Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

Call this one an experiment.  A few weeks ago, I made and posted a quick and easy Cinnamon Roll Cake because I felt like cinnamon rolls but didn’t want the fuss of making my Cinnabon Rolls with Orange Icing.  Those are great when you have a sugar attack, but I wanted something much less sweet this time and with some fruit involved.

Perfect for breakfast

I always have cake mixes because I doctor them.  Ditto cans of pie filling because now that I’m old (yes, I AM!), I rarely like to fuss with making a pie filling from scratch and especially as an ingredient in something other than a pie!

So I tried something that I thought would taste like an apple cinnamon sticky bun or fritter.  Nothing much to lose here.

Any cake mix I make or doctor, I always substitute the water with a 2 parts evaporated milk to 1 part water.  You’d be surprised at how this little trick makes a much better quality cake and makes it taste homemade from scratch.

Tender crumb

So I started with a layer of 1/2 the cake batter.  Then chopped up the can of filling–feel free to leave it whole, but I wanted to spread it out better so I chopped it up–and put 1/2 of that on the batter, then topped with the rest of the batter then topped that with the rest of the chopped apple filling.

Didn’t want the usual crumbs so I just did brown sugar and some chopped nuts.  In this case, walnuts, but you can use whatever you have on hand or like.

Brown sugar and buttered nut topping

This cake is superb!  Not to sweet, not too light or too dense. In fact, it’s perfect. Great for a grab-it breakfast or with coffee or even dessert.  Yes, it’s that good!

Beautiful Cream Old World Baker by Temp-Tations by Tara

The baking dish is my 2 1/2 quart Temp-Tations Old World baker in cream color.  It’s available in this and many other colors at Temp-tations.com

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

• Cake:
• 1 box (15-18 oz) butter-recipe gold/yellow cake mix
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup very soft butter
• Apple Filling:
• 1 can (21 oz) apple pie filling
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• Topping:
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts
• 2 tbs melted butter
• Glaze:
• 3/4 cup confectioners sugar
• 2-3 tbs cream or milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray or grease a 13×9-inch baking pan.


Chop up the can of pie filling so you get small chunks of apple.  I used a food processor for this as it was easier.  Stir the cinnamon into the chopped up pie filling.


For the topping, mix the chopped nuts with the brown sugar; set aside.  Melt the 2 tbs butter and set aside.


Add the cake mix to a large bowl.  Add the milk, water, eggs and soft butter.  Blend until all ingredients are moistened and then beat for 2 minutes at medium-high speed.


Pour 1/2 of the cake batter into prepared pan, spreading batter evenly.  Top with 1/2 of the apple mixture, spreading it best as you can (it’s very thick).  Top with remaining 1/2 of the cake batter and top with remaining apple mixture (I just dotted it across the top as evenly as I could).


Sprinkle evenly with the brown sugar/nut mixture then drizzle with the melted butter.


Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-55 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool for 20 minutes.


Mix glaze ingredients and drizzle over cake.


Serves about 12.

Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

Copyright © Judith Hannemann aka The Midnight Baker 2014. All Rights Reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced without The Midnight Baker’s express consent.

Follow The Midnight Baker Food, Glorious Food #7 on Pinterest