Food and Recipes Desserts Cakes Apple Pie Cake 3.8 (4) 4 Reviews Love apple pie but don't feel like fussing with pie dough? Try this delicious dessert mash-up. It is filled with tender spiced Granny Smith apple slices, sweet and nutty streusel, and a tender layer of cake. This Apple Pie Cake tastes wonderfully homemade, but it's so easy to pull off thanks to a white cake mix. The key to making a cake mix taste like a made-from-scratch batter is to use milk and butter (instead of oil and water). For this recipe, it's also a good idea to beat the cake mix for a few minutes with a hand mixer rather than just stirring the ingredients together with a spoon. This gives the batter more structure, which helps the cake form a nice base at the bottom and prevents the apple slices and pecan streusel from sinking. Serve slices warm topped with scoops of vanilla ice cream for your new favorite fall dessert. By Pam Lolley Pam Lolley Pam Lolley developed and tested recipes for Southern Living Magazine in the Souths most trusted Test Kitchen for 19 years. She worked closely with the editors planning and packaging stories, collaborating with art and photo teams on food styling and recipe reproduction to ensure reader satisfaction, content quality control, and recipe authenticity history and cooking. Her area of expertise was baking and and pastry development and she acted as the point person for these areas in the Test Kitchen. With 30+ years of experience in the culinary field, Pam created and tested 1000s of recipes for Southern Living. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Published on August 13, 2020 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Photography: Caitlin Bensel, Food Styling: Rishon Hanners Prep Time: 15 mins Bake Time: 45 mins Cool Time: 30 mins Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins Servings: 12 Ingredients Cooking Spray 1 cup chopped toasted pecans 1 cup plus 3 Tbsp. packed light brown sugar, divided ¼ cup plus ⅓ cup melted butter, divided 1 ¼ teaspoon apple pie spice, divided 2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into ¼-inch-thick slices 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon) 1 package (15.25-oz.) pkg. classic white cake mix (such as Duncan Hines) 1 cup whole milk 3 large egg whites Directions Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 13- x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Stir together pecans, 1 cup of the brown sugar, ¼ cup of the melted butter, and ¼ teaspoon of the apple pie spice in a medium bowl until well combined; set aside. Stir together apples, lemon juice, and remaining 3 tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon apple pie spice in a large bowl until apples are completely coated; set aside. Beat cake mix, milk, egg whites, and remaining ⅓ cup melted butter with a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment on low speed for 1 minute. Increase speed to medium, and beat 2 more minutes. Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Arrange apple mixture evenly over batter. Sprinkle pecan mixture evenly over apples. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes, covering with aluminum foil after 40 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Transfer to a wire rack, and cool 30 minutes before serving or cool completely. Store tightly covered at room temperature up to 2 days. Rate it Print