Apfelkuchen (or apple kuchen) is a german apple cake.
Apfelkuchen translates simply to apple cake, but this is not just any old apple cake. This quintessentially German recipe consists of a single layer of buttery cake topped with neat and orderly rows of sliced baking apples. Most recipes today are made in a square or rectangular shaped pan and cut into bars, but I have seen some older European recipes that produce a thicker round cake. Most recipes are finished with a crumble or streusel topping, but some are simply sprinkled with confectioners sugar.
Fruit kuchens have been around for centuries, and many traditional recipes used to be leavened with yeast. Many cooks swapped the yeast for chemical leaveners like baking powder and soda as their popularity grew decades ago. However they’re made, most recipes today resemble a dense fruity coffee cake.
Growing up, my great grandmother was famous for her apple kuchen, and it came along with her to every family gathering and church function as far back as I can remember. She made it almost by instinct, measuring out all her ingredients in her hands, and since she didn’t use exact measurements she never put the recipe down on paper. It was definitely her signature and no get-together was complete without it.
When she passed in 2003, it dawned on everyone in the family that no one had ever asked her to teach them how to make it. Suddenly she was gone, and so was her apple kuchen.
She’ll always be Grandma Rindfleisch to me, but she was born Anna Hollatz in Germany in 1909. She emigrated in 1928 when she was engaged to be married to my great grandfather who lived here in the U.S. Before their marriage they sent love letters back and forth to each other from across the world, and my grandfather says she still had all those letters when he was growing up.
Get a look at that dress! Va-Va-Voom! If you ever wondered how wedding dress fashions may have looked in the late 1920’s, now you have an idea.
Writing about her apple kuchen got me really curious about my great grandmother’s history, and because I’m a total nerd, I researched her Ellis Island records. She sailed on the White Star line’s S.S. Arabic, and the ships manifest was full of information I never expected to find there, including handwritten changes to the name of the person who met her when she arrived. I was even able to find a few photos of the actual ship on which she made her journey, and I’m thinking of trying to get one printed and framed.
After they were married, she and my great grandfather moved from Connecticut to the Fingerlakes region of upstate New York, where they owned and operated a dairy farm on the shores of Cayuga Lake. My mom has tons of stories of what life was like on the farm when she was growing up, and even keeps some of the dairy’s original glass milk bottles on a shelf in her kitchen. One of her fondest memories is of watching Grandma Rindfleisch churn her own butter in the well worn wooden churn she kept on her countertop. I best remember her thick German accent and the way she used to tightly wrap her white braids on the sides of her head like Princess Leia.
When I started asking around about trying to recreate her recipe, my mom and all her cousins had loads of ideas and advice. “The cousins” (as mom calls them) had some ideas on what recipes would come closest, what ingredients should go in, and in what order. My uncle has a recipe that was supposed to come close, but a few of the cousins said it wasn’t right for a few reasons. First, and most importantly, the almond flavor should be present only in the crunchy streusel topping on the cake, but in his recipe the almond extract is added to the cake instead. There was also quite an uproar over the fact that his recipe called for (gasp) cooking oil spray!
The one thing everyone could agree on was that nothing would ever come close to the flavor of her home-churned butter, and therefore no one will ever be able to make her kuchen exactly the way she did.
My advice is to use the best quality unsalted butter you can find. If you have the means to churn your own, knock yourself out. If not, don’t sweat it. I was lucky enough to find some imported German cultured butter made with cream from grass fed cattle when I was butter hunting. The flavor was amazing and I think it really did make such a difference in my kuchen.
The recipe I ended up settling on, given to me by one of the cousins, comes really damned close to the real thing. It’s been over a decade since I tasted grandma’s kuchen, but if memory serves I think this is almost perfect. The only significant difference is that she would bake hers on a sheet pan or jelly roll, producing a thinner cake with a much higher apple to cake ratio. I didn’t go that route because it would make way more cake than I could handle, but if you’re looking to feed a crowd that’s the way to do it.
Either way, this cake is phenomenal. It’s simple, homey and unfussy but totally satisfying. It also happens to be really easy to make. The cake itself has an incredible rich buttery flavor that’s perfectly complimented by the sweet and tender apples. The topping combines even more butter with almond extract and cinnamon to finish the cake with just enough sweet crunch to tie everything together.
Grandma Rindfleisch's Apfelkuchen
Cake:
1/2 cup (1 stick) highest quality unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
3 or 4 firm baking apples (I used braeburns)
Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) highest quality unsalted butter
1 teaspoon almond extract
Preheat your oven to 350. Butter and flour a 9×13 baking dish (or an 18×13 jelly roll pan or half sheet pan). Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg & beat until well incorporated. Whisk together the 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour to butter mixture in three additions, alternating with milk. Beat just until incorporated, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Spread the batter in the bottom of the buttered pan. Peel, core, & slice the apples. Arrange the slices in three four or neat rows lengthwise, depending on the size of the apples. Whisk together the remaining sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Mash the butter into the topping with a fork, or with your fingers. Mix in almond extract, break the topping up so it’s nice and crumbly, and sprinkle it evenly over the apples. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake (avoid apple slices) comes out clean. If you’re baking on a jelly roll the cake may cook faster, start checking after 30 minutes.
Cool for at least 30 minutes before dividing into three rows of slices.
Brooklyn Homemaker 
Thanks for sharing your story. Love the wedding photo! The cake looks amazing!
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Thank you!
