Apple Cider Donut Cake
This flavorful and delicious Apple Cider Donut Cake is a moist, spiced bundt cake made with both apple cider AND apple butter. It’s got all the delicious fall flavors of apple cider donuts minus the mess of frying.
While the cake is still warm, it’s brushed with melted butter, topped with cinnamon sugar, and drizzled with a vanilla bean glaze. Is there anything better?
“This was such a keeper and I really think the sour cream adds a wonderful flavor!” – Mari (So Much Food reader)
Table of contents
The Easiest One-Bowl Cake to Make This Fall
Everyone needs an easy dessert to bust out when company comes calling and this apple cider donut bundt cake is that dessert. It comes together in one bowl in less than 15 minutes and doesn’t require any fancy equipment! You don’t even need to cream butter and sugar together with a hand mixer.
All you need to make this simple fall cake is a whisk and a mixing bowl. I love a cake that doesn’t require layering or decorating — the cinnamon sugar and vanilla bean glaze make this cake visually appealing enough! You can serve at least 10 people with this one cake, so it’s great to bring out for parties and dinner parties.
If your fall plans include apple picking, be sure to pick up some apple butter and fresh apple cider! Both give this cake a strong apple flavor that’s not to sweet and perfect for the season. It truly tastes like a glazed apple cider donut, minus the deep frying!
What You’ll Need for the Cake and Glaze (+ Substitutions)
- Apple Cider. Apple cider is fresh, unfiltered, and often unpasteurized. It’s bursting with apple flavor and so much better than apple juice. Look for fresh apple cider in your refrigerated produce section. I don’t recommend using apple juice in its place, but look for shelf stable apple cider instead. (Also note that in the US, apple cider is non-sparkling and non-alcoholic.)
- Apple butter. Apple butter is almost a super-thick concentrated apple sauce. You can omit this ingredient if you can’t find any.
- Sour cream. “Sour cream” is cream that has been soured and thickened with lactic acid bacteria, which gives it a tangy flavor that adds depth to baked goods. The fat also adds richness and tenderness, making treats like cakes and muffins fluffier. Don’t go low fat here! Full fat sour cream is absolutely the play.
- Sugar. The batter calls for brown and granulated sugar, as well as additional granulated sugar for the coating, and powdered sugar for the glaze.
- Eggs. Make sure your eggs are room temp.
- Butter and neutral oil. The combination of melted butter and oil gives the cake moisture and flavor.
- Dry ingredients. Flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda make up the dry ingredients for the apple cider bundt cake.
- Vanilla. A great cake always had some vanilla for flavor!
- Spices. Cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg give the cake a warm spiced flavor that enhances the apple.
Grab These Basic Tools
An Overview of How the Apple Cider Donut Cake Is Made
Jenny’s Tip: Invest in a quality bundt pan for best results. Those super cute bundt pans with intricate designs can be really tough to grease properly, and all the raised edges make the bundt cake prone to overbrowning. Stick with a well made classic 12-cup bundt pan for best results.
- Reduce the apple cider. This step really helps concentrate the apple flavor! The cider needs to simmer until it’s reduced to 1 cup, then allowed to cool completely.
- Make the cake batter. Always whisk together the dry ingredients before adding them into the wet ingredients. This ensures the spices are evenly incorporated into the batter without needing to overwork the flour. I also suggest adding in the dry ingredients and apple cider in stages to create a smoother cake batter and prevent the gluten in the flour from being overworked.
- Bake. To prevent the bundt cake from sticking to the pan, grease and flour it before pouring in the batter. After baking, bundt cakes need a full hour to cool before they can safely be turned over and popped out of the pan.
- Coat in cinnamon sugar, then glaze. To get the cinnamon sugar to stick to the cake, you’ll need to brush it with melted butter. I find it best to press the cinnamon sugar into the sides of the cake using my hands, rather than sprinkling it on top. When you make the vanilla glaze, it needs to be super thick so it drips down the sides of the cake in lovely rivers.
