What better time than fall time to make a simple beautiful apple cider bundt cake. Apple cider and apple donuts are so popular this time of the year. However, donuts can be heavy or crumble. This bundt cake does just the opposite. It’s moist and has a nice even texture. With a variety of apples so plentiful especially during the fall time, baking this cake is wonderful.

You can make your own apple cider or applesauce for this recipe. A little cinnamon and spiced apple butter makes this cake so fragrant and elegant, yet it so easy to make.

Apple Cider Donut Bundt Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 ½ cups of apple cider

1 ½ cups of unsweetened apple sauce

¼ cup of apple butter

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

¾ cup of a neutral oil like safflower oil

Topping

½ cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon

¼ stick unsalted butter, melted

Pour your apple cider into a pot and reduce it over medium heat until reduced by a third. This will now give you ½ of a cup of reduced cider for your recipe. Set aside or cover and refrigerate overnight, if you will make this cake the next day.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a bowl, whisk together all of your dry ingredients except for the sugar. In a large bowl, whisk together your sugar, eggs and oil and pure vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

Add into the sugar mixture the apple butter, applesauce and apple cider.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix to combine. Pour the batter into a well-prepared bundt pan. Bake for about 45 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean.

Set the bundt cake on a wire rack to cool. Brush the top of your cooled cake with the topping melted butter. Use the topping sugar and cinnamon and generously sprinkle the mixture all around the top and bottom sides of the cake.

Sarah Schweitzer is dual-certified in Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry from the Escoffier School of Culinary Arts (www.escoffier.edu). She is a former line cook for Chef Robert Irvine at “Fresh Kitchen by Robert Irvine” which was located at the Downtown Allentown Market. Sarah is currently working as a Sous-Chef and pastry chef at Ateira’s on First. She can be reached at sarah.schweitzer18@gmail.com.