Apple Coffee Cake Bundt
This fluffy apple coffee cake bundt cake is a cinnamon swirl bundt with a crumb cake topping (aka a coffee cake topping). Fluffy vanilla cake swirled with apples, cinnamon, and brown sugar make for the best apple bundt cake recipe.
Apple Bundt with a Crumb Cake Topping
Move over pumpkin, apples and cinnamon are the flavor of the season. Cinnamon is the quintessential fall spice, as it’s warm and spicy, and it pairs with every classic fall flavor, but it’s also perfect in its own right.
From these Cinnamon Roll Blondies to these Pumpkin Butter Cinnamon Rolls to these Snickerdoodles (and these Snickerdoodle Cupcakes), it’s clear cinnamon is one of my love languages.
And today, when it’s paired with tender and sweet apples? We’re giving it the credit it deserves in this Coffee Cake Apple Bundt Cake that is heavy on the cinnamon spice and baked apples.
A cinnamon crumb cake topping, a sour cream vanilla cake swirled with cinnamon apples, and a cinnamon sugar crust. It’s cinnamon heaven swirled into a soft and fluffy vanilla bundt cake. The texture is perfectly soft with a tender crumb, but it has a nice crunchy brown sugar topping that pairs so well with the fluffy cake.
What I Love About This Apple Coffee Cake Bundt Cake:
- Easy: Bundt Cakes are some of my favorite types of cakes, as they are so simple to make. They look stunning as a centerpiece of a dessert table, but they take very little effort.
- Coffee Cake Topping: The brown sugar and butter crumble is put in the bottom of the bundt cake pan, and the batter is poured on top. As the coffee cake bundt bakes, the crumble streusel forms this crust on top of the cake.
- Apples: Apples might just be the perfect fruit, and they are one of my favorite fruits to bake with, because they lend themselves so well to whatever dessert they are being baked in. They work especially well with cake, as they do not change the texture of the cake.
- Glaze: As much as I love a frosted cake, bundt cakes are some of my favorite cakes because they often have a glaze or icing drizzled on top. I think the glaze is a little less rich than frosting.
If you love coffee cake, these coffee cake recipes should be next on your list: Coffee Cake Banana Bread, Pumpkin Pecan Coffee Cake, Coffee Cake Peach Scones, and this Coffee Cake Streusel.
Ingredients:
- Apples: You can use any good baking apple you like. I prefer to use a sweet apple, like a honeycrisp apple.
- All Purpose Flour
- Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar
- Salt and Baking Soda
- Apple Pie Spice: I like to use a mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and all spice. If you prefer to use store-bought apple pie spice, I suggest using 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 2 tsp apple pie spice.
- Eggs
- Canola Oil
- Sour Cream: You can also use plain Greek yogurt instead.
- Applesauce: It’s my favorite secret ingredient for making a really moist cake, especially a bundt cake, which bakes for a long time.
- Vanilla Extract
- Orange Zest and Orange Juice: It adds a little zing and extra citrus sweetness that really enhances the overall apple flavor.
- Unsalted Butter: The cake has enough salt in it that we don’t need to add any extra salt to the crumb cake topping.
- Powdered Sugar
- Heavy Cream
How To Make This Apple Coffee Cake Bundt:
- Crumb Cake Topping: Mix flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon together. Add in the cold and cubed butter, and using a fork or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour mixture until it forms the consistency of wet sand.
- Apple Cake Batter: In a large bowl (or the bowl of a standing mixer), mix together all dry ingredients. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients (this just helps the wet ingredients absorb quicker into the dry ingredients, which helps avoid over mixing the cake batter).
- Wet Ingredients: Add the eggs and oil to the well. Then, mix the cake batter together (with an electric mixer or rubber spatula). It will be very thick at this point. Add in sour cream, applesauce, orange zest, orange juice, and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Apples: Lastly, add in the shredded and chopped apples. Mix until combined.
- Cinnamon Sugar Filling: Mix cinnamon and sugar together.
- Assembly: Grease a 12-cup bundt cake pan very, very well. Then sprinkle the crumb cake topping in the bottom of the pan. Pour half of the cake batter on top of coffee cake topping. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mix evenly over the cake batter. Then, top with the remaining cake batter. (I like to use a large cookie scoop to spoon the batter into the pan, because it is a bit of a thick cake batter.)
