Instant Pot Apple Cake is so moist and tender! I made it with fresh apples and full of rich cinnamon flavor! Serve it warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Or, let it cool and sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.
Do you sometimes find your fridge overwhelmed with too many apples? Or simply tired of enjoying only Instant Pot Cheesecake recipes? Well, look no further! This easy Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Cake recipe is a perfect excuse to use up all of these apples.
How to apply Pan inside the Pot Cooking Method
To make Instant Pot Apple cake, we will be using pan inside the pot method. Below are some key points to remember.
- First of all, we are using the inner pot of the Instant Pot (the one you usually cook in) to hold water only. The inner pot is NOT used to hold the cake.
- For this recipe will use a smaller pan. It’s 7 inches in size and fits inside the inner pot. A springform or removable bottom pan will cause more trouble than a sealed pan because the steam can easily penetrate tiny openings.
- The cake pan should be made out of metal (either stainless steel or aluminum).
- Cover this smaller pan TIGHTLY with foil to keep condensation from the water out of the cake. If the cake isn’t wrapped tightly enough in foil and water manages to get in – you will get a gooey undercooked cake. You can also overwrap the cake with plastic wrap, then over wrap it again with foil. By overwrap, I mean a full wrap over the top, around the bottom, and up over the top then halfway down the side of the pan. Repeat with the foil as an extra precaution.
- Next we will put this smaller pan comfortably on top of the trivet.
- Don’t be surprised if the cake batter is dense and thick. That’s how it should be.
- Finally, the Instant Pot Apple Cake is pressure cooked for 1 hour, followed by natural release method.
What type of cake pan will fit inside your Instant Pot
I made this Instant Pot apple cake in the 8 quart pot. Of course, it can and should be made in the 6 quart IP as well. And here are three cake pan options for both sizes. Just make sure that your cake pan is made out of metal and is NOT ceramic:
Note: your 8 inch round cake pan or removable bottom cake pan will fit in the 8 quart pot, however 8 inch spring form one won’t.
I personally think that removable bottom pan is a great option for 2 reasons:
- First of all, it doesn’t have a clip on the side like a spring form pan, which makes it really easy to fit inside the Instant.
- Second of all, it allows you to push up the bottom of the pan with the cake resting on.
- Finally, it causes no damage to the sides of the cake.
Can I use ceramic pan for Instant Pot Apple Cake?
Ceramic pan will not work in this Instant Pot Apple Cake recipe the same way. As you may know ceramic is less heat conductive than metal. Therefore the cake won’t be cooked through all the way.
Fortunately for us, most metal non-ceramic cake pans, like the cake pan used in this Apple Cake Instant Pot recipe, are made either from aluminum or stainless steel. Both of these materials take much less time to heat through than ceramic baking dishes.
I remember a reader who actually attempted to cook this cake inside the ceramic pot. She later reported that the cake batter was still not cooked even after 1 hour of pressure cooking. She had to increase cooking time from 1 to 1.5 hours in order for the cake to cook through.
Why use different rings for making Instant Pot desserts
When I turned my Instant Pot on with the apple cinnamon cake already in it, the strangest thing happened. It started smelling like a wonderful aroma of cinnamon apples. Wrong! Instead it started smelling like beef stew! I forgot to change the ring! This is exactly why I keep two separate rings: one – for desserts, and the other – for savory dishes.
And while I enjoy the smell of the stew, I would really prefer to smell apple and cinnamon while making a cake.
Are you also making both desserts and savory recipes with your Instant Pot? I recommend to use these BPA free and dishwasher safe genuine Instant Pot rings. That way you will have 2 different rings for those purposes to avoid your cake smelling like a stew!
Prepare the apples
First things first, I covered the apple slices with cinnamon and sugar. Then I went on to prepare the batter.
Prepare the batter
Second of all, I prepared the batter. Once you mix dry and wet ingredients together, you will see that the batter is quite thick. Tat’s completely normal. You might also think that there is not enough of it. And that’s OK too because the batter will expand when pressure cooked.
