This Apple Cider Donut Bundt Cake is a delicious spiced apple cake topped with a cinnamon sugar coating. It’s everything you love about fall, all baked up into an amazing bundt cake.
As sad as I always am to see summer come to an end, I do love fall and everything that comes with it, especially the flavors of fall. You all know how much I love anything with pumpkin, but I also love apple recipes.
This Apple Cider Donut Cake has some of the best flavors of fall baked into a tender, moist cake that is spiced to perfection and coated in a buttery, cinnamon sugar topping. It’s the ultimate fall treat and you’re going to love it!
The buttery, cinnamony-sugary coating is to die for and takes this cake to a whole new level. It reminds me of eating cinnamon toast as a kid. It was my favorite way to eat toast. I slathered the butter on and then sprinkled a very substantial layer of cinnamon & sugar. . . oh good memories!
Apple Cider Doughnut Cake is easy and incredibly delicious!
This cake is phenomenal and is pretty much everything you want in a simple fall treat. There’s nothing fancy or fussy about it. It’s soft and tender with a cinnamony-sugary crust just like apple cider doughnuts.
What is an apple cider bundt cake you might ask?
Possibly the best fall cake you’ll ever have. This apple cider donut bundt cake is a tender, moist spice cake made with apple cider and applesauce. After it cools and comes out of the pan you generously brush it with melted butter and then coat it in healthy layer of cinnamon & sugar. The end result is a fantastic cake that tastes like you’re biting into an apple cider donut.
One thing I love about this cake is that it’s not overly sweet, but still sweet enough to curb any sweet hankering you might be having. Oh and since it’s called a donut cake, it’s totally acceptable to eat for breakfast.
When making bundt cakes out of my cake recipes, I always use (and also highly recommend) a 12-cup bundt pan. This leaves plenty of room for your cakes to rise without any spilling. I have the Nordic Ware Anniversary Bundt pan that I absolutely love.
line up of ingredients:
- sugar
- oil
- eggs
- applesauce
- apple cider
- butter
- flour
- cinnamon
- nutmeg
- salt
- baking powder
I didn’t try it, but I’m sure this cake would be even more phenomenal with a drizzle of caramel sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Looks like I’m going to have to make this again ASAP so I can report back.
Enjoy and happy fall!
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Apple Cider Donut Cake
- Total Time: 45 minute
- Yield: 14 to 16 slices 1x
Ingredients
CAKE:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 heaping teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (I use freshly ground)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup applesauce at room temperature (I use unsweetened)
- 1 cup apple cider at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a bundt pan with non-stick spray and then dust with flour. Set aside.
- In a medium size mixing bowl whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar and oil, mix on medium speed until combined.
- Add the eggs and continue mixing on medium speed for about two minutes. Next add the applesauce and vanilla and mix until combined.
- With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the apple cider. Continue alternating the flour mixture and the apple cider, ending with the flour mixture. Mix until no streaks of flour remain. The batter will be slightly on the thin side.
- Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes. Or until a cake tester (or toothpick) inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Set pan on a cooling rack and let the cake cool for an hour in the bundt pan before turning it over onto a cooling rack.
- Using a pastry brush, generously coat the cake in butter. Coat the cake with the cinnamon sugar coating immediately after brushing with the melted butter, by using your hands or putting the mixture into a sugar shaker and sprinkling it all over.
Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
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Combine the 1/4 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon and then sprinkle onto the top and sides of the cake. To coat the sides, it’s best to fill your hand with the mixture and pat it on the cake.
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins + 60 min cool time
Recipe Source: Cake by Courtney
This was a very moist, delicious cake. I thought I had a standard size Bundt pan, but apparently it was smaller as my cake ran over during baking and then it caused the cake to bake unevenly, lol! Thankfully, I savaged almost all of it. My fault. I should have anticipated this when I saw how full the Bundt pan was before baking! The only change I would make next time is to cut the cinnamon down that gets sprinkled with the sugar on outside of cake to 1 1/2 tsp instead of 2 tsp. This is just personal preference as I have somewhat of a sensitivity to stronger cinnamon flavor. The spices in cake were perfect and my family loved it. Such a wonderful recipe to bring in the fall! Thanks so much for sharing. Planning on trying many others!:)
★★★★
Hey Jen, so sorry about the size pan, I should have mentioned what size pan I use (I did just add it to the post). I’m glad you were able to salvage it. I totally get the personal preference about cinnamon, everyone’s tastes are different. So happy you loved this! I’d love to hear from you anytime you try one of my recipes. Take care.