Apple Cider Donut Bundt Cake – an incredibly tender and moist apple spice cake with a delicious cinnamon sugar coating.
One of My Favorite Fall Traditions
Since moving to Utah nearly 10 years ago, one of my favorite fall traditions is visiting Rowley’s Big Red Barn in Santaquin. It’s about a 45-minute drive from our house and worth every minute on the road! As soon as we arrive, we hop the wagon ride out to the field to do all the activities first. The kids used to love the corn mazes, slides, zip-line and apple throw.
After hours playing in the field, we always head back to the Red Barn for apple cider donuts, ice cream and apple slushies. We get one of everything! (Well, more than one donut, because those are too hard to share. Ha!)
A few years ago, I came home from one of our visits and decided I had to recreate the donuts in cake form!
Apple Cider Donut Bundt Cake
For this cake, I worked off my pumpkin cake recipe from my Pumpkin Pie Cake. In my pumpkin cake layers, I use two cups of pumpkin puree. Since we’re not using pumpkin, we’re replacing that with a cup of applesauce and one cup of apple cider for this cake. All these liquids make this cake incredibly moist! I’ve also added some cinnamon and nutmeg for a little extra flavor. This Apple Cider Donut Bundt Cake is simply one of the best fall desserts you’ll ever make!
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
Once the bundt cake is baked and cooled, you’ll use a pastry brush to coat the cake with butter and then a dusting of cinnamon and sugar. I used coarse sugar, but you can also use regular, granulated sugar. (or powdered sugar for a more “wintery” looking cake!”
Tips for Making a Bundt Cake
- Bake at a low temperature for longer to ensure your cake bakes completely but doesn’t burn around the edges.
- Allow the cake to cool in the bundt pan for at least an hour to cool completely. Allowing the cooled cake to sit will make it easier for the cake to come out of the cake pan.
- This cake will freeze well if covered in plastic wrap. Just make sure to bring back to room temperature before serving.
- At room temperature, this cake can be stored for a couple of days in an airtight container.
Which Bundt Pan Should I Use
When making bundt cakes out of my cake recipes, I recommend using a 12-cup bundt pan. You’ll have plenty of room for the cake to rise without spilling. I recommend THIS bundt pan.
How to Make This Apple Cider Donut Bundt Cake: Video Tutorial
Other Cakes You’ll Love for Fall
- Caramel Apple Cake
- French Apple Pie Cake
- Turtle Pie Cake
- Pumpkin Gingersnap Cake
- 5 Delicious Thanksgiving Cakes
Apple Cider Donut Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp (5 g) ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp (1 g) nutmeg
- 1 tsp (5.6 g) salt
- 1 1/2 tbsp (21 g) baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (110 g) brown sugar
- 1 cup (224 g) vegetable oil
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (250 g) unsweetened applesauce, at room temperature
- 1 cup (248 g) apple cider juice (not vinegar), at room temperature
- 1 tsp (5.6 g) vanilla extract
For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- 1/4 cup (56 g) unsalted butter melted
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp (5 g) 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, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and baking powder. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the sugar, brown sugar and oil. Mix on medium speed to combine.
- Add the eggs to the sugar mixture and mix on medium speed for about two minutes.
- Add the applesauce and vanilla. Mix to combine.
- With the mixer on low speed, add ⅓ of the flour mixture, followed by half of the apple cider. Continue alternating the flour mixture and the apple cider, finishing with the flour mixture. Mix until no streaks of flour remain. The batter will be slightly thin, not thick.
- Pour the batter into the bundt pan and bake for 50 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Let the cake cool for an hour in the bundt pan before turning it over onto a cake plate or cooling rack.
- Using a pastry brush, coat the cake in butter.
- Combine the ¼ 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.
Looking forward to trying this in a couple weeks, but am seeing high altitude mentioned in lots of comments. Any recommendations or changes for low altitude?
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Made this and it was spectacular. Question: I saw you posted someone had made this into donuts. Do you know how that was done? Just same recipe, shaped into donuts and fried? I’d like to do this next weekend for our Apple harvest. As we make cider, we can eat apple cider donuts!
I think they baked them in a donut pan.
Flour by weight must be off…the batter was way too runny & the resulting texture was dense & gummy. Flavor was good, but not the crumb!!
Looks delicious! Just wondering, I cannot seem to find a 15 cup bundt pan but have a 12 cup pan. Would that work? I plan on making this in the next day or two for a gathering and I just want to make sure I have the correct size pan. Thank you!
It might get a little too full! make sure it has enough room to bake and rise!
Is a 12 cup or 15 cup pan best? This recipe says to use a 12 cup pan but this comment is making me second guess that. It also looks like it is supposed to link to the best pan to use but it doesn’t actually have a link. I am looking to buy a bundt pan to make this recipe with and am wondering what is the best size to get.
Yes I used a 12-cup bundt pan and the cake baked perfectly.
This cake was delicious and so moist inside! The spices didn’t come through as much as i would have liked, so I would add extra next time.
I gave it 4 stars, this recipe is a good start.
I’m a self taught baker since I was 8 years old. I bake weekly for my family. Also I live down the street from a Cider Mill.
I recommend that you do a reduction with the cider, Do Not boil, just let it heat on medium heat and let it steam for about an hour. (For 1 cup of condensed cider, Start with 2 cups of cider and wait until you have half left) This adds a lot of flavor! You can even do this in advance. I also eliminated the nutmeg, my family said that it was too much like a pumpkin bread flavor. It’s just my personal opinion. I LOVED the cinnamon sugar crust! I don’t understand why anyone is complaining about it… It’s an apple cider cake.. to taste like the cinnamon sugar donuts .. it should taste accordingly. Great recipe! Thank You 💞🐈🐾
So good! Made it for a baby shower today and the compliments just kept coming!
I love that!
Super moist and delicious! I added the cinnamon to the melted butter and then spread it on so it distributed evenly. Thank you for sharing!
So good that I made two of these in one weekend! Wonderfully autumnal! Super easy recipe as well
Needs much more apple flavor and spices. Moist, but no defining flavor.
Thanks for the feedback. You may want to double the spices next time to get the flavor you’re looking for.
I’ll be making this tonight, quick question at what stage do you combine the four mix to the wet mix? After step 5? Instructions seem explicit and I don’t want to mess it up.
Thanks
Yes add the dry ingredients at the end, after the wet ingredients.
Finally found THE recipe!!! Perfect moisture, perfect texture. One bite and you will know. Perfect!! This recipe will make 2 – 8” loaf pans and 6 muffins if you want to share.
What kind of applesauce ? Natural or with sugar? Thank you
Natural would be best.
This cake was very moist but I doubled all spices and added clove and cardamom. I still felt it could have used a bit more spice so the next time I’ll add extra cinnamon.
Not sure what went wrong! My toothpicks came out clean, but when I served the cake it was doughy and dense on the inside. Just did not work for me.
Sorry to hear that. I wonder if there was any issues with your baking powder or even your oven?
Paired this with apple crisp coffee this morning and ohhhh man did it hit the spot. I live in a low altitude climate so I did have to cook the cake longer but it was great! Taking the rest to our Halloween gathering tonight. Thank you for the recipe!
Great cake! Takes minutes to mix up. It is very moist, not to sweet. If you are looking for a fall cake with big taste and minimal effort, this ones for you!
Hello,
Can this recipe be doubled? I am going to make ten for thanksgiving and would like to save time. In addition, how necessary is it to use an electric mixer? Have you mixed it by hand?
Thank you in advance for your response!
Yes you can definitely double it and a whisk works great too!
Looks delicious! Going to try it.
Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose?
For this one, AP is best