This Swedish Apple Cake is the kind of thing you make on a Sunday afternoon and then eat standing at the counter for the next three days. The batter is thick and buttery, with sour cream keeping it tender and cardamom running all the way through. Apple wedges get pressed down into the top in overlapping circles so they bake into the cake instead of sitting on it, and a little cinnamon sugar goes over everything before it heads into the oven. Serve with coffee for the perfect Swedish fika (aka, coffee break!).

Swedish apple cake on a white plate with one slice cut, apple wedges fanned across the top, coffee alongside. Three-quarter, whole cake with one slice cut, coffee in foreground.

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🍎 Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the Michigan Apple Committee. We're so proud to partner with them to highlight the incredible apples grown right here in our state - Michigan is the second-largest apple producer in the country! As always, all opinions are our own.

Buttery, Spiced, and Full of Michigan Apples: This Cardamom Apple Cake Is Your Next Bake! 🍎

Growing up in what I would describe as the fruit belt (aka Northern Michigan), the excitement of seeing Honeycrisp apples show up at grocery stores and around family farms in late August is hard to describe. They immediately get added to the cart, or a special trip is made to the orchard.

The other key component of this cake is the cardamom. I have a real affinity for cardamom. 😂 Maybe it's my roots, but the smell of freshly ground cardamom filling the house is almost intoxicating to me. It's warm, a little citrusy and slightly floral, and overall just super nostalgic and comforting. It's the same star spice in our Swedish Cardamom Buns, which are guaranteed to make your house smell like a bakery!

🍎Ingredients for This Swedish Apple Cake

Everything here is standard baking-aisle stuff except the cardamom pods, which are usually with the spices or in the international aisle. Amounts and the full ingredient list are down in the recipe card.

Ingredients for Swedish apple cake: apples, flour, sugar, butter, sour cream, eggs, cardamom pods, and cinnamon. Flat lay

How to Make Swedish Apple Cake

This cake comes together faster than you'd think, and the springform is the one piece of equipment worth having. It lets you lift the ring straight off instead of flipping the cake, so the apple pattern on top stays exactly the way you arranged it.

Start by buttering a 9-inch springform and lining the bottom with parchment, then get the oven to 350°F.

Green cardamom pods in a marble mortar with a pestle.

Step 1: Crack the cardamom pods open.

Freshly ground cardamom in a marble mortar.

Grind the seeds to a powder, then measure out what you need.

🌿 A note on cardamom: Measure it after grinding, not before. Ten or so pods is usually about right, but they vary quite a bit in size. Pre-ground works at the same measure, though it goes flat on the shelf faster than almost any spice in the cabinet. A jar that's been open a year won't give you much. Still worth baking, just expect a milder cake.

Flour, baking powder, ground cardamom, and salt in a ceramic bowl before whisking.

Step 2: To a bowl, add flour, cardamom, salt, and baking powder.

Whisked dry ingredients in a ceramic bowl with a gold-handled whisk.

Whisk well to combine and break up any clumps.

Cubed butter and granulated sugar in a glass mixing bowl.

Step 3: Add softened butter and sugar to a mixing bowl.

Butter and sugar creamed until pale and fluffy in a glass bowl.

Cream together until the mixture goes pale and noticeably fluffy.

💡Don't cut the creaming short: Give it the full three to four minutes. This is where the cake gets its lift, so stopping early means a denser crumb.

An egg added to the creamed butter and sugar.

Step 4: Add the eggs one at a time.

A second egg beaten into the cake batter.

Beat well before the second egg goes in.

Sour cream and vanilla added to the cake batter.

Step 5: Add in the sour cream and vanilla.

Smooth cake batter after mixing in the sour cream and vanilla.

Mix until smooth.

💡Use room-temperature sour cream: Room-temperature sour cream blends in smoothly. Cold sour cream can make the butter seize up and go grainy, though it'll come back together once the flour goes in.

Dry ingredients added to the wet batter in a glass bowl.

Step 6: Add the dry ingredients to the wet batter.

Thick Swedish apple cake batter holding spatula marks in a glass bowl.

Fold gently, stopping the moment the flour disappears. The batter will be thick and spreadable rather than pourable, closer to a soft cookie dough than a cake batter. That's what you want, since it needs to hold the apple wedges up.

Cake batter spread and smoothed in a parchment-lined springform pan.

Step 7: Spread the batter into the pan and smooth the top. It won't level itself out the way a thin batter does, so push it into the edges and flatten it with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.

Peeled and cored apple wedges in a brown bowl.

Step 8: Now peel and core the apples and cut them into wedges. Doing this after the batter is mixed means they go straight into the cake instead of sitting out and browning while you work.

🍎 Why Honeycrisp works here: It stays firm through a long bake instead of collapsing into applesauce, so every wedge keeps its shape and its edges. Ginger Gold and Gala do the same. If the apples you're using taste especially tart, add an extra tablespoon of sugar to the topping.

Apple wedges pressed into the batter in overlapping circles in a springform pan.

Step 9: Press the wedges into the batter in overlapping circles, starting at the outside edge and working in toward the center. Lay them thin edge down and press firmly. They should settle down into the batter rather than resting on top of it, which is what keeps them from sliding around as the cake rises.

Cinnamon and sugar stirred together in a small wooden bowl.

Step 10: Stir the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl.

Hand sprinkling cinnamon sugar over arranged apple wedges.

Sprinkle it evenly over the whole surface. Get the edges too, not just the middle.

Baked Swedish apple cake with golden apple wedges fanned across the top.

Step 11: Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, and start checking at 50. Slide the skewer in at a shallow angle from the edge toward the center so it goes through the cake instead of through an apple, since a wedge will read wet no matter how done the cake is. The top should feel set rather than giving when you press it. Then let it cool for at least 20 minutes before you release the springform ring.

⏲️ Don't rush the cool: A warm cake has soft sides that tear when the ring comes off. Twenty minutes lets it firm up enough to release cleanly. It'll still be plenty warm when you serve it.

This cake is best warm, within an hour or so of coming out of the oven, when the apples are still soft, and the crumb is tender.

A slice of apple cake lifted from the whole cake with a serving knife.

What To Serve With Swedish Apple Cake 🍎

Coffee is the obvious pairing and the traditional one, the same way it is with our Toscakaka. A scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into a warm slice is hard to beat too.

A slice of Swedish apple cake on a speckled plate showing the apple layer and tender crumb.

The truly Swedish way to serve it is with vaniljsås (recipe coming this week, so stay tuned!), a pourable vanilla custard sauce that goes over the top and pools around the slice. It's what you'd get with apple cake anywhere in Sweden, and it turns this from a coffee cake into a proper dessert.

Vanilla sauce poured over a warm slice of Swedish apple cake.

Leftovers keep well at room temperature under a cake dome for two or three days, and the flavor actually deepens overnight as the cardamom settles in. A slice warmed for fifteen seconds in the microwave comes back almost all the way.

Make it on a Sunday, put on a pot of coffee, and let the house smell like apples, cardamom, cinnamon, and butter for the rest of the afternoon. 🤤

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