Whenever the air gets cooler and the leaves begin to to change in autumn, one of our favorite things to do is visit our local farms & fall festivals. My favorite part? The donuts! Pumpkin donuts, apple cider donuts, glazed donuts – give me them all! It was pretty inevitable that we’d have a delicious apple cider donut cake hit the website soon, and I love how this one turned out.

The inside is fluffy and soft, and the outside of our apple cider donut cake is soaked in butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It is fall perfection in a simple, but super tasty, bundt cake!

USE THE BUNDT

This can can be made into a single layer cake, but I really wanted to make it into a bundt. It truly echoes that fun, circular shape of a donut! I used this “French Wreath” donut pan from Amazon and it worked beautifully. I did try this recipe in donut pans, aaaaaand it didn’t exactly work – so hold of on those for now. 🙂

If you’re interested in a couple other yummy bundt recipes, I have a few you’d probably love!

  1. Lemon Poppyseed Bundt
  2. Banana Biscoff Bundt
  3. Chocolate Chip Banana Bundt

What you’ll need to make the apple cider donut cake

The ingredients are all pretty simple and easy to find – which is always a win!

  1. Apple Cider (made into a reduction – which is super easy!). All I did was let the apple cider simmer on the stove over medium heat until it turned into a light syrup (about 20 minutes).
  2. Applesauce – I used cinnamon.
  3. Cinnamon – speaking of cinnamon 🙂
  4. Eggs – room temperature, and always use large eggs.
  5. Buttermilk – room temperature
  6. Vegetable oil
  7. Vanilla – I like the one I can usually find at Costco.
  8. White Cake mix – I prefer the taste and texture of Duncan Hines, but any other 15.25oz box brand should be similar.

Cinnamon Sugar

Whenever we get those delicious apple cider donuts from our fall adventures, they either have a glazed version, or a cinnamon sugar coating on them. Usually we get a half dozen of both, but I actually prefer the ones that are coated in cinnamon sugar!

So for our bundt cake here, to echo that texture and taste, there’s a quick step at the end to make it all possible…

Let the bundt cake cool completely, then place the bundt cake (should be still on the cooling rack) on the cooling rack right onto a cookie sheet. This way, you don’t have a mess on your hands after :).

Brush the cooled bundt cake with the melted butter, then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar coating. I used regular granulated sugar, but you can use turbinado sugar or something more coarse if you’d prefer. It soaks in pretty fast, so if you’re making this cake in advance, just soak and sprinkle the butter/cinnamon/sugar on right before serving so you can still see the texture of it.

That’s it! I have another bundt cake coming in hot this week for you – so stay tuned if you’re ready for the pumpkin version :).

As always if you make one of my Baking with Blondie bakes, YOU ROCK, and I’d love to see it! Make sure to tag me @bakingwithblondie on Instagram so I can join in on all the fun.

Happy baking!

xo, Mandy

Get the Recipe: Apple Cider Donut Cake

5 from 2 votes
Soft, sweet, apple cider cake made with apple sauce, apple cider, and a coating of cinnamon sugar around the outside.
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Ingredients
 

Apple Cider Donut Bundt

  • 2 cups apple cider, reduced down to 1/2 cup , To reduce the apple cider, simmer the liquid for 20 minutes on the stove until a thin syrup forms. Cool before adding to the cake batter.
  • 1/3 cup cinnamon apple sauce
  • 3 whole large eggs, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk , room temperature
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup flour , optional, but helps for higher altitude
  • 1 15.25 box White Cake Mix, I prefer Duncan Hines, but any similar brand will do.

Cinnamon Sugar Coating

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Equipment

  • 1 bundt pan

Instructions
 

For the Apple Cider Donut Cake

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a Bundt cake with a swipe of shortening or cooking spray and a dust of flour to prevent sticking. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, hand whisk together the apple cider reduction (instructions in ingredients notes), apple sauce, eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and cinnamon. Sift in the flour and cake mix and gently mix until combined (don't overmix). Add the cake batter into the bundt pan, and tap the pan to let the batter fill to the bottom corners of the bundt pan.
  • Bake the bundt for 32-25 minutes, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then flip the bundt out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
  • Melt the butter. Stir together the cinnamon sugar in a small bowl. Place the wire rack (that the bundt was cooling on) onto a cookie sheet, then brush the butter on the whole bundt. Immediately sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar and serve!