September 30, 2008 Updated on July 29, 2025

Apple Pumpkin Cake

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This apple pumpkin cake is a perfect fall recipe. It combines two favorite flavors into one moist, delicious cake.

This apple pumpkin cake is from Robin Asbell’s latest book on Whole Grains. It gets its richness from pumpkin puree, a layer of sautéed apples and then the whole thing is topped with spiced streusel. This cake is so amazing, I had to bake two. The first one my family ate before I could photograph it, so I made another, and it’s gone too. Because the cake is made with whole wheat flour, apples and pumpkin I feel great about satisfying my boys’ requests to eat it for breakfast, a snack and dessert.

I have had such a wonderful time cooking and baking through Robin’s book, The New Whole Grain Cookbook: Terrific Recipes Using Farro, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Barley, and Many Other Delicious and Nutritious Grains. It is full of amazing recipes using grains I am just now getting to know like farro, Job’s tears and teff, along with some I’ve known of but had no idea how to use. I love the chart in the beginning of the book that gives the grain to water ratio and cooking times. I am constantly having to look all over for that information and she put it all in one spot.

In Robin’s recipe she calls for canned pumpkin so you can make this cake any time of the year, but since it is pie pumpkin season I decided to use puree from a pumpkin I roasted. The apples are aplenty right now as well so I chose some that are local. You can mix and match baking apples such as Macintosh, Cortland, Haralson and/or Granny Smith. I have yet to get to an orchard to pick my own apples. But, I had the great fortune of receiving a bag of apples from my friend Jen’s father, who picked the fruit from a tree in his backyard. They are tart, but sweet and have a pink tint to their flesh. Absolutely gorgeous! I mixed them with some Granny Smith, as Robin recommends in her recipe.

Apple Pumpkin Cake Ingredients

Apples: Granny Smith apples give this cake a wonderful tart flavor.
Pumpkin Streusel: The streusel topping features pureed pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice to give this cake the wonderful pumpkin flavor.
Apple Chips: These give the cake more apple flavor and add a layer of crisp flavor.

How to Make Apple Pumpkin Cake

Check out the full recipe at the bottom of this post.

To start:

Butter and flour (I forgot the flour and it was just fine!) an 8-Inch Springform Pan

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Sautéing apples in butter | ZoëBakes | Photo by Zoë François

Saute the apples in the butter on medium heat, just until they start to soften. Remove from heat and add the sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

Combining flour, brown sugar and salt in a mixer flour | ZoëBakes | Photo by Zoë François

In a stand mixer combine the flour, brown sugar and salt. Add the 1/2 cup butter and blend well.

Apple Pumpkin Cake Mixture | ZoëBakes | Photo by Zoë François

Measure out 2/3 cup of the mixture into a separate bowl to make the streusel. Add the 3 tablespoons sugar and pumpkin spices to this separate bowl, blend and set aside.

Apple Pumpkin Cake Recipe | ZoëBakes | Photo by Zoë François

Add the baking soda, pumpkin, sour cream and eggs to the flour mixture left remaining in your mixer.

Blend until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Layer the cake batter, then the sauteed apples and finally sprinkle the streusel over the top.

Bake, uncovered, for about 1 hour. Allow to cool in the pan and then remove the springform. Serve with Vanilla ice cream and an apple chip.

To make the apple chips. dip the apple slices in the simple syrup. Drain the excess syrup off and lay them flat on a Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat. Turn off the oven from the cake and put the sheet of apples in the hot, but turned off oven. Allow the apples to dry out for about an hour before opening the door.

**For those of you who may want a parve caramel apple cake for their Rosh Hashanah dinner they can either adapt this recipe or use the recipe I have that has no dairy. For those just looking for an incredible cake to make use of all those amazing apples and a roasted pumpkin this is the one for you!