Next pour half of batter in the cake pan. And now spread half of apples on top of the batter.
Add the remaining batter covering most of the apple pieces. Finally, spread the remaining half apples and any juices on top.
Use aluminum foil to cover the cake pan
Now cover the cake pan tightly with aluminum foil. This is needed to trap the air and prevent excess moisture from getting into the cake.
Next add 1 cup water into the instant pot’s inner pot. Place cake pan wrapped in foil on the trivet. Finally put the trivet with the pan on it into the Instant Pot.
It’s time to put your IP to work! First, press Manual, then High Pressure and set cook time to 60 minutes. Once done, use Natural Pressure release before opening the Instant Pot.
How to enjoy this Instant Pot Apple Cake
I recommend serving Instant Pot Apple Cake warm with a bowl of ice cream. You can also cool it off and sprinkle some powdered sugar on top before serving.
Well, if you love experimenting with your Instant Pot as much as I do, make sure to look into these delicious pressure cooker recipes. All of them have detailed instructions on exactly what to do and step by step photos! So easy!
Instant Pot Country Style Ribs in BBQ Sauce
Instant Pot Cajun Chicken and Rice
Instant Pot Spatchcock Chicken with Mustard Crust
Instant Pot Irish Beef and Guinness Stew
Readers’ images of this Instant Pot Apple Cake
This Instant Pot apple cake has been made many times by readers on Facebook and Pinterest. I thought you would be interested to see what it looks like! Here are the results. Below are some of the images of the cake provided by the readers:
Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Cake
Ingredients
Apples
- 2 ½ cups apples, (cored, peeled and diced)
- ½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Cake
- 1 ½ cups flour, (one and a half cup)
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoon orange juice
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
You will also need:
- 1 cup water, (to be used in the inner pot)
- Powdered sugar, (to decorate the top of the cake)
Instructions
Apples
- Toss chopped apple slices with cinnamon and 2 tablespoon sugar and set aside.
Cake
- In a large bowl mix dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk wet ingredients: oil, orange juice, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix wet ingredients into dry ones very well. The resulting batter is very thick and will seem like there is not very much of it - that's OK.
- Grease a 7” cake pan (that's where the cake will go into).
- Pour half of batter in the cake pan.Spread half of apples on top of the batter.
- Add the remaining batter covering most of the apple pieces. Finally, spread the remaining half of apples and any juices on top.
- Cover the cake pan tightly with aluminum foil. Double wrap it! Cover with saran wrap
Instant Pot
- Have your Instant Pot plugged in and make sure you have the inner pot in.
- Add 1 cup water to Instant Pot. Place the cake pan wrapped in foil on the trivet and now place both in the Instant Pot.
- Press Manual, then High pressure and set cook time to 60 minutes. Once done use Natural Pressure release before opening the Instant Pot.
- Carefully take the trivet out of the instant pot and remove the foil wrapped caked from the trivet. Next remove the aluminum foil from the cake pan. Now allow the cake to cool for 10-15 minutes and then remove the cake from the pan.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve warm with a bowl of vanilla ice cream!
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only. This information comes from online calculators. Although whatsinthepan.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
Video
Notes
My other favorite apple cake recipe is this amazing Cinnamon Sugar Apple Cake:
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Pamela says
Made this last night. I get that the batter is supposed to be thick, but this was unspreadable. I had to add another egg and some oil, then spread it in the pan. If you know it’s gonna be thick don’t instruct people to “pour” the batter. The recipe calls for sugar but doesn’t tell you where to add it. I wrapped the pan in foul, plastic wrap, and foil; followed the baking directions and it came out raw. I had to bake it in a regular oven for another 20 minutes or so. Taste was good, but recipe not suitable for novice cooks, too many discrepencies and recipe unclear. It might be better halved so it cooks better.
Olya says
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out as planned!!! Sugar is added in two spots in the recipe – it’s in the directions.
