• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Julia's Album

I make lots of dinner recipes

  • Pasta
  • Chicken
  • Seafood
  • PRESS
  • About
  • Facebook
  • bloglovin
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
Pasta Chicken

Easy Apple Squares (Cake Bars)

Published: Sep 24, 2013 | 136 Comments

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Easy apple squares are made with cinnamon and brown sugar.  These delicious cake bars are very moist, thanks to the vegetable oil and the plain Greek yogurt.

Apple Squares

The apple squares are super easy and quick to prepare on a busy weeknight! If you’re bored with making the same apple recipes, such as apple crisp,  crumble, or cobbler, try these little apple squares, and you’d be very happy!  These apple cake bars work great as both dessert and breakfast.  Talking about breakfast, have you tried these apple cinnamon pancakes with shredded apples?  Or, maybe you will enjoy this cozy apple crumb coffee cake?

Apple Squares (Apple Cake Bars)

Apple Squares with Cinnamon and Brown Sugar

In this recipe, I am using a generous amount of apples, tossed together with cinnamon and brown sugar, folded in the cake batter and baked in a 9×9 square pan. These apple cake bars are really just a lot of apple chunks held together by a relatively small amount of cake batter. 🙂 After all, the apple dessert recipes should be all about apples, shouldn’t they?

The apple squares are very moist, thanks to the vegetable oil and the plain Greek yogurt.

Apple Squares (Apple Cake Bars)

Other apple desserts

If you love all things apple, you will love these quick and easy apple desserts:

  • Sweet Cooked Apples
  • Apple Bundt Cake
  • Apple Crumb Coffee Cake
  • Apple, Blueberry Peach Coffee Cake

Apple Breakfast recipes

What could be better than enjoying a small slice of something sweet with apples in the morning? Here are my favorite apple breakfast recipes:

  • Pumpkin Banana Bread with Apples
  • Crepes with Ricotta Cheese and Caramelized Apples
  • Apple Cinnamon Pancakes
  • Apple Cinnamon Crepes

Apple squares, apple pie, apple cake, desserts and sweets

4.89 from 17 votes
apple cake bars
Print
Easy Apple Squares (Cake Bars)
Prep Time
15 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 15 mins
 

Super moist and easy-to-make apple squares.  Made with cinnamon, brown sugar, these delicious cake bars are very moist, thanks to the vegetable oil and the plain Greek yogurt. And they get even moister after the first day!   The apple squares are pretty much an apple cake sliced into imperfect squares.

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 10 people
Calories: 262 kcal
Author: Julia
Ingredients
  • 3 apples peeled, cored, and chopped into small square chunks
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 4 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour sifted
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×9 square pan.

  2. In a medium bowl, toss chopped apples with cinnamon and brown sugar.

  3. In a mixing bowl, combine together 1 and 1/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/8 teaspoon salt.

  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together 1 cup of white sugar, vegetable oil, yogurt, and vanilla until very smooth. Add eggs and whisk until smooth.

  5. Add dry ingredients (flour mixture) into wet ingredients and mix until just combined.

  6. Pour half of the batter into the greased pan, top with half of the apples, then pour the remaining half of the batter on top of the apple layer. Top with the remaining half of apples. 

  7. Bake the cake for about 45 minutes or 1 hour - until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

  8. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Nutrition Facts
Easy Apple Squares (Cake Bars)
Amount Per Serving
Calories 262 Calories from Fat 72
% Daily Value*
Fat 8g12%
Saturated Fat 6g38%
Cholesterol 33mg11%
Sodium 46mg2%
Potassium 143mg4%
Carbohydrates 44g15%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 30g33%
Protein 3g6%
Vitamin A 75IU2%
Vitamin C 2.5mg3%
Calcium 41mg4%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Filed Under: Apples, Baking, Bars, Cake, Cinnamon, Dessert, Fruit, Recipe, Yogurt Published: Sep 24, 2013 136 Comments

Follow Julia on Pinterest and Facebook to get more recipes and dinner ideas!