Jenny’s Tips for Baking a Perfect Bundt Cake Every Time
Use room temperature ingredients. When at room temperature, eggs, butter, and other dairy ingredients form an emulsion which traps air. While baking in the oven, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy baked good. Fluffy baked goods = tender crumbs and a much better texture. Cold ingredients do not incorporate together as easily. Or even at all!
Grease and flour your bundt cake really well. There’s nothing worse than having your cake stick to your bundt pan! To avoid that, use a high-quality nonstick bundt pan. I also spray my bundt pan liberally with nonstick spray and then dust the pan with flour. This ensures that the cake releases from the pan perfectly every time.
Bake low and slow. Baking the apple cider donut cake at 325 instead of 350 allows us to bake the cake all the way through without the edges drying out. You’ll end up with a perfectly tender and moist cake every time.
Cool the cake before removing it from the pan. Let the cake cool for an hour in the bundt pan before releasing it. The cake will still be warm, but this gives the cake some time to solidify so that pieces of it don’t end up sticking to the pan.
If you do give this recipe a try, I love hearing about it! Leave a comment with a star rating below. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and never miss a new recipe! You can also snap a photo & tag @JENNYGOYCOCHEA on Instagram.
More Easy Apple Desserts for Fall Gatherings
- Apple Crumb Cake
- Apple Cheesecake Bars
- Apple Pear Crisp
- Skillet Apple Crisp
- Caramelized Apple Fritters
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Apple Cider Donut Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Apple Cider Donut Cake
- 2 cups fresh apple cider
- 1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter , melted
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs , room temperature
- 1 cup full-fat sour cream
- 1/4 cup apple butter (optional), room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
Cinnamon-Sugar Coating
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Vanilla Glaze
- 2 tablespoons sour cream (or vanilla bean skyr)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider
- pinch of fine sea salt
Instructions
Cinnamon-Sugar Coating
- Whisk together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
Apple Cider Donut Cake
- Preheat an oven to 325ºF. Grease a 12-cup bundt pan really well and dust with flour.
- Add the apple cider to a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Simmer and reduce the cider by half, so that there's only 1 cup left. Cool to room temperature.
- Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sugars, and oil until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking between each addition until smooth. Whisk in the sour cream or skyr, apple butter, and vanilla.
- Add half of the flour mixture and whisk. Then, whisk in half of the cooled apple cider concentrate. Repeat with the remaining flour and cider and whisk until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a cake tester comes out coated with a couple of moist crumbs. Remove from the oven and cool the cake in the pan for 1 hour before inverting onto a plate or cake stand.
- Brush the still-warm cake liberally with the 4 tablespoons of melted butter and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. For the sides, take some of the cinnamon sugar in your cupped hand and press onto the cake.
Vanilla Glaze
- Whisk the ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. The glaze should be thick, but still pourable. Pour the glaze over the cake, letting it drip down the sides.
Notes
You might also like...
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Fall Apple Cider Donuts
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Baking & Breads Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
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Vegetarian All Butter Pie Crust
Rate & Review This Recipe
This was such a keeper and I really think the skyr adds a wonderful flavor!
So happy you enjoyed it!
I have made two or three apple cider donut cakes (ACDC) a year looking for a recipe that takes care of my apple cider donut (ACD) craving without having to go to farm or heat up a vat of oil. This one hits! The ACD flavor is spot on, and the cake baked beautifully as directed at Colorado altitude. The texture is definitley cake, not donut, but it is a cake, so duh. I’ll make this again for sure. I suggest adding a little nutmeg to the cinnamon sugar mix, and left the glaze on the side to get closer to an authentic ACD sugared donut, but the glaze was very popular at the party I brought it to, and I’ll be eating it with graham crackers.
Love hearing that the flavor was spot on! I think adding nutmeg to the cinnamon sugar is an absolutely fabulous idea that I will be implementing next time I make this. Love that the recipe worked at altitude, too!