Originally published in 2014, this deliciously moist and spiced apple Bundt cake is smothered in a buttery brown sugar glaze. Use your favorite apple variety such as Granny Smith or Honeycrisp. It’s like a denser, more cinnamon-y (technical terms!) version of this fresh apple cake.
I love old-fashioned desserts. The kinds of desserts grandmas make so well, often memorized in their heads. Like buttery homemade caramel corn, banana bread, and apple pie. Or peach cobbler, cornbread, and teeth-rotting sweet chocolate fudge. Yum.
Today’s recipe is just that. It’s like a big, sweet hug from grandma’s kitchen.
If you’re a regular reader, you know what my favorite dessert is. Do I talk about it all the time? Probably too much. Apple pie, apple pie, apple pie. And I’ve even written extensively about the pie crust that accompanies this holy grail of desserts.
Let me continue. Today’s apple Bundt cake was inspired by my Brown Sugar Glazed Apple Bread recipe in my cookbook. The first recipe in my cookbook because it’s the best. Soft, dense, and absolutely packed with apples. It’s the kind of bread you bake on lazy Sundays not only because it’s so good but because it makes your house smell so good.
And this cake is exactly like it. It’s a combination between buttery pound cake and apple pie. It is, simply put, the quintessential recipe to make in the fall season. Sweetened mostly with brown sugar, this cake will melt in your mouth. Cinnamon spice and apple chunks are in every bite. Seriously, I do not skimp on apple chunks in my apple dessert recipes. They’re the best part, yes? The cascade of brown sugar glaze was an afterthought, but might just be the best decision I’ve ever made.
Because the Bundt cake is so large, it will take a good amount of time in the oven. Larger recipes like this have bake times that vary greatly between ovens, but I find 1 hour and 10 minutes is the perfect number. Your bake time may be higher or lower and that’s normal, so don’t get discouraged as you watch the clock.
What Kind of Apples to Use in Apple Bundt Cake?
You can use your favorite apple variety in this apple Bundt cake. Some friends and I went to the apple orchard a couple weeks ago and picked some juicy Jonagolds and Granny Smiths. If they had Honeycrisps available that day, I would absolutely have made this cake with those. All hail the Honeycrisps! For a detailed list of my favorite apple varieties, and when to use each, you can visit my post on the best apples for baking. If you find yourself with a plethora of apples like I did, you should also make these apple cinnamon scones for breakfast.
Enjoy, my fellow apple dessert lovers. See all my apple recipes and a list of 30+ fall cake ideas.
More Bundt Cakes to Love
- Peach Bundt Cake
- Lemon Berry Yogurt Cake
- Chai Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake
- Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Chocolate Marble Banana Bundt Cake
- Hummingbird Bundt Cake
Glazed Apple Bundt Cake
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: serves 10-12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Tender and moist homemade apple Bundt cake smothered in a buttery brown sugar glaze. Your new favorite cake for the crisp fall weather.
Ingredients
Apple Bundt Cake
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 cups (300ml) vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (120g) plain yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/4 cups (250g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract (yes, 1 full Tablespoon)
- 3 cups (360g) peeled and chopped apples, about 2–3 large apples
Brown Sugar Glaze
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (4 Tbsp; 56g) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
- 1/2 cup (60g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Spray a 10-to-12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, yogurt, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until combined and creamy. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and slowly whisk until no large lumps remain. Try to avoid over-mixing. Carefully fold in the apple chunks. If you feel 3 large apples is too much, feel free to cut down to 2 apples. I like a lot of apple chunks in my cake!
- Spoon/pour the thick batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 55–75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. The baking times may vary depending on your oven, if you used a 10 cup bundt pan or 12 cup, or if you used less apple chunks. Keep your eye on the cake after 55 minutes. Feel free to cover the cake loosely with aluminum foil about halfway through to prevent heavy browning on top. Allow the cake to cool in the pan set on a wire rack, then invert onto a serving plate once cooled and ready to serve.
- Make the glaze: As the cake cools, prepare the brown sugar glaze. Combine the butter, brown sugar, and heavy cream in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until the butter has melted, and then stop stirring and let the mixture come to a rapid boil. Boil for 1 minute. Turn the heat down to low, give it a quick stir, and let simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and whisk in the sifted confectioners’ sugar. Allow glaze to cool and slightly thicken for at least 10 minutes. Spoon glaze over the cake right before serving. (Cake can still be warm when glazing.) If your glaze thickened up too much as it cooled, warm in the microwave for 15 seconds and stir until smooth.
- I like this cake warm, at room temperature, and even cold. Cover leftovers and store at room temperature for 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Flavor is outstanding on day 2!
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Cake freezes well up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 10- to-12-Cup Bundt Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Cooling Rack | Saucepan | Fine Mesh Sieve
- Nuts: For some texture, add 1 cup of your favorite chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts.
- Yogurt: I prefer plain Greek yogurt here, but regular plain yogurt or sour cream works as well.
- Apples: I prefer a mix of tart and sweet in my apple dessert recipes. Here are the best apples for baking.
- Sheet Cake or Cupcakes: Try my similar recipes for apple cake or apple spice cupcakes.
Reader Comments and Reviews
This cake was absolutely divine. We had a ton of apples from visiting an orchard. It doesn’t even need the glaze, but of course it’s delicious with it. My husband says it’s okay to eat this for breakfast without the glaze, then use the glaze for dessert after dinner. I’m not sure his logic checks out, but regardless it’s yummy.
I made this for a ladies pot luck and everybody raved about it! I made a cream cheese and maple syrup glaze instead of the brown sugar glaze and cut back on the the sugars in the cake to 1 cup dark brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar. Very tasty recipe!
