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With sweet cinnamon swirls and grated tart apples, this delicious Cinnamon Apple Bundt Cake is a perfect dessert for fall. It’s moist and light and full of rich fall flavor.
Table of Contents
Key Ingredients
This apple cinnamon bundt cake has sweet and tart apples and lots of warm cinnamon flavor. It’s tender and moist and just melts in your mouth. The ingredients are mostly basic pantry ingredients that you’d expect for a cake like eggs, sugar, oil, butter, and flour.
- Apples – I like to use a few different varieties when I bake, but the best apples for baking are crisp and tangy, like Granny Smith, Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady and Jonagolds.
- Butter and Vegetable Oil – I use both because they each offer something different to the texture and flavor of the cake. Butter gives you that rih, buttery taste, while oil keeps the cake tender and moist.
- Sugar – For the cake itself, I added granulated sugar, but I used brown sugar for the swirl. So the cake is sweet and the swirl has that distinct warm molasses flavor.
- Other Cake Ingredients – Flour, baking powder, salt, eggs, vanilla and ground cinnamon.
How to Make Cinnamon Apple Bundt Cake
This apple cake is pretty straightforward and simple, albeit with a number of steps.
I used Granny Smith apples, but any tart, crisp apple would work; Grannies are just the most readily available. Chop them up into very small chunks – large enough that you can see them, but not so big that they won’t soften while the bundt cake is baking. Or ideally, grate them with a larger grater.
Combine the flour and all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt) in a bowl. Then in another bowl the butter, oil, vanilla and sugar. The sugar melts into the butter and oil, which is why it’s considered a “wet” ingredient in this recipe. The two are mixed until “well combined,” meaning the flour is no longer visible and the batter is formed. Fold in those apples you chopped up, then layer half of the batter, a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and the remaining batter. More cinnamon sugar goes on top of that, and then everything is swirled together to get that delicious cinnamon flowing throughout the cake, and that nice pretty ribbon swirling through the middle.
Bundt Cake Tips and Tricks
Bundt cake recipes are often misunderstood as difficult when really, they just *look* hard. Getting that warm cake to release from a bundt cake pan can be a challenge, but if you prep it right, you’ll do just fine.
- Start with Nonstick. Use a nonstick pan that is free of any scratches as that can mean that the pan is no longer as “nonstick” as it once was.
- Grease it. The key to getting your apple cake (or any bundt cake) to release easily from the pan is is greasing your bundt pan quite generously, with nonstick cooking spray or melted shortening.
- Flour it. Flours, or even granulated sugar, I’ve found to be helpful in preventing sticking.
- Release warm. Releasing the cake when it’s warm (not hot) can aid in an easy release. As the cake sits, the oils around the pan solidify and hold the cake in there. While still warm (but after sitting and resting for 10-15 minutes), invert the bundt cake onto a plate, let it sit for another 10 minutes, then give it a gentle shake and it should slip right out.
More Apple Recipes
- Snickerdoodle Apple Cobbler
- Classic Apple Pie Recipe
- Apple Crumble Recipe
- Apple Oven Pancake
- Pumpkin Apple Bread
Tools Used
- Bundt Cake Pan – Nothing super fancy, but nonstick is a must for this kitchen tool.
- Box grater – This is perfect for getting large grates of the apples without them getting mushy.
- Nonstick cooking spray – I love the baking version of the Pam nonstick spray.
- Round Cake Plate – A flat service is a must when plating a cake. Having a cake plate on hand like this one with a dome lid, is helpful.
Cinnamon Apple Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/2 cup softened butter room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 cups peeled and grated apples granny smith, pink lady or honeycrisp work best
- 4 teaspoons cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs, butter, oil, vanilla and granulated sugar until creamy and smooth.
- Stir in flour mixture until well combined.
- Stir in apples gently until combined.
- In a separate small bowl, stir 4 teaspoons cinnamon and 4 tablespoons brown sugar together and set aside.
- Grease a bundt pan generously with nonstick cooking spray. Coat with granulated sugar if desired.
- Pour half of the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture evenly over the cake batter and swirl through with a knife. Repeat with the remaining cake batter and brown sugar mixture.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes. Top will be golden brown and sides will pull away from the pan.
- Allow to cool 10-15 minutes completely before turning out on a round cake plate. If the cake does not release immediately, let sit another 10 minutes, then give a gentle shake.
- Once cake is completely cooled, top with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, or a vanilla glaze, if desired.
- Slice and serve.
Notes
- Start with Nonstick. Use a nonstick pan that is free of any scratches as that can mean that the pan is no longer as “nonstick” as it once was.
- Grease it. The key to getting your apple cake (or any bundt cake) to release easily from the pan is is greasing your bundt pan quite generously, with nonstick cooking spray or melted shortening.
- Flour it. This is a step that I don’t often use, as flour can cause an extra layer of white stuff stuck to the top of your cake. Nut flours, or even granulated sugar however, I’ve found to be helpful in preventing sticking.
