My iPhone is set up apart from iCloud not downloaded, how can I now download my backup?

If you go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content & Settings it will wipe your current iPhone completely. When it restarts your iPhone during that process you will be asked if you want to restore a backup contained in iCloud.

This explains the process:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204184

(steps No. 1–7 on the top in that guide)

Great news!

To answer your question Apps are not stored as part of the iCloud backup.

They are reinstalled automatically from the App store as long as they are still available on the App store. You should though at least see greyed out icons on your home screen for them with an iCloud symbol? They will turn into full-color once they have downloaded onto your iPhone.

If you don't even have grayed-out icons for them though you will need to redownload them by looking at your purchase history or searching for them on the App store...but generally that shouldn't be necessary.

iCloud backups can be loaded to a device during the initial setup process of the device.