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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
I , like a silly fool followed our recipe, ended up with lumpy batter!! Anyone who bakes knows sugar and butter together first??? Then eggs and oil…..how foolish of me!!! When you follow your instructions the batter certainly not look like the video. So now I suspect all your entries
Wow. Ok, well first if you see in the video, it’s done exactly as it calls for in the recipe. So, if your batter didn’t look like that, I’m guessing you must have done something wrong and it had nothing to do with the instructions. You probably, foolishly, didn’t mix it enough. Because when you do it comes together just fine. Second, if you suspect all the rest of my recipes, you don’t have to try any of them.
I used Golden delicious apples but had to squeeze out some of the moisture before adding to the batter. Very easy to make and very, very…..delicious. Making another one this weekend.
Awesome feedback Vidia! Thanks for stopping by.
Definitely going to try
Looks yummie
I’m certainly going to try this. What is the calorie count?
We are currently working through our recipes to update nutritional data. However, there are a few free calorie counters you can try online, like my fitness pal.
Kristin this is the Best Cake I have baked in my life, best texture..taste is just remarkable. Baked it for my husband’s birthday in the corona Virus Lockdown..can not thank u enough..for this remarkable easy to bake Recipe
You are so welcome! Thanks for stopping by.
We LOVE this cake. Delicious.
Make it gluten free too and it works.
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Virginia.
What kind of oil did you use?
Have you tried it with gluten free all purpose flour?
Vegetable oil, and no I haven’t baked with gluten free flour but I’ve heard that it works good.
I made this today with three large granny smith apples and it’s delicious! I checked after 50 minutes and it was already pretty brown so pulled it out quickly. Start looking at 40 minutes! I used a floured spray on the pan and it slipped right out neatly.
Nice! Thank you so much Sue for dropping by and sharing your experience.
This cake is delicious! I used Pink Lady apples. It is Amazing!
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Debbie.
This cake is delicious! I used Pink Lady apples! It is Amazing!
My neighbor made a bunt cake and gave it to us and I was determined to make one. I looked up a recipe and came across yours. Your recipe came out great. Thank you for the video. It helped tremendously!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed the cake!
I need to know what size bundt pan. That means how many cups. 9 x 2 1/2 inches 10 cups
9 x 3 inches 12 cups
10 x 2 1/2 inches. 12 cups
Here’s a link to the actual pan that I used, like I shared in the post: https://amzn.to/2RJeqYa
It’s 12 cups and 10×3.
I have your Apple Cake in the oven at 350, my fingers are crossed! I did add some chopped walnuts but other than that I followed you to the tee. wish me luck…
Thank you Laura for stopping by!
Just made this and my family said it is absolutely fantastic. I chopped the apples instead as I like chunks of deliciousness plus I highly recommend to flour the Bundt pan, I tried the sugar coating and it stuck, not bad though. ? I did have to cook it about 20 mins longer but I think it’s my oven.
Hi Peggy,
I love that you were able to make it work for you!
Could you make this in a 9×13 cake pan? I’d love to try this for my husband’s office baking contest, but I need 2 9×13 cakes for the design I’m making. Looks delicious though!!
You would need to watch the timing, but I would also worry about the apples sinking. Worth a try though!
Just pulled this out of the oven…it smells SO good! I forgot t swirl the sugar/cinnamon mix into the batter, hopefully it won’t mattter too much. Now just waiting for it to cool…?
What did I do wrong? I made this cake last night and followed the recipe exactly but it turned out like a heavy wet apple-infused sponge. There is no lightness to it at all. Just a glob of congealed dough. Ugh. I don’t usually have fails like this. 🙁 I used honey crisp apples as suggested. They are quite a juicy apple and I noticed lots of moisture as I was grating them. Could this have been the problem?
I have also used honey crisp apples and haven’t had a problem. It’s possible that they were extra juicy, or perhaps you should have used a larger grate?
I just came across your site, now I need to go shopping for ingredients for a few recipes. They have my mouth watering.
Made this last night, was gone before it could even cool. Added a light caramel drizzle to the top and lined the bottom of the bundt mold with this slices of apples, so it looked so beautiful once flipped over. This recipe was delicious and one I will certainly be making again.
I have baked this cake twice and its been a hit. My friend’s mom who had it the last time I baked keeps calling me for another one.