Date Apple Cake

There’s a certain kind of cake that is everything you crave in September, when apples start to show up everywhere you look but it’s still not quite sweater weather — and this apple date cake is exactly that. It’s a moist, spiced olive oil bundt cake studded with cubes of sweet apple, sticky chopped dates, and toasted walnuts, warmed up with cinnamon and a little cardamom.

I love that dates do double duty here: they sweeten the cake naturally in little sticky pockets and they’re such a nod to my Middle Eastern pantry, right alongside the olive oil and cardamom. It’s the kind of cake I’ll make for a weekend brunch or to bring to someone’s house — no layers, no frosting, just slice and serve.

This is especially a favorite of mine in autumn, when I start to see apple and spice recipes everywhere. It is the coziest cake ever! This is the type of cake I’ll enjoy after morning drop offs, with a cup of coffee to instantly set my mood right for the day.

If you’ve made my Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake or my Irish Apple Crumb Cake, this one lives in the same cozy, fruit-and-spice family — and there’s something about bundt cakes that just works so perfectly for gatherings.

Jump to:

• What makes this a great Every Little Crumb recipe:
• Ingredients you need:
• Why this recipe works:
• How to make an easy date apple cake:
• Pro Tip
• How to serve apple date cake:
• Recipe variations:
• Storing Leftovers:
• Expert tips and tricks:
• Top Tip
• Recipe FAQs:
• If you liked this recipe, you might like:
• Pairing
• Date Apple Cake

What makes this a great Every Little Crumb recipe:

• Made with olive oil instead of all butter, so the crumb stays moist for days, also making it a little lighter.
• Less sugar than most similar apple bundt cakes, because the dates do their part to sweeten this apple cake.
• It’s a hearty cake, so it’s a great one to swap some of the flour with whole wheat flour to make this a little more nourishing.
• Middle Eastern flavors with dates, olive oil, and cardamom. Delicious and simple tweaks to bring some new flavors to a classic apple bundt cake.
• One bowl of wet ingredients, one bowl of dry — simple assembly for a bundt cake that looks impressive
• Great make-ahead cake since it’s arguably better the next day
• Freezer-friendly, so you can bake now and save half for later

Ingredients you need:

• Olive oil — the main fat in this cake, which is what keeps it so moist
• Unsalted butter, melted — adds richness and flavor alongside the olive oil
• White sugar — for sweetness and to help the cake brown
• Eggs, room temperature — for structure
• Vanilla extract — rounds out the spices
• Baking soda– to lift the cake
• All-purpose flour and whole wheat flour — the whole wheat adds a little nuttiness and heartiness; if you don’t have it, just use all-purpose flour for the full amount
• Cinnamon and cardamom — the warm spice backbone of this cake Salt — balances the sweetness Apples — peeled and cubed; use a sweet, firm variety like Honeycrisp, Fuji, Gala, or Pink Lady so the cubes hold their shape instead of turning to mush
• Chopped dates — Medjool dates work best here for their soft, caramel-like sweetness; make sure they’re pitted
• Chopped walnuts — toasting them first deepens their flavor, though this is optional

See recipe card for quantities.

Why this recipe works:

Using a mix of olive oil and melted butter is what keeps this cake moist for days rather than drying out by day two. Butter is solid at room temperature, so as an all-butter cake cools, the butter re-solidifies and stiffens the crumb. Olive oil stays liquid, so the crumb stays soft and moist even after a few days on the counter.

Creaming the oil, butter, and sugar for a full 5 minutes isn’t just for texture — it’s beating tiny air bubbles into the fat, which become one of this cake’s main sources of lift. That matters more than usual here, since this is a dense, fruit-heavy batter that needs help rising.

Baking soda needs an acid to activate, and apples are naturally acidic, so the apples aren’t just flavor and moisture here — they’re part of what helps the batter rise.

Only swapping in whole wheat flour for part of the total (1 cup of 3) is deliberate — it adds fiber and a little nuttiness without the dryness or density you’d get from an all-whole-wheat bundt cake.

The dates are doing double duty: they’re mostly natural sugar and moisture, which is why this recipe can get away with less added white sugar than a typical bundt cake while still tasting plenty sweet — those sticky pockets in the crumb are essentially concentrated date sugar softening in the oven’s heat.

And the butter-and-sugar coating on the pan isn’t just tradition — the butter creates a fat barrier and the sugar both reinforces that barrier and very lightly caramelizes against the hot pan, which is what lets a sticky, fruit-packed batter release cleanly from every groove of a bundt pan.

How to make an easy date apple cake:

Hint: Don’t skip the butter-and-sugar coating on the pan— it’s what keeps all those sticky date pieces from grabbing onto the pan and tearing the cake when you invert it.

Storing Leftovers:

Store the cake covered at room temperature for 2-3 days, or in the fridge for up to a week — the olive oil actually helps it stay moist longer than an all-butter cake. To freeze, wrap individual slices or the whole cooled cake tightly in plastic wrap and foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before serving.

See an even lighter version of an apple cake on my recipe, an apple yogurt snacking cake.

Expert tips and tricks:

• Cut the apples into uniform 1/2-inch cubes so they cook evenly and don’t sink to the bottom.
  Toast the walnuts first (a few minutes in a dry pan or a 350°F oven) for noticeably better flavor
• Don’t overmix once the flour goes in — mix just until the dry streaks disappear to keep the crumb tender
• Make sure your eggs are at room temperature so the batter emulsifies smoothly.

Recipe FAQs:

If you liked this recipe, you might like:

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

Pairing

These are my favorite dishes to serve with an apple date bundt cake:

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