Cake for breakfast? Yes, please! This Italian apple cake (torta di mele) has lemon, vanilla, and apples inside and on top. Bake it for breakfast, an afternoon treat, or dessert, and let the apple slices do the decorating.

This post contains affiliate links. Full disclosure is at the bottom of the article.

---

In Italy, I’ve often encountered cakes served at breakfast. Although that’s not a daily habit I’d bring home, I find the beautiful lineups of cakes at hotel breakfast buffets pretty hard to resist! With all its apples, this Italian apple cake, or torta di mele, fits right into those spreads. On special occasions—or simply when there’s cake left over—I’m happy to give a slice a spot at the breakfast table. The generous amount of fruit certainly helps make my case.

A very tempting breakfast spread of homemade cakes and pastries in Sicily. Torta di Mele is featured in the middle cake dome!

Torta di mele simply means “apple cake,” and plenty of family versions are worth exploring. My version is adapted from Il Cucchiaio d’Argento, my longtime Italian reference for authentic, unfussy recipes, whose classic cookbook is published in English as The Silver Spoon. Here, apples, lemon, and vanilla come together in a delightfully tender butter cake. There’s no cinnamon: I love baking with apples, but in my book, they don’t always have to be paired with spices.

The apples get two jobs in this recipe: small pieces go into the batter, while slices go over the top. You’ll do a little dicing and slicing, but you’ll finish decorating the cake before it even goes into the oven. Arrange those slices in overlapping circles, sprinkle on the sugar, and that’s it. No frosting to make! You can add a dusting of powdered sugar just before serving, if you’d like, but those circles of apple slices are plenty pretty on their own.

And if cake at breakfast isn’t for you, there’s always merenda, the Italian afternoon snack. Torta di mele has a place there, too. Breakfast, an afternoon break, dessert: I’ll leave the timing up to you 😉

---

---

VIDEO: Italian Apple Cake (Torta di Mele)

Bake with me! In the video below, I’ll walk you through making this torta di mele. Keep the recipe card handy for the quantities and full instructions.

---

Helpful Tips for Making Italian Apple Cake

Start with firm apples

Cortland, Golden Delicious, and Honeycrisp all work for this recipe, as does any other firm apple variety that holds its shape during baking. You can use a combination, too. Peel and core the apples, then divide them between the batter and the topping.

Give the apples two different cuts

Set out two bowls before you start cutting. Dice about two-thirds of the prepared apples into small pieces for the batter, then cut the rest into thin slices for the top. Toss each portion with some lemon juice and keep them separate. A little organization now, and you won’t have to fish out the slices later!

Arrange the slices in slightly overlapping circles over the batter. I like to finish with coarse cane sugar for its slightly caramelized flavor. No coarse sugar? Use the same amount of granulated sugar instead.

Aim the toothpick between the apples

Here’s the detail to keep in mind when you check for doneness: insert the toothpick into the cake crumb between the apples. You’re checking for wet batter. Piercing an apple can leave moisture on the toothpick even when the cake itself is baked. Start checking at 45 minutes; the cake takes approximately an hour to bake.

If the top is coloring too quickly, loosely cover it with foil. If it’s still pale toward the end of baking, increase the oven temperature to 375°F (190°C) for the final 10 minutes to help it brown. Keep checking the cake crumb: the toothpick should come out without wet batter attached.

Let the cake cool before removing the ring

Leave the cake in its 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan on a rack for 20 minutes before loosening the sides and releasing the ring. Then let it cool completely to room temperature. This cake has a very tender crumb, so waiting until it’s completely cool before cutting will give you neater slices.

If you’re using powdered sugar, dust it over the cake just before serving. It quickly dissolves on the moist apple topping, so that pretty finish won’t last long!

How to store Italian apple cake

Keep the cake under a dome at room temperature for up to one day. For longer storage, wrap it tightly and refrigerate it for up to four days. Bring slices back to room temperature to serve.

You can also freeze the whole cake or well-wrapped slices for up to two months.

---

More Apple and Italian Cakes to Bake

If you’re in an apple-baking mood, my Tatin Cake with maple caramel is another way to let the fruit take center stage. You can also browse my apple cake recipes for your next baking project. If you’d like to keep exploring Italian baking, more Italian cake recipes are waiting for you, too.

This site participates in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the site to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.

If you click on an affiliate link, I may earn advertising or referral fees if you make a purchase through such links, at no extra cost to you. This helps me create new content for the blog–so thank you! Learn more about advertising on this site by reading my Disclosure Policy.