- Release warm. This actually goes against what I used to do, but releasing the cake when it’s warm can aid in an easy release. As the cake sits, the oils around the pan solidify and hold the cake in there. While still warm (but after sitting and resting for 10-15 minutes), invert the bundt cake onto a plate, let it sit for another 10 minutes, then give it a gentle shake and it should slip right out.
Nutrition
Hi Kristin. Just ate a warm piece of this cake. It is wonderful. Mine turned out perfect and so moist on bottom it’s almost like smooth applesauce!! I was wondering should this be kept in the refrigerator?
Made this moist and delicious cake today. I loved the cinnamon factor which really set off the grated apple taste. Yummy! Thanks for the great recipe. Mine came out of the oven and pan perfectly and was completely baked through in just 50 minutes. Will make this wonderful cake again!
This was amazing! We made it for Thanksgiving dessert, and my husband and 5 year old daughter requested it for Christmas as well. The biggest dilemma is whether it should be breakfast or dessert. It’s a wonderful breakfast coffee cake!
Just made this recipe in my mini bunt pans, turned out amazing!!! Thanks so much!
Good to know! Thanks for sharing!
I’ve made this cake several times and it’s definitely a fall favorite… how long did you bake for the mini bundts?
Made this cake, it smelled lovely but would not bake through 🙁 after 1.5 hours the edges were well burned so I flipped it out and half the cake stayed in the pan and was still doughy. Very disappointed.
Sorry it didn’t turn out for you.
This looks amazing! What size bundt pan did you use?
It’s a regular bundt pan. I believe it’s 10″.
Delicious cake! I made the recipe as written, except that I had leftover brown sugar-cinnamon mixture. Others had problems getting out of the pan so I made sure to butter and flour the bundt pan very well. I had no problem. I made the cake for a party and froze it (I carefully wrapped the cake in plastic wrap covered with foil) and it was moist and delicious.
Looks yummie! I’m going to try a Caramel topping with this. Thanks for sharing!?
That sounds delicious!
Does this cake freeze okay?
I haven’t tried that, but I think it would be fine.
Will this recipe do well at high altitude?
I would definitely make adjustments if you can.
Okay, I just made this & it’s baking, smells amazing! I buttered & floured my bundt pan, praying it comes out without breaking apart! I added nuts to my batter & in the cinnamon & brown sugar mixture I added more nuts, gotta have nuts! Fingers crossed! Thank you for the recipe!
I made this last night and it is delicious! As I am a diabetic, I made a few changes: I used I cup of sugar and 1 cup of Splenda, only used 1/2 c oil and 1/2 c apple sauce instead of butter, and used Splenda brown sugar and cinnamon for swirl mixture. I also only had two apples at home so I added unsweetened apple sauce to make the 4 c of apple.
Thanks for sharing your recipe! Glad you were able to make it work for you!!
My bundt pan is plastic not metal (made for microwave?) can the apple bundt cake be done in the microwave? Any guess as to how long and power setting?
I wouldn’t cook this cake in the microwave. But if you try it, let me know how it turns out!
Way way to much cinnamon. 4 teaspoons makes it spicy. You only need 1 or 2. I knew better but did it anyways. I will make it again but a lot less cinnamon in the brown sugar.
Oh no; mines baking right now and it overflowed. Cake from bottom of oven is quite yummy though; just not cooked all the way yet. What might I have done wrong
Just make this and we loved it! Now making another one for a friend!
Do we grate the apples or chop them up, it say’s to grate them but the picture looks like they are chopped up’
The apples are grated. Not sure what you are referring to in the photo…can’t really see the apples in the cake.
You can clearly see them in the batter, Kristin. I guess you fixed the recipe, since it now says grated or chopped. 🙂
There are no photos of the batter, perhaps you are referring to the baked cake.
A lot of apple cakes out there just look ho-hum and some kinda dry. This looks like a really good, moist, flavorful autumn cake to make this month of October. Thanks for posting. I will keep a copy in my files to make soon!
Thanks Judy! Let me know what you think!
Would love to but can not get it to print PLEASE HELP
Click the print button within the recipe and then print from your browser.
When all else fails, pen & paper always works! 🙂
Or copy and paste it into a document, so you can not only print it, but save it, too. 😉
Just FYI – when I’m not offered a choice to print a recipe, I will copy and paste it into an email and send it to myself…then print it out. I find this the easiest way to do it.
Sounds yummy! Thanks for sharing. I’m pinning this for future reference. I think I could make this for our local fair.
If you go to the King Arthur Flour website and look up “Vermont Boiled Cider” I add that to all my apple recipes and it is wonderful. I am going to try this recipe and use about 2 or 3 Tbl. to it. I made a apple pie yesterday and received a lot of raves. Full of apple flavor.
I make homemade boiled cider every fall. I take a gallon of cider and gently simmer it down to 3 cups. It will keep in the refrigerator for 6-8 months easily. Just make sure you sterilize your bottle before adding the syrup and keep it tightly sealed. It really bumps the flavor of anything ‘apple’ you are making.