Apple Cider Donut Cake with Brown Butter.
Apple cider donut cake was made for this weekend!
I love this month so much. This time of year, this first October weekend. Eeeeep. I am here for it and it is finally feeling like fall so it’s time to celebrate. Give me all the donuts or cake or doughnut cake.
I’m rounding out (my unintentional) comfort food week here on the blog with an apple cider doughnut cake that is heavenly. It’s soft and fluffy and covered in cinnamon sugar.
And plus, since it’s called a doughnut cake, it’s totally acceptable to eat it for breakfast.
Right?
Also! I (almost) promise that this will be my last apple dessert of the season. I mean, I think we’re good with salted apple fritters, an apple cheddar galette and an apple cider doughnut cake. There is something for everyone!
You’re set for all the autumn festivities as well as Thanksgiving. YEP.
Freaking pumped for the season!
I get so excited because my kids are both just as obsessed with apple cider and cider treats as I am. While I don’t feel like I can perfect the best apple cider doughnut itself (my favorite is from soergel orchards! Best ever!), a cake is another thing.
Making a big donut cake means that we can all enjoy it and I don’t have to fry each donut piece by piece. Love it. Oh and that we can have leftovers for a few days too. At least… maybe we can.
This cake has a little extra step that can make it slightly high maintenance. I used this recipe as the base and it calls for simmering a whole apple in apple cider! That sounded riiiiight up my alley. The first time I made this, we did just that, then pureed the mixture as the recipe called for. But by the second time, I simmed and mashed the apples with a fork and it was all good. No need to dirty another kitchen appliance!
This step is basically like making your own (heavily cider flavored!) applesauce, so you can just use a cup of applesauce in a pinch.
But!
I will say that making it like this, with the apples AND apple cider? Super flavorful. I’ll take the extra step for flavor. And if you’re really pressed for time, you could always do that part of the recipe the night before. Measure out your ingredients, then bake it the next day. YUM.
The scent, taste and appearance of this is absolutely perfect for a fall morning.
It’s so soft. And fluffy. It’s light, but satisfying. Like one big donut. And crunchy on the outside from the cinnamon sugar.
OH and p.s. you’re going to brush the whole cake with brown butter before the cinnamon sugar sprinkle.
It’s unreal.
I think I’ve thoroughly convinced you that this has to happen today! Friday treat, hello.
Apple Cider Donut Cake
Apple Cider Donut Cake
Ingredients
- 1 large honeycrisp apple, peeled and chopped
- 1 1/2 cups apple cider
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup loosely packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- 3 large eggs
brown butter
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 10-cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray.
- Place the chopped apple and apple cider in a saucepan and heat over medium-high heat. Brind the mixture to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer and cook until the apple is soft and the cider is absorbed. Use a fork to mash the apple as much as possible. You don’t want any large chunks! Measure out 1 cup of the apple mixture. Stir in the oil, milk and vanilla.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Beat in the sugars until the mixture is fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in each egg one at a time until fully combined.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the apple cider/milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. I like to do this in three increments, so add a fourth of the dry ingredients, then a third of the liquid, and so on until you finish with the dry ingredients, beating until just combined.
- Spread the batter into the greased bundt pan, smoothing out the top with a spatula. Bake the cake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a tested inserted in the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then gently removed the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool completely.
- To brown the butter, place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and immediately begin whisking. Stir as it bubbles, and after 2 to 3 minutes or so you should see brown bits appear on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat immediately and continue to whisk for another 30 seconds.
- In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- Brush the cake all over with the brown butter. Sprinkle and press the cinnamon sugar into the cake right after brushing with the brown butter. You can rub the sugar onto the sides and the center so it sticks. Serve as desired!
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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I appreciate you so much!
Yep. Total breakfast food.
93 Comments on “Apple Cider Donut Cake with Brown Butter.”
Wow, not only is this cake beautiful, but it sounds absolutely incredible! I’d love to incorporate local apples from my local farm in this cake!
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Such a beautiful cake stand, can you share where you purchased it from?
Yes please, where did you get the cake stand? Thank you!
I’m thinking we’re having cake for breakfast this weekend!!! :P
This looks absolutely lovely. I have a ton of cider so I might just have to make this babe.
Also, Soergel’s doughnuts are SO GOOD!
another very creative use of the cider, thank you! A very nice way to welcome October
This looks divine! Quick question: “Measure out 1 cup of the apple mixture.”…Does that mean take out 1 cup and add the oil, milk, and vanilla to what’s remaining? OR Add the oil, milk, and vanilla to 1 cup of the apple mixture?
