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Apple Pumpkin Cinnamon Vanilla Bundt Cake - the best and the easiest Autumn bundt cake you'll ever make. You can optionally drizzle the cake with dulce de leche (or caramel sauce) and top it with chopped pecans, even though the cake is already really delicious. Perfect Fall treat! Great holiday recipe for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
You will fall in love with this apple pumpkin bundt cake and will be making it over and over again! The cake is so moist and fluffy, so very flavorful - it's like having Autumn on your plate! It will make a great addition to your dessert menu for Thanksgiving as an alternative or a companion to a pumpkin pie! As far as I am concerned, this cake is permanently on my menu regardless of holidays!
Even if you don't care much for pumpkin, you'll love this recipe because this cake is not overwhelmed with pumpkin, yet very flavorful. And, it has lots of chopped apples in it. It has the texture and the feel of a very good carrot cake. It won't last long in your house: you'll be eating it for breakfast, mid-day snack, and dessert!
More recipes with apples and pumpkin
I love the apple and pumpkin combination and have quite a few Autumn recipes featuring both apples and pumpkin:
- Pumpkin Banana Bread with Apples
- Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Apples
- Pumpkin Banana Muffins with Apples and Cinnamon
How to store apple pumpkin cake
- Because this cake is so moist, it keeps well on the kitchen counter for several days. I like to loosely cover it with foil and keep it loosely covered like that at room temperature.
- You can also cover the cake with plastic wrap and keep it refrigerated for up to 1 week.
- This cake can be frozen for up to 1 month.
Topping for bundt cake
And don't even get me started on the caramel topping + chopped pecans! So yummy! Homemade or store-bought regular (or salted) caramel sauce will work great! Or, you can also use dulce de leche instead of the caramel sauce. Remember to heat up the caramel sauce in the microwave for several seconds to soften it up so that it's manageable before pouring it over the apple pumpkin bundt cake.
This apple pumpkin cake came out perfectly in a bundt pan: it rises high in the pan as it bakes. And, to be frank, this cake is so good on its own, it does not even need the caramel topping, but why not pour it all over and sprinkle with the cake with chopped pecans, right? 🙂
I would say it again and again: this is an absolutely amazing apple pumpkin bundt cake: moist, light, not dense. It gets only better the next day! I hope you will welcome this gorgeous and delicious Autumn on a plate into your house as well .
Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup white sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2 cups all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 4 cups apples , cored, peeled and diced
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat eggs, white sugar, and brown sugar until light in color and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Add oil and vanilla extract and beat for 1-2 minutes more to blend in the ingredients. Add pumpkin puree and continue beating for 1 more minute to combine.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Do not over mix. Fold in the apples.
- Spray the bundt pan with baking spray. Carefully pour the batter into the bundt pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 50 or 60 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool on a wire rack for about 40 minutes. Invert the bundt pan onto the serving platter and let the cake to cool further.
Video
Notes
Looking for a complete THANKSGIVING MENU?
- Be sure to check out my 50 Best Thanksgiving Recipes (The Complete Holiday Menu) - it includes everything: Fall-inspired holiday appetizers, side dishes, salads, main courses, pasta recipes, desserts, and even breakfast. This holiday menu features proven, tried, and true Thanksgiving dishes that have been reader favorites for years (I've been publishing recipes since 2012). Most of these recipes can also be re-purposed for Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Looking for THANKSGIVING SIDE DISHES?
- I have created a comprehensive recipe collection of 60 Thanksgiving side dishes conveniently categorized by ingredient: Green Beans, Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, Potatoes, Acorn Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Asparagus, Broccoli, etc. It's a great resource to browse through for a last moment holiday inspiration! This side dishes will also work great for Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
It seems as if no one has commented after making this. Well, let me change that.
I just made this cake on Saturday for a picnic on Sunday. I used a different caramel sauce recipe, but I didn't change anything about the cake recipe itself. As for the apples, I used McIntosh
The cake was very tasty, and I definitely agree with using a sweeter apple for this. The cake itself wasn't overly sweet like many other cakes I have made. And the texture was soft, moist, and crumbly.
I stuck with the bundt pan for ease of cutting instead of switching to two circular pans like I normally do. Unfortunately, I'm not too great at decorating bundt cakes. All I could do was drizzle the caramel over the top and set more caramel beside the cake if the picnic-goers wanted more. Nuts were a definite no. I had to think what everyone would like, not just myself. Maybe next time 🙂
Here's a picture I took of it before I took it to the picnic:
http://i.imgur.com/CsB4VKj.jpg
Wow, I looked at your picture - your cake came out gorgeous! Love how you drizzled it: so symmetrical and such fine thin lines of caramel - I looked at my own pictures - my drizzling job was not as fine as yours. 🙂
Where I live I never see McIntosh apples - only Fuji or Granny Smiths. On a different but related subject - I am reading Steve Jobs biography right now and just read yesterday that the Mac computer (Macintosh) was named after the McIntosh variety of apples! Because Steve Jobs at that time was on apples diet, basically just eating apples and nothing else.
