Easy apple cake with cake mix and sour cream recipe uses fresh apples diced and baked into spice cake mix for the best dessert hack ever. Similar to our Apple Cobbler with Bisquick but fluffier and baked in a 9×13 inch pan in the oven.
We have a lot of boxed cake mix recipes on my blog because it is a great base you can tweak in so many ways. Adding fresh fruit into the mix makes it taste like homemade or from a bakery and is simple to do too. (affiliate links present)
Table of Contents
How to add fruit to a box cake mix
That depends on what you are making. In this case we sprinkled them on the top and that was that. With our pumpkin apple bread I wanted to fold it into the batter. In this case you want to make sure that it is added last. With apples they are rather firm so it isn’t as much of an issue but with berries it would.
More delicate choices need a bit more care so they don’t break apart. You don’t want the juices to release and add more liquid than necessary into the batter. In either case I would suggest using a rubber spatula to carefully fold the pieces in if you want half inside and half on top.
How do you keep fruit from sinking in cake batter?
There really isn’t a must do when it comes to adding apples or other fruit into cake batter, but some people don’t want them to sink. In this case we add to the top so I didn’t do anything but if you incorporated them into the batter you could toss with a bit of flour or powdered sugar first.
This step adds a coating to the outside which doesn’t allow them to sink as easily when baked. I have done this when making our Apple Cobbler with Cake Mix, and not for this one. I think it makes a difference with muffins but not with this so I don’t bother.
What is the best cake mix to add apples into?
The best flavor to make Cake Mix Apple Spice Cake is to use Spice. Reason being is all those Fall flavors like cinnamon and nutmeg are already in there. Makes amping up this boxed mix into something more special a lot easier. If you used yellow or white you would need to compensate for all of that.
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix, 15.25 oz
- Instant pudding, 3.4 oz., vanilla used
- Apples, peeled and chopped
- Sour cream will make it super moist
- Vegetable oil
- Eggs added at room temperature are best
- Vanilla extract is a nice touch
- Apple juice, or water
- Apple pie spice is optional
Variations
This is one of our favorite pudding cake recipes because that little box just makes it so moist. In this case the best choice is vanilla flavor. For the liquid I like apple cider or juice for more flavor but water works too. Spice is the best mix vs. yellow cake mix.
It makes your dessert super moist, way more than just using vegetable oil. The thicker the fat you add the more tender your cake will become. I would suggest “regular” vs. using low fat which won’t make it as moist.
If you don’t have or don’t want to use sour cream you could use plain Greek yogurt and wouldn’t really notice the difference. For a dairy free alternative, Silk has a great yogurt that works well too. You could use mashed banana, avocado or even pumpkin puree instead too!
That depends on your flavor preferences and texture you want. Red and gala are the softest and may disintegrate when baked. Granny Smith are the firmest but are a bit sour. I like Fuji because they are sweet but generally keep their shape when added to cake mix!
For texture purposes it is better if you peel them first, then slice and dice into bite size pieces. It won’t hurt anything to leave them on but they get chewy when baked and not really pleasant for dessert.
How to Make Easy Apple Cake with Cake Mix and Sour Cream
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray a 9×13 inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk together the spice cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and apple pie spice.
- Add the sour cream, vegetable oil, eggs, water and vanilla to the dry ingredients.
- Beat together everything until you have a smooth texture.
- Spread batter into your prepared pan.
- Top with your peeled and chopped apples.
- Bake for approximately 35 minutes, then remove the cake from the oven.
- It is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean with moist crumbs attached.
Can you use apple pie filling instead of fresh apples?
Not for this one. You would instead need to follow our Easy Apple Spice Dump Cake directions for that. There is a totally different texture when it comes to these two, both wonderful, but not the same since canned are already much softer to begin with.
Apple Cake with Cake Mix
Equipment
- 1 9×13 pan
- 1 Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix, 15.25 oz
- 1 box instant pudding, 3.4 oz., vanilla used
- 1 c apples, peeled and chopped
- 1/3 c sour cream
- 1/2 c vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 c apple juice, or water
- 1 tsp apple pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9×13 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl whisk together the spice cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, and apple pie spice or cinnamon.
- Add the sour cream, vegetable oil, eggs, water and vanilla to the dry ingredients. Beat together until you have a smooth texture. Spread the batter into your prepared pan.
- Top with the chopped apples. Bake for approximately 35 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean with moist crumbs attached.
- Let the cake cool before slicing. Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