I’m making this right now, and once it was cooked down, I had about 1 cup of applesauce!
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So, I made one of these by my home girl Martha the other week and it was great! I added 2 peeled, chopped apples to the batter because she didn’t call for any and it seemed like it would be appropriate, and it was AMAZE. The addition of brown butter sounds fabulous! I’ll have to give your recipe a try!
Hows the batter texture ? In your photos seems thicker and mine seemed more liquidy
I made this today and seems thin to me also, not like yours that looks thick. Did I do something wrong?
I don’t have a binder pan. Should I use a 8×8?
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Made this today. Good lord is this delicious! I did not brown the butter because I am lazy and it was still delish!
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Hej någon!
Jag undrar om det går att få receptet på Apple Cider Donut Cake? ag kan inte förstå receptet på engelska
Mvh Siw Westling
Just finished baking it. It doesn’t look as beautiful as yours but hopefully the taste will!!
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I think a cinnamon-sugar mix swirled in the middle of the cake would have been a nice addition.
I have had apple cider donuts with maple icing, I think that would taste great drizzled over the cake !
I just made this and while it was incredibly delicious, mine baked with about a 2″ foot all around the cake that I had to cut off so it sat flat on the plate. Such a huge waste – now my cake is very small. What did I do wrong? Used a high qualty pan.
I made this cake yesterday and it was so delicious! I don’t usually make substitutions, especially the first time trying a recipe out, but I realized after I started that I was low on vanilla extract so I subbed with maple extract and it tasted great!
My batter was not nearly as thick as the batter in the photo. Did the apple cider need to be simmered down until completely absorbed? I wasn’t totally clear on that part!
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I just made this recipe and it’s riddled with spelling errors and omissions. At the end I was left with salt and brown sugar. You never specified where to use these ingredients. You mentioned soda, too. I’m assuming after the fact that’s where I was supposed to add the salt?! What a waste of time and money!
The salt & basking soda are added in step 3 and the sugars in step 4… you might need to read the recipe again.
Thank you for updating the recipe. My husband and I read over the original recipe a few times and the salt and brown sugar were not mentioned. I’m sure future bakers will appreciate it.
Fabulous cake! Our family visits countless farms every fall eating up all the apple cider donuts so I could not wait to try this cake recipe. It was phenomenal! I didn’t have any honeycrisp apples, so I used the Cripps Pink from our most recent farm visit. The moisture level of this cake was through the roof! I will say this was more time consuming than I usually prefer, but totally worth it, especially if you’re trying to impress anyone. I had a really hard time getting the sugar mixture to adhere to the sides of the cake (even after dousing it with the brown butter), so ended up serving it with a bowl of the sugar for people to dip their pieces in. So good!
is the apple cider applesauce to be thick or of a more thinner consistency wanting to bake this this morning but do not want the consistency of the applesauce to cause a failed recipe would appreciate your answer.
love following and trying your recipes
a fellow Pittsburgh!!
After cooking the apple and cider mixture forever, it didn’t even make one cup. I used a large apple as directed. Had to make another mixture to get the quantity needed. Which took forever again.
I just made this today on a rainy windy Sunday. Fantastic flavor. My new fall fav! Thank you
My cake is in the oven but I believe the batter was too thin–ie too much apple/cider/milk/oil added. I found the instructions quite confusing and I am an experienced baker.
1. Most important, how much is the cider/chopped apple supposed to reduce? How much finished sauce should there be?
2. Then…Instructions read, “Measure out one cup of the apple/cider mixture. Stir in milk, oil and vanilla”. Does the milk/oil mixture go into the remaining apple mixture in the pan or in a bowl with the 1 cup of sauce removed? I was unclear, added the milk/oil to the remaining apple/cider in the saucepan. Not reading any use for the cup of applesauce removed, I thought Ohoh, and added about half of the contents of the cup to the milk mixture.
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I’m making this cake tomorrow for an event on Tuesday. Should I wait to brush it with the butter and cinnamon sugar the day of my event or will it be okay if I do it on the same day I bake it? I just want to make sure the mixture stays on the cake. Also should it be kept it the fridge and then brought to room temp on Tuesday.
hi pat! i would wait and brush it and then sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar! keep it in the fridge then bring to room temp, brush and sprinkle!
