Mary Berry All-in-One Apple Cake Recipe

Mary Berry's all-in-one apple cake uses the simplest possible method — everything into the bowl at once — for a moist, warmly spiced apple cake that never fails.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 50

Cooling Time 20

Total Time 1 25

Servings: 10 Slices

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: British

Calories: 330

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

All-in-One Apple Cake:
225 g self-raising flour sifted
1½ tsp baking powder
225 g golden caster sugar
225 g unsalted butter genuinely soft
4 large eggs room temperature
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
2 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
300 g Cox or Braeburn apples peeled, cored, in 1cm dice — tossed in juice of ½ lemon
Cinnamon Demerara Topping:
3 tbsp demerara sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Lemon Glaze Optional:
100 g icing sugar sifted
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4. Grease and line a deep 20cm springform tin. Mix demerara and cinnamon — set aside.
Place all cake ingredients except the apple into a large bowl. Beat with electric hand whisk for exactly 2 minutes until smooth and pale.
Fold in diced apple with 4–5 gentle strokes.
Spoon into tin — spread evenly. Scatter cinnamon demerara generously over entire surface.
Bake 50–60 minutes until golden, crunchy on top, and skewer comes out clean. Cover loosely after 35 minutes if browning too quickly. Cool in tin 20 minutes — cool completely.
Mix icing sugar and lemon juice — drizzle over cooled cake if using. Set 15 minutes. Slice.

Notes

Butter must be genuinely soft — the single most important instruction for the all-in-one method.

Beat for exactly 2 minutes — under or overbeating both give inferior results.

Use eating apples not Bramleys — gives distinct, identifiable apple pieces throughout the crumb.

Demerara cinnamon topping is essential — gives the crunchy, caramelised character of this cake.

This is the apple cake for when time is short — reliable and consistently good.

Freeze in slices for up to 3 months.