I put the caramel into one of those squeeze bottles (like those solid red or yellow bottles for ketchup or mustard, except clear). It made it pretty easy to get thin lines instead of dolloping caramel all over it like I would have done otherwise. 🙂
The only problem with that method is when the caramel cools, it doesn't come out of the bottle so well. And I cooked my caramel a bit too long. It didn't burn, but when it completely cooled, it solidified. So now I have caramel candy in a bottle. 😛
Deanna, it's such a great tip for me, especially for my photography, to use the bottle that you described for drizzling caramel. I will actually put it on my list to buy because I just used (don't laugh) fork for my poor drizzling job. 🙂 I agree the challenge is to get the remaining caramel out of the bottle, but with practice one can probably learn to put just the right amount of caramel into it, do it fast, and then clean the bottle. Or, in my case, because I LOVE using dulce de leche - it will not even be a problem because dulce de leche does not solidify as fast as caramel. So, yes, I need to get that bottle! 🙂
Quick suggestion about keeping the caramel from solidifying in the bottle... Keep a deep bowl or a pot filled with hot water next to what you'll be drizzling on to and keep the bottle in it anytime you aren't using it. It'll help keep the drizzle liquid viscous and it'll be much easier to clean out the bottle after you're done.
What a great tip - thank you!
I don't care for chunks of apples....could I substitute apple sauce? Would I increase flour? Thanks!
If you use apple sauce, I would just use half the apple sauce, half the pumpkin puree. That is, instead of using 1 cup of pumpkin puree (per recipe), use 1/2 cup pumpkin puree and 1/2 cup apple sauce. No change in flour measurements is necessary.
Oh, my! Looking at all your beautiful photos really made me salivate. I will be digging out my bundt pan in the near future to make this cake. Apple and pumpkin are such a great combination of flavors. I love bundt cakes because they are so simple to make but look so beautiful and are delicious.
Olga, thank you so much for visiting and commenting! I love bundt cakes - they look so presentable and at the same time are so easy to make! Apples and pumpkin go very well together in a cake!
I'm making this for my department's holiday lunch this coming Friday - I can't wait. I'm going to go the homemade dulce de leche route - looks way to simple not to. I'm curious though - what type of apples did you use? I prefer crisper, slightly tart and sweet apples over softer ones personally, but I'm always curious as to what other people think works best in baking.
Emma, I also prefer crisper sweet apples over softer ones, and in most of my apple recipes here I use crisper apples. I made this twice, once with crisper apples, and second time this dessert was made with very soft apples from my mother-in-law's apple tree - they still worked great, but because this bundt cake is already so moist from the pumpkin, I still prefer crisper sweet apples!
looks like another delicious recipe. This would work so good with a hot cup of tea :)))))
Natalya, so good to see you here! 🙂
This is a very very VERY pretty bundt cake and love the combination of apple and pumpkin too!!
This is a thing of beauty Julia! I want to come to your house for dessert! 😉 Gorgeous, just absolutely gorgeous. Pinned, of course. Have a great week my friend!
Wow! What a stunner!
Mmh, Julia just looking at the pictures of this delicious,fluffy cake makes me hungry!
This is most beautiful and yummy looking fall time cake I have come across.
I am just waiting to get better health-wise and this will be the fist on my 'to bake' list.
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
This is my first time on your site - I like everything you have here. Will be comingback again for sure.
Thank you so much for such a sweet comment! 🙂 You're always welcome on my site! 🙂
I still have that vegan dulce de leche jar I got from Argentina - I really would love to make my own sometimes soon! I’ve never made bundt cake, but being inspired by your gorgeous cake photos, I would love to make it when I have time! Happy Thanksgiving!
So I just made a pumpkin cake and I wish I saw this recipe beforehand!! I'm still not over pumpkin..so this cake is coming up next 🙂
Ha-ha! No, pumpkin season is never over! 🙂
This looks ridiculously flavourful and perfectly moist. Happy Thanksgiving, Julia! Beautiful way to start my morning with this read.
This is absolutely gorgeous! I love the lacy look of the glaze and nuts. Stunning. 🙂
The topping on this looks amazing! Heck, the whole cake is wonderful - such a great combo of flavors. Good stuff - thanks. Happy Thanksgiving!