centos - Apache unable to write on 2777 folder

I am using smarty template system on my website.

When it tries to cache some data, a fatal error occurs:

Fatal error: Smarty error: unable to write to $compile_dir '/var/www/html/cache/frontend'. Be sure $compile_dir is writable by the web server user. in /var/www/html/include/smarty/libs/Smarty.class.php on line 1092

I just get my vps today (Centos 7) and made basic LAMP setup.

I have uploaded all the content inside /var/www/html using sftp (root user).
Then I have (still using filezilla) set /var/www/html/cache and all it's files/subdirectories to 777.

Whatever I try I can't get apache it to write on the cache folder or subfolder.

And the strange thing is that when doing

[root@localhost ~]# chmod -R 0777 /var/www/html/cache

the cache folder is still set to 2777.

I have also tried to make "apache" as the owner of /var/www/html/cache and all it's files/subdirectories but I still can't write on it.

I am completly lost and very newbie when it comes to server setup.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.