then add to wet mixture. Add apples last, then pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan and bake @350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Some of these recipes used the same amount of vegetable oil instead of shortening. Some also frost this cake, but I don't think it's necessary. Your recipe is pretty similar, but half size. Hope this helps.

ETA:I just noticed that your recipe uses the same amount of butter for the

8" x 8" size as mine (shortening) does for the 9" x 13".

Floral, true pound cake is quatre quarts, but in some regions of USA, people call any similar cake, of different proportions ”pound cake”, which makes it confusing. ”Butter cake” is the most common name for that, the fluffier, baking powder rising cake. I've been known to say ”cake cake” for the common frosted layer cake kind of butter cake, that's what people mostly mean here when they say ”cake” without qualifiers, but there are tons of variations with different proportions. And other cakes, altogether, like Hummingbird cake, which is an oil cake, meant to be dense, and “sponge cake“ which is mostly egg rising, but also has a bit of baking powder, and not much flour, and is very fluffy.

FOAS, cake names are very imprecise here and ours don't match up to UK.

I've got a few variations to try, I'm going to start with the extra egg, and also try halving the butter. I'm going to try the egg-weighing method to compare and contrast. The Torta di Mele sounds delicious as well. I see a LOT of apple cake in my future :D

This is nothing like what I know as a pound cake.

Lizbeth - I was referring to the ingredients/proportions Islay posted, not the OP’s cake. Equal weights butter, sugar, egg, and flour makes the original pound cake as I understand it, regardless if there are other names for pound cake or if there are other cakes people call pound cake.

Yep.

Sorry, FOS! I didn't catch that. That does sound like a pound cake.

It's just a suggestion!!!

Here, it's a quatre quarts.

OP states it's already very moist, so wouldn't adding an egg make it goopy?

How finely are the apples chopped? What about grating them instead?

FWIW, I make a cottage pudding type 'cake' that directs beating the egg and sugar until light and fluffy, then adding the flour/dry ingredients and beating well before adding the chopped fruits. I feel like that develops some gluten and binds things better.

Perhaps try ordering the steps differently to see if that helps?

Hmm - just came across this in my feed - looks similar, but steps are different than described above...

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/french-apple-cake

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 c. (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
• 3/4 c. plus 1 tbsp. granulated sugar, divided
• 3 tbsp. dark rum
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3 medium sweet-tart apples (such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp), peeled, cored, and chopped

Directions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350° with a rack in the middle position; lightly coat an 8” round cake pan with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Step 2

In a large bowl, whisk eggs until foamy. Add melted butter, 3/4 cup sugar, rum, and vanilla and whisk to combine. Add dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until evenly incorporated. Fold in apples. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle top with remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Step 3

Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Yields: 8 Servings Prep Time: 15 mins. Total Time: 1 hr. 30 mins. Cal/Serv: 336