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What a great post. Food with a story behind it is the real ‘magic’ behind cooking, and I loved reading about your family heritage. This cake looks fantastic too, great job Tux :-D
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I totally agree- and food with a history is so much more fun to talk about too!
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My grandmother made the absolute BEST coffee cake – but she passed away a few years ago and no one in my family has the recipe :( I’ve always tried to recreate it but it’s never quite the same. This looks incredible! Can’t wait to try it!
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I feel like coffee cakes have totally fallen out of fashion, and it’s a shame. I can’t remember the last time I went to someones house and was offered coffee cake- other than visiting grandparents.
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What a sweet story…I am sure your grandmother would be proud of your kuchen and how you are keeping the tradition alive.
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Thank you! My mom and her cousins were all saying she must be looking down and laughing at us trying to figure it out.
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I don’t think your research is being a total nerd, Tux! Far from it. We should all be so interested in our heritage and family stories. I am jealous that you managed to track your grandmother’s arrival to the States and know a bit more of your family history. Well done in recreating her apfelkuchen! I do believe she would be pleased.
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Thanks Stacy! I was actually shocked at how easy it was to find her records!
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Wonderful post, Tux! I especially loved the story of your grandmother, very similar to my grandmother coming over from Sicily! My grandmothers real name was Providencia…but was renamed Prudence when she reached Ellis Island. I love your idea of having the photo of the ship printed and framed. How cool is that?
The apfelkuchen looks absolutely delicious..and I know that this is one that my family will love. I’m hoping to have some time tomorrow to throw it together…I promised the kids that I’d make apple bars tomorrow, but somehow I feel the need to make this one too! Your photos had me sold on this kuchen, but your words “Homey” “Unfussy” and “Satisfying” sealed the deal!! <3
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Thank you! Homey, unfussy, & satisfying are definitely my favorite things to look for in a meal or dessert! I hope you love it!
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I love the story of your Great Grandma, what a wonderful cake and a great homage to her. I have been thinking of making an apple cake, the cake looks moist and tender. It’s really beautiful.
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Thank you so much!
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I bet Grandma Rindfleisch is so very pleased about this post. Thank you for putting it together. She is smiling on you for sure! Love you, Mom
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Thanks mom! We’ll have to make this together in your new kitchen the next time I come home. We can invite the cousins over to eat it with us!
Love you!
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I’m one of the ‘cousins’. Thanks Tux for the post and research, your interest in our grandparents’ story and recreating Grandma’s famous cake lead us all on a journey. Along the way we all learned new things about our family’s history and gained a whole new perspective and appreciation for our grandparents’ decision to emigrate to the U.S. in search of a better life. Grandma would be thrilled to know she (and her Apple kuchen) are now immortalized in cyberspace….
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Thank you for the recipe! I think it’s perfect! I’m so glad to have had a chance to dig around in the past and find all this history!
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I love hearing the stories and history behind family recipes. Thanks for sharing both the story and this delicious recipe Tux :) I think coffee cakes are great for feeding a crowd, I often take mine on picnics as well as when people come over.
Beck
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I never think to make coffee cakes when I’m entertaining but I think this recipe might change that for me!
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I just love family history. We visited Ellis Island, and I could have spent hours there. My mother used to by an apricot kuchen. She would hide it in the freezer and eat the whole thing herself! Your apfelkuchen look deliciously moist!
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I feel like that’s something I would totally do- sometimes I do it with frozen chocolate chip cookie dough- just tearing a little piece off at a time and putting the rest back in the freezer.
This makes me really want to visit Ellis Island now! I live so close and have never been!
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I could spend hours there! When I make cookies, I put a bit in the freezer for my hubby. He loves that treat and the little bit of attention that says I was thinking of him. :)
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This apfelkuchen looks marvelous, and what a lovely post! I truly enjoyed reading it. I’ve totally nerded out in the same way, and looked up all sorts of things about my great-grandfather in Ellis Island’s records (he also came from Germany and ended up in New York, starting not a dairy farm but a cheese factory)…it’s so fun! I’ve never actually had an apfelkuchen, but can’t wait to try this!
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wow! That’s so cool! What a fun family history!
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That was a terrific read – This looks like something I could actually make. May have to try it very soon I think.
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Thanks! I hope you love it!
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Loved the sweet story. The same thing happened when my mother-in-law passed away and we no longer had one of her cookie recipes. Your apfelkuchen looks very much like some of the cakes I have had in Germany.
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Thanks! Its such a shame when those family recipes are lost.
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I am with everyone else—what a treasure to have this recipe. I have none from my grandmother. I do treasure the few I have of my Mom’s. You know this is making me think I should put something together for down the road for grandkids. Delicious cake. The wedding picture is delightful.
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That sounds like a great idea! I think it’s really important to share recipes with younger generations- not only does it help tie them to their family history in a real tangible way – but it also helps teach them to cook!
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LOVED this recipe! One question – is the batter supposed to be super thick? I was concerned it wouldn’t be moist enough so I added a bunch of yogurt and milk to thin it out a bit. It turned out great but maybe it wasn’t necessary?
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Hi Jake! Thanks for your comment- I’m so glad to hear you liked the recipe.
In my experience the batter was rather thick but there’s enough butter to keep it from drying out. I’m sure the yogurt and milk would have given it a great flavor though so I’m glad it worked out!
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Oh how I remember her making this. She was my great grandmother and I spent many find years up at the farm till she passed. I still have one of the dairy farm milk bottles. The stories she would tell me. She wore her hair with the braids up until her passing. I make this recipe still.
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