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 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 The Best Apples for Baking.
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
- Apple Bundt 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
- 3Â 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 applesÂ
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 10-12 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): 10-12 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: Use your favorite variety of apple. I prefer a mix of tart and sweet in my apple dessert recipes. Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Fuji, etc.
- Sheet Cake or Cupcakes: Try my similar recipes for apple cake or apple spice cupcakes.
Absolutely delicious and a big hit with all who try. About to make my second one in a week for a gathering this weekend! Also I LOVE the bundt pan you recommended. I want to make everything in it, lol.
Can this receipe be made with frozen apples. l have a lot in my freezer l would like to use up.
Absolutely. No need to thaw.
i have baked tons of sally’s recipes and all so good, but a cup and a quarter of oil is a LOT. Can anyone comment as to subbing in something to get it down? Applesauce? How much?
Hi Ellen, This is a BIG cake! 🙂 You can certainly try subbing half of the oil with applesauce, but I don’t recommend more than half. When you cut out too much fat from a recipe the texture will turn out rubbery.
I made a few small changes. I had apple cider in the fridge so I boiled and reduced it down by half to add to the batter( maybe 1/4 c finished product ). Went with only 2 apples and not 3 , added a T of cornstarch ( because I didnt want the cider reduction to make the batter too wet ) Then I also added a ” tunnel” of bourbon cheesecake filling ( 8 oz cream cheese 1/4 c sugar, 1 egg, and a dram dropper of bourbon oil ) When I did the glaze I used about an ounce or 2 of apple bourbon as if I were making a bourbon caramel. Unbelievable rave reviews .. and I have to say I have learned SO MUCH from your blog about how things react together and how to make changes and what counteracts what. I m a much braver baker than ever before and Ive been baking for decades! Thanks for opening up new frontiers for me !
Great recipe! I served mine with a scoop of ice cream!
Love love love. Thank you.
Did a rectangular pan (15 mins less cooking time) because I wanted small squares for a meeting. Ran out of brown sugar so used 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2/3 cups white sugar and the glaze was still delish!
This was so easy to make, and I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. What’s important to me and the reason why I enjoy your recipes is that they’re not too sweet! I usually have to reduce the sugar amount when I’m baking, but I don’t have to make a lot of adjustments when I use your recipes. This time I only reduced the amount of vanilla extract and cinnamon – which is down to personal preference, of course.
I’m looking forward to trying out some of the other recipes as well. I think this was my favourite thing to make so far (besides the pretzels ♥) 🙂
This recipe is so good! And versatile too! Here the substitutions I made (because is what I had on hand) :
Pears instead of apples and Chinese 5 spice mix (because I run out of cinnamon) I added this instead of the cinnamon & the nutmeg… perfect for fall!
Thanks Sally !
This cake is so delicious and perfect for the fall! It also makes your kitchen smell so good while it’s baking. Definitely a winner for us and I’ll be making it again!
Hi Sally! Can this cake be frozen with the glaze on it, or should I wait? Thank you!
Hi Cassie, you can freeze it with the glaze on! Just be sure to follow the thawing instructions in the recipe notes. Enjoy!
Sally, thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It has truly become a family favorite to the point that it’s requested by family and friends!
Thank you again,
K. Wyatt
I made this yesterday, very good and moist. It seems like a lot of apples but use them all as they shrink when cooked. I would add nuts next time.
Sally this is an amazing recipe! I made 3 of them over the holidays and they were a big hit each and every time. For those of us who love a dense cake over the airy type, this recipe is a “must try”. It came out perfectly every time. I agree that the glaze was enough for two cakes, but with the brown sugar in it, we loved it so much we were scooping the extra glaze on our plates 🙂
I used 2 tsp of cinnamon and left out the nutmeg. Next time I would try 2.5-3 tsp of cinnamon. I think the cake would be even better with nuts. I made only half of the glaze, but it was good. It took 55 min to bake in a fluted bundt pan.
Sally, we tried this recipe with some friends and it was absolutely incredible, thank you so much!
If I make this cake a day ahead since it is mentioned that it tastes better the 2nd day can I make the glaze ahead and warm in in the microwave to pour over before serving?
That should work! But it only takes a minute to mix together the glaze if you are short on time!
Hi have you ever tried making a gluten free version? I make this cake every year but my friend is GF so be nice to let her have some x
I haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free four but let me know if you do!
I made a GF version and it was delicious. I reduced the oil by 1/4 if a cup and reduced the yogurt to 1/3 cup. I used Krustease gf flour cup for cup and added a pinch of xanthem gum. It turned out great. *I did butter and coat the pan with gf flour so it came out clean.
Hi Sally,
Can I make the glaze ahead of time and reheat it before serving to drizzle on top? I am bringing this delicious cake to a party. Thanks for the great recipe! Enjoy the holiday season with your beautiful family!
Happy holidays to you as well! Yes, the glaze can be prepared ahead of time. It will thicken and may separate, but reheating will thin it out and bring it back together.
Thoughts on grating the apples instead of chopping them? Would they just disappear into the cake and have the flavor (similar to the way carrots just dissolve in a carrot cake)? I want to bring a nice apple cake to Thanksgiving so this seems perfect but apparently I’ve got some haters in the family who are skeptical about the texture of apple chunks in their cake.
Hi LouAnn! They would sort of dissolve into the cake batter as it bakes, so that sounds like the best option for your cake audience! 🙂
I made this for my father in law’s 60th birthday. It was easy to put together, smelled so good while it baked, and tasted amazing! The three cups of apple seemed like a lot when you put it in and mix, but it was the perfect amount. The glaze was simple to throw together and tasted incredible on top of this very moist cake. My husband and I are not family of cake but we both loved this recipe and I will definitely be making it again. You NEED this in your life!
I’m so happy that you decided to give this a try, Jenny! I hope your father in law had a fantastic birthday!
I made this cake last night, it was so good, so moist. I used 3 large apples; granny smith, gala &Fuji. Loved by all! Thank you for posting
Can I possibly use half and half? I do t have any heavy cream.
Hi Melanie! You can use half and half in the glaze instead of the heavy cream, yes.
Hi McKenna! Have you tried this one yet? The brown sugar melts down quite nicely. I haven’t noticed an granules in the several times I’ve tried it. Let me know what you think!
Hi Ashley! The confectioners’ sugar should be sifted, yes. This will rid any of those lumps.
Yes, definitely! No changes necessary. Bake time will be similar to my spice cake recipe. 45-50 minutes.