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.
Servings: 10 slices
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
If you want to use apple pie spice, use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 2 tsp apple pie spice.
If the cake is getting too dark, but the center is still wet, tent a piece of foil on top of the cake while it is baking.