Apple Bundt Cake (Cake Mix)
Today's delicious, easy Apple Bundt Cake is bursting with flavor from apples and spices. It is the perfect fall dessert, and so simple to make.
Keep this recipe in mind for your fall celebrations!
Table of Contents
Why we Love it!
There is lots to love about this Apple Bundt Cake.
- Easy to Make and ultra moist.
- Starts with a box of yellow cake mix (as with our Marble Cake Mix recipe and easy Banana Cake!)
- The combination of apples, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg is heavenly!
- Perfect birthday cake recipe, fall gatherings, a Thanksgiving dessert, and more!
Ingredients for Apple Bundt Cake
Here is a quick look at some of our star ingredients for our bundt cake! (You can find the full listing in the recipe card further down in this post.)
A few helpful Ingredient Notes and Tips:
Buttermilk's boost of acidity makes for an extra moist and tender cake. We like to use whole buttermilk rather than reduced fat for added richness. (You can find a substitution in our notes!)
Yellow Cake Mix: We used Duncan Hines. You can substitute other brands.
Light Brown Sugar adds additional flavor. We used light brown, but dark brown would work also!
Granny Smith apples, diced. We have also experimented with grated apples in this recipe but prefer to use diced apples. Incorporating diced apples (rather than grated) into the cake batter resulted in a better, more fluffy texture. Also, diced apples are more visible in the cake slices than grated apples.
How to Make an easy Apple Bundt Cake
You can find the full, printable Apple Bundt Cake recipe below. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- Lower the oven rack to next to lowest position. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Then, grease and flour a bundt pan. (See notes for details on pan.)
- Dice the peeled granny smith apples (two cups).
- In the mixing bowl, add the cake mix, flour, brown sugar and spices. Whisk to blend.
- Add the vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and buttermilk to the mixing bowl.
- With the mixer on low to medium speed (using paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), mix for 1 minute.
- Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl. Beat on medium speed for 1 more minute. ( a bit longer if using a hand mixer).
- Fold in the diced apples and pour into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 350 degree for 40 minutes or until a long skewer comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary.
- Keep an eye on the cake, you may need to lightly place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the cake if you notice it become too brown after around 20 minutes.
- Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then turn out.
Caramel Glaze
We love the combination of apples and caramel, and so we went with simple homemade caramel glaze. (You can use store bought instead but it will be a bit more runny.)
The caramel glaze is prepared in a deep saucepan over the stovetop. Butter, brown sugar, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and corn syrup are combined and brought to a boil (stir constantly).
Then, the heat is turned down. Allow the caramel sauce to simmer for 5-6 minutes before removing from heat. It will thicken as it cools.
If you are in a hurry to cool the caramel, you can pour it into a long glass casserole dish. You can even place this in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or so to speed things along.
Glazing the Apple Bundt Cake
Once your apple bundt cake has cooled, spoon the caramel glaze over the top, or, for more control, spoon it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. Then, drizzle over the cake.
The glaze recipe makes about one cup of glaze. You will likely have a bit leftover, which you can use for drizzling additional caramel onto your cake slices if you would like!
Recipe FAQs
More Fall Cakes
We have more fall cake recipes to share with you in addition to many more bundt cake recipes!
Some of our favorites are Applesauce Cake, Pumpkin Cake, Caramel Italian Cream Cake, and Spice Cake. Here are a few more for you to check out:
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Apple Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 oz) Box Yellow Cake Mix (We used Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix, Perfectly Moist)
- 6 Tablespoons (45g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (108g) light brown sugar (packed into cup)
- 3 teaspoons (7g) ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon (4g) nutmeg
- ½ cup (108g) vegetable oil (we use Canola Oil)
- 4 large eggs, room temperature (You can place them in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
- 1 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups (302g) buttermilk — see note below for substitution
- 2 cups Diced apples — we used two large Granny Smith apples.
For the Caramel Glaze
- ½ stick (57g) unsalted butter, softened (if using salted butter, do not add additional salt)
- 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar (packed into measuring cup)
- ½ cup (126g) heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon (2g) salt 2g salt
- 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract 4g vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (18g) light corn syrup
Instructions
- Lower the oven rack to next to lowest position. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Grease and flour a bundt pan. We used a 10 cup bundt that holds 6 cups of batter.
- Dice apples. We used 2 cups of diced apples (from 2 large granny smith apples.)
- In the mixing bowl, add the cake mix, all purpose flour, brown sugar and spices. Whisk to blend.
- Add the vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, and buttermilk.
- Mix for one minute on medium speed. Pause to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl with rubber spatula. Then mix one minute more one medium speed.
- Fold in the diced apples and pour into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake at 350 degree for 40 minutes or until a long skewer comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Keep an eye on the cake, you may need to lightly place a piece of aluminum foil on top of the cake if you notice it become too brown after around 20 minutes.
- Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack in the pan for about 10 minutes. Then turn out.
For the Caramel Glaze
- Using a medium size sauce pan (deep enough to prevent boil over) melt the butter over medium heat.
- Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients.
- Stir to blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.
- Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, checking often to make sure that it is not going to boil over. Remove from heat.
- Keep in mind that the caramel with thicken up a bit as it cools. You can pour it into a long glass casserole dish if you want it to cool more quickly.
- Makes about 1 cup caramel sauce. It can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.
Decorating the Apple Bundt Cake
- Once the caramel glaze has cooled to desired amount, either spoon over the cake, or pipe the glaze onto the cake using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.
That sounds delish! Love the caramel glaze - very clever as always. :-)
Thanks Teri!! :0) xo
before i make this delicious recipe......one question, do you pour the caramel right before you service the cake or can you pour it as soon as it cools and not serve the cake for a few hours?
thank you
jeanette
Hi Jeanette, I'm glad that you are making it! You can pour the caramel as soon as the cake cools, even if you aren't serving or several hours. I hope that you enjoy it!
Do you freeze with the glaze already on the cake?
Hi Janice! We usually wait to glaze the frozen cakes after thawing, however we have frozen caramel glazed cakes in the past with no problem.