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The Best Apple Cider Donut Cake with Salted Caramel. Made with fresh harvest apples and an irresistible homemade salted caramel drizzle. Think like the best caramel apple you’ve ever had, but with way more caramel… and cake too! This Apple Cider Donut Cake with Salted Caramel is seriously the best apple cake you will ever make! 

Need something festive to bring to a fall or Halloween party? I’ve got you covered! This is The Best Apple Cider Donut Cake that everyone will surely fall for.

The Best Apple Cider Donut Cake with Salted Caramel Details:

Apple and caramel are just made for one another, right? 

We love that this apple cider donut cake it bursting with apple flavor and always comes out so moist and tender. Using both apple cider and fresh chopped apples, this cake is like a cross between an apple cider donut and the best apple cake you’ve ever had. It truly is the best of both worlds. Not to mention the salted caramel sauce puts this apple cider donut cake over the top…

One factor that sets this apple cider cake apart from the rest is its yummy outer crunch. Before the cake bakes the bundt pan gets dusted with cinnamon sugar- giving the outside of the cake a nice caramelized sugary crunch. Kind of like a fried apple cider donut! 

Another reason why we love this apple cider donut cake is for how easy it is. Using basic pantry ingredients you probably already have on hand, this apple cider donut cake is not only really easy to assemble but easy on the budget as well. The hardest part is just waiting for the cake to bake and completely cool before drizzling on the luscious salted caramel sauce. 

After cooling, gently remove the apple cider donut cake from the bundt pan and drizzle all that delicious caramel sauce over the top. 

Pretty easy, right? 

Ingredients you will need for the best apple cider donut cake:

Simple pantry ingredients come together for this wonderful apple cider donut cake, many of which you probably already have on hand! So if you need an excuse to go make this cake, there you have it. You probably already have the ingredients!

Here is what you will need to get started:

• fresh apples- any variety will work, but we love to use fuji apples in our baking for their crisp, sugary sweet flavor that tastes like freshly pressed apple juice. Truly the perfect apple for this apple cider donut cake!
• all purpose flour- you may substitute with cake flour for an even lighter crumb, but we love how all purpose flour creates a slightly denser cake for this apple cider donut cake.  
• granulated sugar- white cane sugar will add the sweetness to the cake as well as baking up soft and moist. 
• good quality apple cider- It wouldn’t be an apple cider cake without the cider! Use a good quality apple cider such as Trader Joes’ spiced cider. 
• eggs- If you’re blessed to have your own chickens like we do, then you know how amazing organic free range eggs are for your baking! With rich yolks that are more orange than yellow, free range eggs are always the best bet for your baked goods.
• vegetable oil- Personally, I always use oil for my cakes and muffins. As much as I love butter, oil creates a lighter, moister cake. 
• baking soda- once activated baking soda is a leavening agent that allows this cake to rise and bake up nice and fluffy. 
• cinnamon- cinnamon and apple are a match made in heaven! Don’t skip out on the cinnamon apple goodness or your apple cake will be a sad apple cake. 
• vanilla- no fake imitation vanilla! Use only the real stuff. I mention this all the time in my baked good posts and I always will, you just can’t beat the real vanilla flavor! I will fight and die on this delicious-pure-vanilla-extract-only hill. 

Ingredients you will need for the salted caramel:

This salted caramel is made with only a few ingredients, and can be used on anything your salted caramel heart desires! 

Here is what you will need:

• granulated sugar- for this salted caramel recipe use only white sugar. I have been asked if you can use brown sugar, which technically you could- but it wouldn’t be caramel anymore but rather butterscotch. I have not personally tried making butterscotch with this particular recipe, but I am sure it would be delicious. If you make butterscotch, be sure to leave a comment and let me know how it turns out! 
• heavy cream- a little heavy cream at the end will make this salted caramel thinner allowing it to drizzle more easily. Plus, heavy cream is almost butter, and extra butter makes everything taste better, right? If you don’t have heavy cream, you may substitute with whole milk, however, I would scale it back to one fourth of a cup to avoid the caramel from becoming too thin. 
• salted butter- salted butter is best for this salted caramel, but you may use unsalted if you prefer.
• sea salt- a dash of sea salt is a must to create this delicious salted caramel. 

