This pull-apart apple fritter cake is made with homemade apple pie filling, canned biscuit dough, and a homemade orange icing. Biscuit dough is stuffed with apple filling, sprinkled in cinnamon sugar, and then baked ’til gooey and golden brown.

Easy Apple Fritter Breakfast Cake

One of my dad’s favorite treats of all time was an apple fritter. To be fair, he was partial to anything that was made with the hallowed apple, which in his opinion, was the holy grail of all fruits. Growing up, we didn’t get donuts often, but when we did, my donut of choice was always—always—a pink sprinkled cake donut while his choice was always the apple fritter.

Traditionally, apple fritters are fried like a donut, and they are often made out of a yeast-raised dough. I’ve mastered a lot of things in the baking world, but deep frying is not one of them, and honestly, I’m content with that. So instead of making fried apple fritters, I decided that I wanted to make shortcut apple fritters with biscuit dough.

And, as per usual, making individual baked apple fritters was not enough. No, it needed to be turned into an apple fritter cake. Between the flaky biscuit dough, the gooey apple pie filling, the cinnamon sugar crust, and the healthy drizzle of icing, this pull-apart breakfast cake (because apple fritters definitely fall in the breakfast category) is a cross between gooey cinnamon rolls and baked apple donuts and monkey bread.

Basically, it’s apple perfection. This is for you, Dad.

Why This Apple Fritter Cake Is Not Only Delicious, But Easy:

Canned Biscuits: I love canned biscuit dough. Is it the same as homemade biscuits? No. Is it the same as yeast-raised donuts? No. But it is stunning in its own right. Soft, ultra-flaky, and filled with so many buttery layers. It’s the perfect quick dough to use for apple fritters.
Apple Filling: What’s also extra good about this apple cake is that the biscuits are stuffed with a gooey apple filling, and the rest of the filling is sprinkled on top and all around the biscuits before it’s baked. There is apple everywhere.
Apple Butter: I’m a big fan of apple butter. It’s smooth and rich and full of rich apple cinnamon flavor.
Icing: If you don’t have an apple fritter, donut, or cinnamon roll with icing, are you really even enjoying one? Thank you for coming to my inspirational talk.

Any other apple lovers here? Try these favorites of mine next: Coffee Cake Apple Bundt, Apple Biscuit Cobbler, Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie (apple pie with a cinnamon roll crust), and these Maple Glazed Apple Blondies. And maybe these apple cinnamon rolls and these mini apple hand pies.

Ingredients:

Canned Biscuit Dough: I like to use a biscuit dough that has really flaky layers. I think it makes this cake feel even more like apple fritter dough.
Sugar
Cinnamon
Melted Unsalted Butter
Apples: I’m partial to using honey crisp apples for any baked apple desserts. They are nice and sturdy so they hold up nicely when being cooked, but they also have a really nice sweetness to them. But, you can use any other kind of baking apple you prefer: granny smith, jazz, gala, pink lady, etc.
Orange Zest
Orange Juice
Brown Sugar
Apple Pie Spice
Apple Butter: Use your favorite store bought apple butter or homemade version.
Powdered Sugar
Vanilla Extract

Steps To Making This Apple Fritter Cake:

Apple Filling: Mix chopped apples, brown sugar, apple pie spice, and orange zest together. Set aside.

Cinnamon Sugar: Mix cinnamon and sugar together. Set aside.

Biscuit Dough: You will need two cans of biscuit dough, which totals 16 biscuits. Unroll each can of biscuits and lay the biscuits out flat. Gently press each biscuit until it’s a little flatter.

Assembly: Spoon a little apple butter in the center of each biscuit dough. Then spoon a little of the apple filling in each (you will have leftover apple filling, which will be used eventually). Fold each biscuit over in half, and using a fork, crimp the edges so each biscuit is sealed (each biscuit is now in a half circle).

Arrange: In a parchment lined 10” pie plate or tart pan, arrange 12 of the biscuits on the bottom of the pan. The biscuits will slightly overlap one another, and there will be a gap in the center of the pan. Sprinkle the remaining apple filling all over the biscuits and the pan. Then, place the remaining 4 apple filled biscuits on top of the other biscuits, placing one corner of each biscuit in the center area so it’s filled.

Topping: Pour melted butter over the top of the entire dish, then sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.

Bake: Bake the pull apart apple fritter cake until it is golden brown and the apple filling is gooey and bubbling.

Icing: Make the orange glaze by whisking together orange juice, orange zest, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste). Drizzle over the top of the warm cake.

Serve: I suggest serving while still warm.

Storage Tips:

You can store this cake (as long as it is well covered) at room temperature or in the fridge. I usually store this in the fridge, because it helps it last a bit longer.

And, because I like to serve this apple fritter cake warm, the fridge is perfect because I am going to microwave the leftovers anyway to get them warm.

Variations:

Not into the orange icing? Try these instead:

Vanilla Icing (the icing in the recipe is a vanilla icing)
Vanilla Buttercream
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
Maple Icing (use the icing in the recipe card)

Final Apple Fritter Cake Reminders:

Apple Filling: You’re going to have filling leftover, and that’s good because that leftover filling gets sprinkled over the biscuits before it’s baked.
Biscuits: I like to arrange the filled biscuits (they look like mini apple hand pies) in a parchment lined pie dish in a circle with each little apple biscuit resting slightly on the other. If you use a 10” pie plate (or tart dish), you’ll lay 12 of the apple pastries in a circle (fanning them out). There will be a hole in the center of the pie dish where the dough does not meet. Sprinkle the remaining apples on top, then, place the remaining 4 apple pastries on top, with the edge of each of the 4 in the center area.
Serving: This is a pull-apart apple cake, which means you can serve it almost like a monkey bread, where everyone just snacks and pulls off pieces. Or, you can slice it and serve it in cake slices.