This was a delicious apple cake! Thank you for the recipe! We made it to go with some other goodies for our neighbors and it got rave reviews! 🙂
Flavor was great but somewhat dry texture and falls apart when cut even when waiting until day two. I don’t think it was just because of the very small apple chunks (although I know that contributed when the knife hit an apple). Super different from pound cake recipes I use in terms of using oil so I thought it would work ok with the apples. I am always up for trying a recipe off this site. Baking ratios are generally spot on. Possibly it was the baking time. It was too jiggly and not browned at 55 minutes, looked perfect at 70 minutes when I ultimately took it out.
If I make this cake 4 days before Thanksgiving will it still be moist?
Hi Barbara, we haven’t made this cake that far in advance before serving, but if you do want to make the cake a few days ahead, we recommend storing it covered in the refrigerator and adding the glaze right before you serve. Enjoy!
Is there really NO baking powder in this recipe? And only 3 eggs? Your apple cake recipe (which I love) has baking powder and 4 eggs. I want to do a bundt cake but I don’t want it to turn out dense.
Hi Margie, yes, the recipe here is correct. Feel free to use the apple cake recipe in the Bundt pan if you’d like. This one is very slightly denser (but not by much).
Why do you only spray the pan? I’m concerned about the cake sticking
This recipe was phenomenal! My Mom was and at 95, still is the family master baker. She was very impressed with her birthday cake. I did temp the cake, since I haven’t made a Bundt cake in years. Came out perfect at 55 minutes and 200 degrees.
You mentioned the flavor is outstanding on day 2! Would you recommend making one day ahead? If so, did you add the glaze and keep at room temp overnight?
Hi Michelle, the flavor is great on day 1 also! If you do make it one day ahead of serving, we recommend adding the glaze right before you serve. Enjoy!
Can I substitute the yogurt/sour cream with apple butter? I dont have either of those right now.
Hi EG, we haven’t tried this with apple butter. You can try buttermilk in a pinch, though the cake may not taste as dense.
I made thus cake. It was a huge hit! I also made it Keto and gluten free.
Eva, glad to hear it turned out well! Thanks for trusting our recipes.
I wanted a more traditional icing for this cake that will set up firm. Could zI use the same recipe but use an additional cup of powdered sugar? Or do you have another icing recipe for Bundts that would work better? Thanks!
Hi Aly, you could try adding more confectioners’ sugar, or for a thicker frosting, you could use our salted caramel frosting.
How do I know it is done? When the tester comes out clean? Also I have a 10 cup pan so how far from the top should the batter be so I doesn’t overflow. Thanks.
Hi Cindy, yes, you can use a toothpick to test for doneness. The batter will be higher than if in a 12-cup pan, but should still fit without overflowing when baked.
55 to 75 minutes baking time is big difference. How can you tell when it’s done?
Hi Ellie, you can use a toothpick or skewer to test for doneness. If it comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs, it’s done.
I love all your cake recipes, but people ask for this one over and over again. It is, by far, the most popular cake I have ever made.
I meant to mention, I did not make the glaze.
For some reason it looks like my original comment did not get onto the comment section.
So again, I will say this is a very good recipe. I used 2 Honey Crisps & 1 Granny Smith. I don’t usually use Granny Smith in baking because I find them too tart. However in this recipe the tartness got lost with all the flour & sugar.
I forgot to mention, I did not use the glaze. If I felt I needed to “dress it up” if serving to company, I would just have put powered sugar on top.
Can you use butter instead of oil?
Hi Linda, you can use melted butter, but the cake will taste a little dry. For best results, we recommend sticking with oil as written.
Or any other type of oil, such as avocado oil?
Hi Pilar, that should be fine.
Love your recipes! Would this work well in a Heritage bundt cake pan? Or would the sharp ridges not work well with the apples?
Hi Melinda, that should work just fine!
This recipe has become an annual tradition for Rosh Hashanah I look forward to making it every year!
Hi Sally, can I use coconut oil instead of vegetable oil? Thank you!
Hi Jude, yes, melted coconut oil will work instead.
This was so yummy. Could you use mini bundt cake pans to make this?
Hi Elizabeth, definitely! Bake time will depend on the exact size of your mini Bundt pans. You can use the baking time from these mini vanilla pound cakes as a guide.
Hi! How small/big should the chopped apples be? Can I use an electric chopper/dicer?
Hi Rachel, we typically chop the apples into 1/2-inch to 1-inch pieces in size. We haven’t tried using an electric chopper, so aren’t sure if that would chop the apples too finely.
Hey Sally, I was wondering if I could bake it in a loaf pan? O should I just make the apple cake recipe?
Hi Ana, Yes, you can use two 9×5-inch loaf pans for this recipe (or you might enjoy this apple cinnamon bread, too). We’re unsure of the exact bake time. You can use the bake time for the apple cinnamon bread as a guide, and begin checking early to ensure it’s not over baked. Enjoy!
Great recipe to start my fall cooking. Saving it a day for Steeler’s party. Looks as festive as your pic and oh the wonderful aroma while baking. Thank you!
I increased the apples to about 4 cups, increased baking time 20 minutes and added 1/2 cup of chopped/toasted pecans between layers of glaze. Sprinkled some confectioner sugar to enhance presentation. Got rave reviews!
This cake is absolutely incredible! Three apples was perfect – lots of delicious chunks! My coworkers went bonkers, thank you!
Love your recipes. If I’m making the cake a day in advance should I wait till the next day to glaze it?
Hi Melanie, if you have time the day you’re serving it to make the glaze, I would say go ahead and wait and do it the day of. Enjoy!
Absolutely Delicious!
Great taste but too much glaze. The cake was wet