Please leave your comment and STAR RATING in the comments section below

Previous Post: « Crepes with creamy ricotta cheese filling and caramelized apples
Next Post: Greek yogurt chocolate chip muffins »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. K

    Nov 30, 2020 at 11:40 am

    Fabulous every day cake. Made it the week before Thanksgiving and have been enjoying a slice every day.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Nov 30, 2020 at 12:02 pm

      Happy to hear that!

      Reply
  2. Judy

    Sep 20, 2020 at 11:36 am

    This is delicious. I had 36 apples to use up so I made 2 of these bar cake and gave 1 to a neighbor. I used red and green apples. I will definitely make these again for my grandchildren

    Reply
  3. Janis

    May 07, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    How long will this take stay fresh at room temperature or does it need to be refrigerated?

    Reply
  4. Karen Young

    Apr 05, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    Haven’t tried it yet but how do you store this since it has yogurt in it?

    Reply
  5. Lorraine

    Mar 24, 2020 at 8:44 pm

    Delicious and easy recipe. I used Macintosh apples and the aroma while it was baking was incredible. My husband and daughter barely waited 20 minutes for the cake to cool before they cut into it. Thank you for sharing your recipe.

    Reply
  6. V.

    Mar 23, 2020 at 9:12 am

    Can you substitute the Greek yogurt for something else?
    Thanks

    Reply
  7. Gina

    Nov 25, 2019 at 10:54 am

    Could canned apple pie filling be used? Or would that be too heavy?

    Reply
    • Julia

      Feb 21, 2020 at 12:23 am

      I made this recipe only with fresh apples and it using fresh apples makes these apple squares so good!

      Reply
  8. Ana Luisa Galván

    Nov 16, 2019 at 8:52 am

    I made this yesterday, 15- nov-2019, and it came out quite good, yes, I modified the recipe a bit:
    1: I reduced the amount of sugar used with the apples by 1 TB. I also used 2 Red Delicious, because you don’t specify the size or amount after choppng.
    2: I also reduced to 3/4 c of sugar used in the batter, and increased flour to 1 1/3 c.
    3: I added just a pinch of nutmeg to the batter.
    The cake is still sweet, so I’m thinking of reducing the sugar a bit more next time.
    Thank you for a lovely recipe. 🙂

    Reply
    • Ana Luisa Galván

      Nov 18, 2019 at 8:47 am

      I rated with 4 stars, but somehow it came out with 5.

      Reply
  9. Agda

    Nov 14, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    This cake is so simple that I have to say, when I read the recipe, I was a little hesitant thinking it seems to be just a “regular” apple cake. However, when I read the comments, I was intrigued that people were saying it was really good, so I decided to try it. Glad to say, it didn’t disappoint one bit. I made it last night and my husband just ate the last piece after lunch today. The only thing I did differently was to reduce the amount of sugar in the batter only because I wanted it to serve it for breakfast. Thank you so much for posting.

    Reply
    • Julia

      Feb 21, 2020 at 1:56 pm

      You are very welcome! So glad this recipe did not disappoint! Thank you for stopping by and sharing such a positive comment!

      Reply
  10. Rabia

    Nov 13, 2019 at 4:22 pm

    It looks yummy, will definitely make it over the weekend.
    Do you use red apples or green apples?

    Reply
    • Julia

      Feb 21, 2020 at 2:03 pm

      You can use any kind of apples!

      Reply
« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Food blog, dinner recipes, weeknight dinners, chicken dinners, pasta recipesWelcome to my blog where I share easy-to-make weeknight dinner recipes!

Join me here:

Follow Us On PinterestFollow Us On FacebookFollow Us On InstagramFollow Us On Twitter

Footer

Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Disclaimer | About | Featured On

Copyright © 2019 · All Rights Reserved · JuliasAlbum.com

FOODIE PRO THEME BY FEAST DESIGN CO. * POWERED BY THE GENESIS FRAMEWORK