Anyone else love eating leftover birthday cake for breakfast? No…? Oh. Right. Not me either. While I love a good coffee cake, I’ve had some trouble perfecting them. They’re so buttery and a little crumbly, which I can’t seem to recreated without adding a ton of butter. Never one to let that get me down, I’ve moved on with my life and to this delicious apple breakfast cake.
It incorporates many of the same qualities of a coffee cake (streusel layers, for one!, but there’s enough differences that I’m hesitant to call it a coffee cake. It’s delicious (and maybe even better than a lot of fatty coffee cakes I’ve tried!) but as soon as something isn’t *exactly* what you’re looking for with a certain word, it crushes your dreams and just doesn’t taste right. So, tasty apple breakfast cake it is!
When I made the cake in the pictures, I did a poor job of spacing out my apples, oops! If you want more on top, do a better job spacing out your streusel (or make extra!:) My official recommendation for next time I make this). Because there’s fresh fruit involved, I also recommend storing in the fridge and microwaving for 10 – 15 seconds before enjoying left overs.
Apple Breakfast Cake
Author: Kelly Hutchinson
Serves: 9
Ingredients
1 ½ c whole wheat pastry flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ c sugar
1/3 c unsweetened applesauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp ground flax
1 tbsp water
1 tsp butter extract (or other extract, but you’ll lose the buttery flavor)
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ c unsweetened almond milk (or other milk choice. Can use buttermilk and omit lemon juice)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 apples, peeled if desired and diced
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp flower
½ tbsp flour
¼ c pecans, optional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a 9”x9” baking pan with nonstick spray.
Whisk pastry flour through salt in a medium bowl.
Combine sugar through vanilla in a second bowl.
Stir milk and lemon juice in a third bowl and let sit for a few minutes.
Combine apples through pecans.
Add the flour mixture and milk mixture to the sugar mixture, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.
Pour ~half of the batter into the pan. Cover in half of the apple mixture, top with remaining batter and finish with the last of the apple mixture.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Wow! That apple breakfast cake and a cup of coffee sounds perfect for breakfast (like everyday!) How did you come up with that recipe??? Looks fantastic!
I’m not sure where this recipe came from, it popped into my head last Friday and I sat at my desk alllll day thinking about how I needed to make it ASAP 🙂
I love leftover sweets for breakfast (although I usually try to control myself and wait until not breakfast lol)–this apple breakfast cake is the perfect solution!
Breakfast cake should be more of a thing, I think. Move over cereal, breakfast cake’s coming in! Your apple breakfast cake looks awesome…I’d definitely be snacking on it all day long!
Sounds close enough to call it coffee cake to me, but breakfast cake certainly works! Whatever you want to call it, it looks delicious and like something I wish I had had this morning! Yum!
While I would love to wake up to leftover birthday cake every morning, I think this cake would be even better. I am a sucker for apple cakes! Love that it’s made with whole wheat flour too.
Oh, this cake sounds so good. I love that you can prepare it ahead of time and wake up on a relaxing weekend morning to it. Something about apples and cinnamon is so relaxing. Okay, I’m hungry now. 🙂
This looks like the perfect cake for breakfast. I just adore streusel on anything. I especially love the calories. It will fit nicely in my calorie count for the day.
Wow! That apple breakfast cake and a cup of coffee sounds perfect for breakfast (like everyday!) How did you come up with that recipe??? Looks fantastic!
I’m not sure where this recipe came from, it popped into my head last Friday and I sat at my desk alllll day thinking about how I needed to make it ASAP 🙂
I love leftover sweets for breakfast (although I usually try to control myself and wait until not breakfast lol)–this apple breakfast cake is the perfect solution!
I’m glad you have the self control, I definitely don’t! 😉
Breakfast cake should be more of a thing, I think. Move over cereal, breakfast cake’s coming in! Your apple breakfast cake looks awesome…I’d definitely be snacking on it all day long!
Sounds close enough to call it coffee cake to me, but breakfast cake certainly works! Whatever you want to call it, it looks delicious and like something I wish I had had this morning! Yum!
Cake for breakfast is one of the perks of being an adult 😉
Agreed!
Cake for breakfast makes any day a good day! Love the apply addition to “coffee cake”!
While I would love to wake up to leftover birthday cake every morning, I think this cake would be even better. I am a sucker for apple cakes! Love that it’s made with whole wheat flour too.
Oh, this cake sounds so good. I love that you can prepare it ahead of time and wake up on a relaxing weekend morning to it. Something about apples and cinnamon is so relaxing. Okay, I’m hungry now. 🙂
Cake for breakfast makes any day brighter but I have a weakness for apple cakes! I think because it reminds me of fall, my favorite season.
Cake? Breakfast? All in the same sentence? Yes please! Great recipe 🙂
Yummy, that looks fantastic! I am always looking for apple cake/bread/muffin recipes. Thanks for sharing this!
I love that this is not full of butter…so I can eat more of it!
Ha! That’s my exact reasoning for making it this way 🙂 Thanks!
Cake for breakfast is the best! Especially one with streusel! Nothing goes better with big mug of tea!
This looks like the perfect cake for breakfast. I just adore streusel on anything. I especially love the calories. It will fit nicely in my calorie count for the day.
Cake for breakfast is pretty much my life you know… I need to try an apple version ASAP.