Apple Cider Donut Cake
This not-too-sweet, moist and tender cake boasts a robust apple flavor, thanks to both apple cider and (homemade) applesauce in the batter. Baked in a Bundt pan, it’s essentially a giant apple cider donut made a little more wholesome with whole-wheat flour and olive oil, gently spiced with cinnamon and kicked up with vanilla—October in the form of a cake, each bite a delectable taste of fall. It happily straddles the line between dessert and an afternoon snack with a cup of coffee or tea, and, some might argue, is just healthful enough for breakfast.
VEGETARIAN
VEGETARIAN
Author: Wholesome Family Kitchen
Serves: 12 to 16, depending on how large you cut the slices
Ingredients
For the cake:
- • Nonstick cooking spray or olive oil, for coating the Bundt pan
- • 3 cups white whole-wheat flour *
- • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- • ½ teaspoon baking soda
- • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- • 1½ cups natural cane sugar
- • 1 cup pure apple cider
- • ¾ cup light-tasting extra-virgin olive oil **
- • ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce (smooth, not chunky), store-bought or my favorite Vanilla-Bean Applesauce (recipe below) ***
- • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- • 3 large eggs, room temperature
For the cinnamon-sugar topping:
- • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- • ¼ cup natural cane sugar
- • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray the interior of a 12-cup Bundt pan generously with nonstick spray, or grease with olive oil, making sure to get into all the crevices.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, apple cider, olive oil, applesauce, vanilla, and eggs. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth and well combined.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared Bundt pan. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through baking time, until a tester inserted in the center just comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the cinnamon-sugar topping: In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon. If you haven’t already, melt the butter and set aside.
- Carefully invert the cake onto a wire rack. (To help contain any mess, set the rack over a baking sheet or a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper.) Using a clean pastry brush (I like to use a silicone brush, like this one), brush the warm cake with the melted butter, then sprinkle liberally with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. (I sprinkle most of the cinnamon sugar over the top of the cake and then try to sprinkle a little bit down the sides. Don’t worry about trying to cover every inch of the cake; it doesn’t need to be completely covered.) Let the cake cool completely before slicing and serving. The cake can be kept, covered, at room temperature, for 2 to 3 days. (I kept mine on a cake plate covered with a plastic cake dome for about a day, then once I sliced into the cake, I stored the leftover slices in an airtight container at room temperature. The cake was still perfectly moist and flavorful even a few days later.)
Notes
* If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you probably know that white whole-wheat flour is my favorite flour to use when baking more-nutritious baked goods without sacrificing flavor or texture. King Arthur Flour makes a white whole-wheat flour that is pretty widely available these days. However, if you have trouble finding it, you can substitute 1 cup traditional whole-wheat flour plus 2 cups all-purpose flour and still turn out a deliciously wholesome cake.
** My favorite olive oil for baking is California Olive Ranch Mild and Buttery Extra-Virgin Olive Oil. It works especially well in this cake, lending a slight buttery flavor without any actual butter. You can certainly use canola oil or another neutral-flavored oil in its place, but if you would like to use olive oil, be sure to use one that is relatively mild-tasting and doesn’t have strong floral or grassy notes, unless you wouldn’t mind those flavors in your cake.
*** I generally don’t like to preach about the benefits of homemade versus store-bought ingredients here on this little blog, because my goal is to develop and share recipes that are approachable and as simplified as possible without compromising the end result, and I’m certainly not opposed to using store-bought ingredients to make my life easier. For example, I’m not going to tell you to roast pumpkins to make your own pumpkin purée for pumpkin bread if all that effort doesn’t improve the final product, or tell you that you must cook your beans from scratch when canned beans will work just as well. But… all that being said, if you want this cake to live its best life, then I’m going to strongly recommend that you make your own applesauce, specifically the Vanilla-Bean Applesauce below. Because here’s the thing: I’ve made this cake with this homemade applesauce and with store-bought applesauce, and although the one made with store-bought applesauce was still delicious, the one made with the homemade applesauce was noticeably better with a more robust apple flavor and a more tender crumb. And homemade applesauce takes less than half an hour to make, perhaps even less time if you can get your kids (or spouse/partner) to help peel and core the apples. And since you need only ¾ cup of applesauce for the cake, your (minimal) efforts will be rewarded with applesauce for days, or weeks, to come.
Recipe adapted from A New Way to Bake, from the Kitchens of Martha Stewart.
** My favorite olive oil for baking is California Olive Ranch Mild and Buttery Extra-Virgin Olive Oil. It works especially well in this cake, lending a slight buttery flavor without any actual butter. You can certainly use canola oil or another neutral-flavored oil in its place, but if you would like to use olive oil, be sure to use one that is relatively mild-tasting and doesn’t have strong floral or grassy notes, unless you wouldn’t mind those flavors in your cake.
*** I generally don’t like to preach about the benefits of homemade versus store-bought ingredients here on this little blog, because my goal is to develop and share recipes that are approachable and as simplified as possible without compromising the end result, and I’m certainly not opposed to using store-bought ingredients to make my life easier. For example, I’m not going to tell you to roast pumpkins to make your own pumpkin purée for pumpkin bread if all that effort doesn’t improve the final product, or tell you that you must cook your beans from scratch when canned beans will work just as well. But… all that being said, if you want this cake to live its best life, then I’m going to strongly recommend that you make your own applesauce, specifically the Vanilla-Bean Applesauce below. Because here’s the thing: I’ve made this cake with this homemade applesauce and with store-bought applesauce, and although the one made with store-bought applesauce was still delicious, the one made with the homemade applesauce was noticeably better with a more robust apple flavor and a more tender crumb. And homemade applesauce takes less than half an hour to make, perhaps even less time if you can get your kids (or spouse/partner) to help peel and core the apples. And since you need only ¾ cup of applesauce for the cake, your (minimal) efforts will be rewarded with applesauce for days, or weeks, to come.
Recipe adapted from A New Way to Bake, from the Kitchens of Martha Stewart.
Recipe by Wholesome Family Kitchen at https://www.wholesomefamilykitchen.com/recipe-apple-cider-donut-cake-and-vanilla-bean-applesauce-autumn-new-england/