Making the Best Apple Cider Donut Cake:

• First things first, peel, core and chop the apples. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Oil a bundt pan with vegetable oil (not butter) and dust generously with cinnamon sugar. Shake out excess and set aside while you start on the cake batter.
• In a large bowl you will cream together the sugar, eggs, oil, apple cider and vanilla extra.
• In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. 
• Next you will add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well until fully incorporated. Gently fold in the chopped apples.
• Lastly you pour the batter into the bundt pan and sprinkle the top with more cinnamon sugar, if desired.
• Bake in a preheated oven in the center rack for an hour and a half, or until a tester inserted in the middles comes out clean.
• When the cake is done baking, remove from the oven and allow to cool for fifteen minutes. After it has cooled, gently remove the cake from the bundt pan. The start on the salted caramel sauce. 

Making the Salted Caramel:

If you have never made a homemade caramel sauce please don’t be intimidated. This caramel recipe is pretty easy and requires no candy thermometer and only takes about fifteen minutes to make.

A word of advice; be patient! When you add the sugar to the pan over medium high heat, you want to let it slowly break down into liquid sugar goodness. But before that happens, the sugar will clump and harden. Those clumps will eventually start to melt down and turn into a liquid. Just keep stirring the sugar clumps and watch it do its thing.

Once the sugar has completely broken down and is in its liquid state, you will then add the room temperature butter, about two tablespoons at a time. Room temperature butter it crucial while making this caramel; if the butter is cold, the sugar and butter wont emulsify and you will have a salted caramel disaster. 

It’s also important to note you want to add the butter slowly, whisking the caramel well between each addition.

Once all the butter is added, your going to want to keep whisking vigorously until all the butter is fully incorporated. Then, add the heavy cream. Once the cream is whisked in, remove from the heat and add the sea salt to taste. Set aside until the apple cider donut cake is done cooling.

This salted caramel is seriously so dangerous because you will want to add it to everything! Feel free to use this recipe for caramel popcorn (it’s amazing), cookies, bars, ice cream or anything that needs a little salted caramel sauce!

If you’re looking for an indulgent caramel dessert, try my Bailey’s Irish Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Skillet. It’s topped with this salted caramel sauce but with a splash of whiskey; it’s insanely delicious!

Tips for Making the Best Apple Cider Donut Cake:

• This recipe uses a bundt pan. If you choose to use a regular cake pan, adjust the baking time for less than what the recipe calls for.
• My bundt pan has a really detailed design and would always stick. A trick I discovered is to oil the bundt pan with vegetable oil- NOT butter. Usually, I use butter… but In this case with a bundt pan it acts like a glue and will actually cause the cake to stick more. Especially if your bundt pan is more detailed like mine.
• After the bundt pan is oiled all over dust with some cinnamon sugar. This helps the bundt to come out more smoothly as well as adding a nice, donut like crunch.
• While making the caramel you will start by putting the sugar in the pan by itself. It will seem strange but keep stirring the sugar over medium high heat until it begins to clump. As it slowly melts, it will form larger harder clumps before completely dissolving into a liquid. Keep stirring and be careful not to burn! But the key here is to be patient. 
• It’s very important that the butter is at room temperature when it is added to the sugar. If the butter is too cold the caramel wont emulsify. 
• The caramel will thicken and turn more chewy as it cools down. If you need to reheat it just pop the caramel in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 20-30 seconds.
• Any remaining caramel can be stored and used within a week in an airtight container.

This is one of my families favorite cake recipes of all time, and I know your family will love it too. It’s truly the best apple cake to make this season!

We hope you love this Apple Cider Donut Cake with Salted Caramel as much as we do! If you give this cake a try, please be sure to leave a comment and/or rating below! I truly love hearing from you! And if you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to the Butternut and Sage newsletter so you never miss a delicious recipe! We have a lot of yummy content coming your way- you definitely wont want to miss it! 🙂

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 more apple recipes you will love:

• Caramelized Apple Cinnamon Dutch Baby Pancake
• Spiced Apple Rum Old Fashioned 
• Harvest Apple Walnut Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette 
• Harvest Cheddar Apple Cider Butternut Squash Soup 

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