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.
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 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 9x9 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.
Other apple desserts
If you love all things apple, you will love these quick and easy apple desserts:
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
Easy Apple Squares (Cake Bars)
Ingredients
- 3 apples peeled, cored, and chopped into small square chunks
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup white sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ⅓ cup Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×9 square pan.
- In a medium bowl, toss chopped apples with cinnamon and brown sugar.
- In a mixing bowl, combine together 1 and ¼ cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, and ⅛ teaspoon salt.
- 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.
- Add dry ingredients (flour mixture) into wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- 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.
- Bake the cake for about 45 minutes or 1 hour - until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Omg this cake is the best apple cake- not too sweet, perfect. Thanks for sharing
So glad you liked this cake! Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comment!
This looks delicious! Is there anyway to make it dairy free? Like can I remove the yogurt and add more oil? Thanks!
Yes, you can remove yogurt and substitute it with the same amount of vegetable oil or olive oil instead.
we used soya yoghurt and it worked a treat! Sticky and delicious. None were left over after our party
I was looking for a cake recipe with apples since it's apple season. Your cake looks yummy. What are types of apples that are best to use for this cake? Looking forward to making the recipe. Thanks for sharing it.
Sweet apples, such as Gala or Fuji, work great in this recipe. Enjoy! 🙂
Excellent cake and easy to make! It only took about 25 - 30 minutes for me. Recipe says to bake for an hour!
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Yes, the baking time might vary depending on the oven.
Moist and delicious!! Easy to make,thanks for sharing.
You're very welcome!
Hi , I have baked your loaf of weetbix and dates ,I had also add a grated carrot and bit of cinnamon it was moist and delicious
Thank you
Have a photo but don’t know how to download it
Louise
Hi I have baked your recipe for weetbix and date loaf ,it tastes moist and very good ,a did add a grated carrot and a bit of cinnamon
Thank you
Louise
These apple squares look amazing! Has anyone made them using gluten-free flour? If so, what flour or flour blend was used and were any other changes needed? Thanks.
Thank you for this lovely recipe. I used Macadamia oil in place of vegetable oil, used Granny Smith and royal gala apples plus craisens. First slice, still warm was yumm.
just made these as a cake, doubled the recipe as i have a large cake dish, cut the sugar in half (as i was using sweet apples and sweetened lemon yogurt) and subbed half the remaining sugar with maple syrup. best apple cake ever!
So glad you liked it! And, thank you for sharing the changes you made! 🙂
I made your apple squares and they were alright except I thought they were to oily. Is there some thing I can use besides the oil. you know like water.
Yes, these apple squares usually are what you call oily - or I call it moist. If you don't like that, you can use apple sauce or Greek yogurt to substitute for half amount of oil.
I have made this cake 3 times this month. It's absolutely delicious & so easy to put together. Didn't change a thing except the baking time. Mine is done at 45 minutes. Thanks for sharing this recipe
I made this reciepe last week, it was super yummy!!
I just reduced the sugar and pour home made caramel on the squares, it was great!
Great recipe...love it
this is so good! I used pumpkin pie spice instead of cinnamon since I was out and it was great!