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
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.
Really yummy! I cut white sugar in half, used regular plain yogurt, & put toasted slivered almonds over the top. Made a healthy afterschool snack.
Love the idea of adding toasted slivered almonds over apple squares!
Do you use plain Greek yogurt or vanilla?
I used plain Greek yogurt.
Dee-licious! Moist & lovely. Big hit with the gang. Thank you!
You are very welcome!
This is the best apple cake, very light and not too sweet
So happy to hear that! 🙂
Apple bars we wonderful! Great instructions easy to make!
Glad you liked this recipe! 🙂
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!