Hi Jessica,
Your cake was a huge hit. It’s in the oven now because I’m making it again for Thanksgiving! The batter was perfect and looked like your picture, the apple was enough, and it was delicious. I followed your recipe exactly and I am an experienced baker also. Thank you for the recipe.
I just made this and while it was incredibly delicious, mine baked with about a 2″ foot all around the cake that I had to cut off so it sat flat on the plate. Such a huge waste – now my cake is very small. What did I do wrong? Used a high qualty pan.
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We were so excited to try this but is was really disappointing. Followed recipe exactly, did not taste any apple at all.
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I made this for my family yesterday! They love apple cider donuts so knew they would love it! It is a lovely recipe, and they did love it. My sugar mixture for the top and sides were not as spectacular as Jessica’s but my family did not notice. I ordered her cookbook…I want to share some beauty with my friends and family. 5 Stars!
This is an awesome recipe I suggest shredding the apple. I am making it a second time thanks for the delicious recipe.
Recipe was a little confusing when it came to making the apple/apple cider mixture. When cooked down for about 30 min, I ended up straining the remaining liquid and it yielded exactly 1 cup of of the mixture. I still noticed the thin batter that other have commented on. I added 2 extra spoonfuls of flour, the batter was still a little runny but didn’t want to use too much. I was pleasantly surprised this cake ended up turning out fantastic, very moist and flavorful. It took much longer than other apple cider cake recipes I’ve used in the past but it definitely tasted the best.
Have to start by saying I have never had an apple cider donut…but will definitely be trying soon….I only hope it lives up to this cake! It is absolutely delicious…moist, fluffy, cinnamon-y, sweet but not too sweet, looks amazing. The texture of the cake is perfect. Thanks for the great recipe, has definitely become one of my “go-to” favourites.
Delicious. Followed recipe exactly. Apple and cider boiled down made precisely one cup of applesauce. Cake is not sweet, flavor is subtle but good. It was a hit. Perfect for fall.
I just made this – it is cooling so I haven’t tasted it. I used a 10″ bundt pan and followed the recipe; should the cake have risen all the way to the top of the bundt pan because mine didn’t? In the pictures, the cake looks taller than mine so I wonder if I did something wrong. I am an experienced baker and have baked successfully with the same pan for years. I also noticed that the Serious Eats version of the recipe specifies to let the “applesauce” sit for 5 minutes or so before continuing but your recipe didn’t mention that. It might help if you added that. Thanks. I’m sure this will be delicious but I would appreciate knowing if my cake should have risen more.
This recipe was great!!! I used 2 cups all purpose and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and it still came out nice and moist. For those asking, it takes a little while to reduce down the apple cider and apple mixture. Once the apples got a little soft, I used a potato masher and smshed them, and continued to let it reduce until it was just shy of an applesauce thickness. Came out to right at a cup. Lovely. I didn’t have allspice so I used a little ground ginger and it still tasted lovely and warm and not overly spiced. Will definitely be making this again!! And the next time I think I’m going to poke holes and pour apple brandy over it 😋
do I use apple cider vinegar?
When you measure out the 1 cup of apple mixture, do you add the oil, milk, and vanilla to the 1 cup or what is remaining?
Do I add the milk to the 1 cup of apple or to whatever is left in the pot?
I added it to the milk, etc.
Excellent cake!
This recipe is very confusing. It actually caused a fight in my house. I’m sure the end product will be delicious, but the steps and the writing are very confusing. And this is coming from a creative writing professor.
Any advice on how to convert this to a loaf pan? ie baking times and temp? Thank you.
I had no problems making this or following the recipe. I do not have a bundt pan so I used a tube cake pan instead. My batter did come out thinner than pictured but I realized after the fact it is because I did not allow the apple/apple cider mixture to boil down enough. This was the first time I’ve ever made brown butter. So happy to have this secret ingredient in my repertoire now :) Delicious cake. I am spoiled with fabulous apple cider donuts from a local farm so I won’t say this recipe totally equals the real thing but it is a delicious, moist “coffee cake”. :)
Took longer than expected (because of the apple mixture), but came out looking pretty well. The taste was just off. More like a spice cake with a hint of apple than an apple cider doughnut.
Made this recipe but was not fluffy. In fact it was rather doughy 😭 so unhappy. Followed the recipe to a Tee. In fact I thought it was my baking powder and I bought a brand new one. That didn’t help on my 2nd attempt. A little fluffier, but not by much. Any suggestions?
Do you have a bake time/temp variation for two small Bundt pans (6 cup capacity each)?