Pamela says
Actually it’s not. If the recipes is printed out the sugar is added to the cinnamon not to the dry ingredients which specifically states “flour, baking powder and salt”. As I mentioned in my comment, these instructions could be confusing/misleading to a novice. You should take a look at the recipe and “tweek it” so it works for everyone. Instant Pot recipes are being looked at by novices and experienced cooks alike, to assume everyone knows that sugar should be added to the dry ingredients is inappropriate, as lots of us know the sugar could be creamed with the fat or eggs in the recipe
Olya says
That’s a very good question! You’re right sugar is not really a wet ingredient, it’s just treated as one in certain types of baking (the general idea is that Sugar and Water are Best Friends Forever). It is more of a way of labeling the group of ingredients, because each of them is part of the final wet intermediate ingredient or the final dry intermediate ingredient.
Kris says
I’ve made this apple cake 3 times and every single time , it is not fully cooked. The first two times I did use a springform pan but I covered in foil multiple times and both times I had to finish in the oven. Today, I did it in a regular pan, thinking that maybe the moisture was still seeping in BC of the springform pan. Nope, it was still undercooked after an hour of pressure cooking and the natural release also took another hour. I honestly don’t know what else I could be doing wrong but I am highly disappointed 😞
Olya says
I am so sorry to hear this! What size instant pot are you using? What year?
Caz says
Not a good recipe at all. Came out looking like a thick undercooked solid pancake. Put in the oven for 15 minutes. Then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and grilled (broiled) for 5 minutes. Would have benefited from c15 minutes steaming (valve open) to help it rise first. Tasted ok but texture was horrible. Won’t be making again.
Olya says
So sorry it didn’t work out, Caz
Linda Archer says
I made it tonight and we really enjoyed it. It had delicious apple flavor. We didn’t have ice cream but I put a
squirt of heavy cream on mine. yum!
Olya says
Yes! So glad it worked out!
Clare says
I followed the instructions exactly, however, it was raw in the middle. I over wrapped with Saran Wrap, and then tinfoil. No moisture got inside. It is in the oven right now to finish cooking. Slightly disappointe, I was so excited!
Olya says
Yes, of course you are disappointed! I wonder if you left it wrapped for 15 minutes – if the raw in the middle would cook through. I am not sure the extent of raw middle though – so it depends.
Mary Ellen says
Such a disappointment but my fault. I double wrapped it with aluminum foil but did not go under/over/wrap again and the saran wrap method i think the saran wrap should have been mentioned much earlier in the instructions.
I’m now going to put it in the oven to finish baking. Let’s hope this works.
Mary Ellen
Olya says
I will update the instructions, even though in my Instant Pot I do not have to use the Saran Wrap method, but it does work:)
Ashley says
I made this last night and we really enjoyed it. I used a Bundt pan made for the instant pot and it worked great. The only thing I changed is that I treated the sugar as a dry ingredient instead of a wet ingredient
Olya says
So glad you came back to review it AFTER making it in a bundt pan. Happy to hear it worked!
Christina says
Do you think this could be made in a Bundt pan? And how would I get it out? I’m new to instant pot cooking.
Olya says
Yes, you can definitely use non stick bundt cake pan that is small and that fits inside your instant pot. Once done, let it cool off a bit, flip it and shake it out of the pan.
KB says
This is a fairly standard cake recipe and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work in the instant pot. I would like to suggest to those whose cake was an gluey mess that the cake wasn’t wrapped tightly enough in foil and water managed to get in, or the pan was smaller than 7-inches. The cake can be overwrapped with plastic wrap, then over wrapped with foil. By overwrap, I mean a full wrap over the top, around the bottom, and up over the top then halfway down the side of the pan. Repeat with the foil as an extra precaution. A springfor or removeable bottom will cause more trouble than a sealed pan because the steam can easily penetrate tiny openings.
Olya says
Thank you KB for these detailed tips and tricks. I will definitely use them in my post. Wow! Please come back
Lee says
I was not a fan. Very dense consistency.