Tuscan apple cake, also known as torte di mele, is a rustic and simple Italian dessert filled with fresh sliced apples. The cake has a nice dense texture with a buttery crumb that picks up the added flavors of your choice.

Right now it’s apple season where I live and they are in abundance, so pick whatever apples suit your fancy for this recipe, it’s all good.

To me the most important thing to remember when making a tuscan apple cake is to flavor the cake itself. Because the crumb has such a hearty texture it can take on nice bold flavors such as lemon zest, vanilla, a touch of cinnamon and my favorite addition along with the others is Amaretto liquer.

I made my cake in a spring form pan but you can also use a square or round baking dish, just keep it to an eight or nine inch size.

This is the perfect “coffee cake” for me and for anyone else that enters my home, no fancy ingredients just pure deliciousness!

THE RECIPE WHEN FIRST POSTED HAD TWO MISTAKES, IT HAS BEEN CORRECTED

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5.0 from 3 reviews

Tuscan Apple Cake

 

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Author: Marie

Ingredients

• 6 apples of your choice, 2 will be diced and the rest will be thinly sliced, peeled and cored for all and lightly tossed with a touch of lemon juice to prevent discoloration
• 2 cups all purpose un-bleached flour
• 4 eggs
• 8 Tablespoons of butter, 7 will be melted while reserving 1 tablespoon for dotting the top ot the cake
• 1 cup, sugar
• ⅓ cup milk
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons amaretto liquer (optional) sub almond extract if you prefer but just ½ teaspoon
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of cinnamon
• lemon juice to prevent apples from discoloration
• extra butter to prepare the pan

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Butter and dust with flour a 9 inch spring form pan.
3. Place the prepared pan onto a rimmed baking sheet.
4. Melt the 7 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, let it cool then add the milk, zest, vanilla and optional amaretto or almond extract.
5. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.
6. In a large mixing bowl mix eggs and sugar together until light and creamy, a few minutes.
7. Add the flour mixture and beat until it's incorporated, then add the cooled milk with all the flavorings.
8. When everything is well mixed fold in the diced apples.
9. Pour apple batter into prepared pan.
10. Arrange remaining thinly sliced apples all around covering the top (you probably will have some apple slices left over depending on their size) then give it a light sprinkle of sugar all over as well as a tiny bit of cinnamon.
11. Dot the cake top with the tablespoon of reserved butter.
12. Bake for somewhere between 60- 70 minutes, keep in mind if you by chance use an 8 inch springform pan it will take longer to bake because it will be deeper.
13. Mine took 70 minutes in a nine inch but keep in mind ovens do vary, so my advice keep watching!
14. Apples should be golden brown and cake should be barely moist when tested with a toothpick.
15. Let it rest and cool down for at least 15 minutes before you pop the spring.
16. ENJOY!
17. UPDATE: If you want to reverse the apple arrangement, I've done it by folding 4 diced apples into the batter, with 2 thinly sliced to cover the top, it all works.

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