- Bake: Bake until the cake is lightly golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean (if the cake is getting too brown before the center is finished baking, tent with a piece of foil).
- Cool: Let the bundt cool for about 15-20 minutes before removing the cake from the pan.
- Pro Tip: Place a plate or cooling rack on top of the bundt cake pan. Then, holding both together, flip it over. The cake *should* slip out of pan and land nicely on the plate or cooling rack. Sometimes, you do have to tap the pan to get the back to drop out.
- Icing: Once the cake is cool enough, make the icing by whisking together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and heavy cream. Drizzle on top of the cake. Once set, serve it.
Storage Tips:
You can store this bundt cake both in the fridge or on the counter, as long the cake is in an airtight container. If you store in the fridge, the cake will last about 4-5 days. If you store at room temperature, it’ll last 2-3 days.
Additionally, if you store this in the fridge, the cake will be a little bit denser if you eat it straight from the fridge.
Other Bundt Cake Favorites:
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt
- Pumpkin Vanilla Bundt Cake
- Pear Bundt Cake
- Lemon Bundt Cake
- Lemon Poppyseed Bundt
- Strawberry Bundt Cake
- Raspberry Bundt
Final Quick and Easy Coffee Cake Apple Bundt Cake Tips:
- Grease Your Bundt Pan. Then grease it again.
- You need a 12 cup bundt cake pan.
- Shred and chop your apples. The shredded apples gives a lot of moisture and flavor while the chopped apples give great texture.
- Apple Pie Spice: You can absolutely substitute all of the spices for 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 2 tsp apple pie spice.
Apple Coffee Cake Bundt
Ingredients
Crumb Topping
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Apple Cake Batter
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt
- 1/4 cup applesauce
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp orange zest (about the zest of 1 medium orange)
- 2 Tbsp orange juice
- 1 1/2 cups shredded apple (I like to use honeycrisp)
- 1 1/2 cups chopped apples
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
Vanilla Icing
- 1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 Tbsp heavy cream (or milk)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
Crumb Cake Topping:
- In a medium sized bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, and brown sugar together.
- Next, add in the cold and cubed butter. Using a fork or a pastry blender, work the butter into the mixture until it completely combined. You want the texture be that of wet sand.
- Using your fingers, pinch and press the dough together into crumbs, making the crumbs as small or large as you’d like. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Cinnamon Sugar Filling:
- Whisk cinnamon and sugar together for the filling. Set aside.
Apple Cake Batter:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12-cup bundt cake pan well (bundt cakes are famous for sticking to the pan so make sure you’ve greased the pan very well).
- In a large bowl or in the bowl of a standing mixer, mix together the dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
- Add the oil and the eggs to the well in the center of the dry ingredients and mix until combined (the well helps disperse the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients more evenly so the batter doesn’t get over mixed). The batter will be very thick and dry—that’s okay.
- Next, add in the sour cream (or greek yogurt), applesauce, orange juice, vanilla extract, and orange zest. Mix until well combined.
- Lastly, add in the shredded and chopped apples. Mix until just combined.
Assembly:
- Sprinkle the crumb cake topping in the bottom of the greased bundt cake pan.
- Then, pour half of the apple bundt batter evenly in the pan (I like to use a cookie scoop because it is a thick cake batter).
- Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly on top of the cake batter. Then top with the remaining cake batter, spreading it in an even layer. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
- Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean (mine took exactly 62 minutes).
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes before removing from the pan. How to remove: Place a serving dish or cooling rack on top of the pan. Holding the serving dish or wire rack and the bundt cake pan, carefully flip both over (so the bundt cake easily falls onto the dish to cool).
- Let the cake cool another 15 minutes before making the vanilla icing.
Vanilla Glaze:
- In small bowl, whisk 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt, and 2-3 Tbsp of heavy cream (or milk). If the icing is too thin, add in the remaining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. If the icing is too thick, add in the remaining Tbsp of heavy cream.
- Drizzle the vanilla glaze over the top of the warm cake. Allow to set 5 minutes before slicing and serving (if you drizzle the icing on top of the cake when it’s still hot, the glaze will either slide off or soak right into the cake).
Notes
The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.
Meet Michelle
I’m a self-taught baker who truly believes it’s impossible to be upset when eating dessert. It’s my life’s goal to bake everyone happy!
If I’m not baking, I’m probably reading a good book with a cup a coffee in hand.
Welcome! I’m glad you’re here!
