Easy Apple Yogurt Cake

This delicious Apple Yogurt Cake makes the perfect mid-day snack. It is high in protein, low in sugar, and goes great with a warm cup of coffee or tea!

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If you are seeking a recipe that is easy to make and requires minimal ingredients, while still being delicious, kinda-sorta "healthy", and making enough to feed a family for a whole week, then you win!!!

This is that recipe.

It is so simple.

One bowl. Hand mix with a spoon. One layer. No fancy equipment or whipping anything. It is so beginner friendly, and yet tastes like something you would get at a bakery!

Easy Apple Yogurt Cake for the win!

How I Came Up with a Cake Recipe Using Plain Yogurt

I came up with the recipe for this Apple Yogurt Snacking Cake as I was trying to make do with the food I had in my kitchen. I was in the mood for something sweet, but not quite cookie-sweet or brownie-sweet.

At the same time, I was nearing the end of my groceries and wanted to try to use up as much as I could before shopping again.

I am always looking for ways to reduce food waste!

Something I really needed to find a use for was some Vanilla Yogurt that I bought by accident. I am a big plain yogurt fan, and find the flavored versions too sweet for me.

I knew putting it into a baked good would be the perfect way to create a recipe using vanilla yogurt.

That said, when I searched for "yogurt cake" or "yogurt muffin" recipes, I was finding a lot of them called for only ¼ Cup of Yogurt.

I really needed to use this whole big container! So I set forth to use at least a whole whoppin' cup in this recipe.

Double the recipe (or make it twice), and you're basically done your yogurt container!

Apple Yogurt Cake Ingredients

Yogurt. Per the name of the cake, Yogurt is a star ingredient here - a whole cup of it! I used Vanilla flavored yogurt, which enhanced both the sweetness and flavor of the cake. To keep the sugar lower, you can use a plain yogurt. You could also add some fun fruity flavors and use a Raspberry or Strawberry Yogurt - either would be delicious with apple! In addition to adding flavor and keeping the cake moist, the yogurt also adds probiotics and protein to this healthier snack!

Apples. Also in the title, Apples are obviously a star ingredient in this Snacking Cake. They provide lots of moisture without making the cake soggy. The little diced pieces provide pockets of juicy flavor bursts as you snack through the cake. If you want to sub the fruit, make sure you sub in a fruit with similar consistency, like pears or nectarines.

Coconut Sugar. Just a little bit of Coconut Sugar gives the cake some delectable sweetness. I chose to use Coconut Sugar as the dry crystals allow baked goods to stay more airy than a liquid sweetener, like honey or maple syrup. If you want to sub in brown or white sugar, either of those would work. If you want to sub in a liquid sweetener, that would work too, but your cake will be denser and darker.

Applesauce. Applesauce provides more of that delicious fall apple flavor, as well as more moisture. The recipe calls for equal parts Applesauce and Neutral Oil, but you could always sub them for each other. Both add moisture, but the applesauce also adds a bit of flavor.

Egg Whites. This is probably the first recipe I have on this blog that calls for Egg Whites. I am usually all about using whole ingredients and not wasting anything (hello, unpeeled apple chunks), so this seems like a strange add. So how did this happen? I have been baking Tori Avery's Challah Recipe every Friday lately, which calls for 3 egg yolks. I didn't want the Whites to go to waste, so I thought to try them in a recipe. And whaddya know - it worked wonderfully! If you happen to have whole eggs you do not want to waste, 2 regular eggs would work too. Or keep reading for egg-free options.

Cinnamon. Cinnamon really brings out all the delicious flavors in this simple cake. It enhances the apples, the Vanilla from the yogurt, the coconut sugar. You can't really have an Apple-desert without Cinnamon!

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Moist Apple Cake Frosting

Can we talk about that delicious, white, dreamy drizzle for a second? It is simply just some Coconut Butter mixed with warm water and drizzled over the cake.

If you love frosting, you can double it and turn the coverage up from a drizzle to full blown. If you're not a frosting lover, you can leave it out too. The cake is perfectly sweet and delicious enough without it.

But... (warning: incoming joke that I have used on way too many of my recipe posts)... it really is the frosting on the cake! 😉

Apple Yogurt Cake Substitutions

Make it Dairy Free. While this Yogurt cake is certainly not normally dairy free, it can actually be made dairy free quite easily.

While Yogurt is obviously a main ingredient (it's IN the title), there are no other dairy ingredients like butter, cream, or milk. These days, its so easy to find a dairy-free yogurt alternative, like a Coconut based one.

Make it Gluten Free. In this recipe, I used regular All Purpose Flour. This is only the second recipe on the entire blog that uses AP Flour (the first being my Easy Cinnamon Rolls), as I was just trying to use what I had in my kitchen.

This recipe would work just as well with a 1:1 Gluten Free Flour Baking Blend like this one, or any Oat Flour, Almond Flour, or mixture of the 2!

PS Check out this recipe for a Gluten Free Apple Cake!

Make it Egg Free. As I mentioned, I used 3 Egg Whites leftover from my homemade Challah, which called for 3 Egg Yolks. If you don't want to waste the yolks, you can simply use 2 whole eggs. Or, if you don't want to use eggs at all, you can make a "Chia Egg" or "Flax Egg" using 2 Tbsp of ground flax or chia and 6 Tbsp of warm water.

I have also seen this Vegan Egg Replacer you can buy off Amazon. I have not tried it myself, but I reckon it would work.

Sub any sweetener. I use a bit of Coconut Sugar as well as flavored yogurt to sweeten this cake. You can use honey or maple syrup if you prefer, just note that the cake will be denser and come out darker.

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Healthy Apple Baking Recipes & More Easy Baked Goods Recipes

Greek Yogurt Blueberry Muffins
Healthy Gluten Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake
Gluten Free Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
Gluten Free/Dairy Free Apple & Honey Cake
Chai Latte Muffins with Espresso Glaze
Oat Bran Banana Muffins

Equipment Needed for Moist Apple Cake

Mixing Bowl. Any bowl will do. Heck, use a salad bowl if you want. (PS These are my Dream Mixing Bowls - so many fun attachments and gizmos!)

A spoon. Or a fork. A whisk if you're really feeling fancy. Anything to mix the things together.

A baking dish. I absolutely love my glass Pyrex Baking Dishes (get them here), but anything will do. You could even make this in a skillet, technically!

In my photos, I used a 7x11" Pyrex (like this one), but you could use a standard 9x11" baking dish, if that is what you have. Just note your cake will be a little thinner.

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If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo using #thegranoladiaries on Instagram.

Follow The Granola Diaries on Instagram on Facebook!