Baker by Nature

A Baking Blog by Ashley Manila

Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce

Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce I’ve been playing around with this apple bundt cake recipe for the last few weeks – just little tweaks here and there – and yesterday, I finally baked the perfect one. Oh success… you’re sweet! It was quite a delicious journey and all, but I’m mucho happy I’ve found my “the one”. A girl can only eat so many slices of cake (this was cake #4!)… before she needs a cookie 😉 Or a cocktail! Since it’s Friday, I think maybe both?

Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce

Anyway, lets talk cake! And more specifically, why this one is so dang amazing. First, and most importantly I think, it’s 100% applelicious! Not only is it PACKED with fresh apple chunks – lots and lots of them! – it has a big splash of apple cider in the batter which adds a whole other element of apple awesomeness. WIN!

Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce

This hunk of a bundt is also moist, rich in brown butter flavor (which totally jives with the apples!), and slathered in a robe of bourbon butterscotch sauce… which is EPIC! It’s one of my new favorite toppings not only for cake, but also for ICE CREAM! I say double it up and make two batches.

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Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce

Happy Friday! I hope you guys have a fun/safe/gnarly weekend planned? We’ll be running tons of errands Saturday, with hopefully a little shopping somewhere in the mix! I really want a cute sweater dress, but so far they’ve all been BULK city. If you guys have any suggestions, toss em this way, please.

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Brown Butter Apple Bundt Cake with Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 1 bundt cake, 12 slices

Moist and incredibly flavor brown butter bundt cake topped with a bourbon butterscotch sauce.

Ingredients

  • For the apple cider reduction:
  • 1 and 1/2 cups apple cider
  • For the brown butter apple bundt cake:
  • 3 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped into rough chunks (about 3 cups)
  • 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 and 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
  • 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, browned
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup whole milk
  • For the Bourbon Butterscotch Sauce:
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons bourbon

Instructions

  1. FIRST STEP! Make the apple cider reduction:
  2. Place the apple cider in a small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cider has reduced to a 1/2 cup. Reducing the cider allows you to get a more intense apple flavor. Transfer the reduction to a heatproof measuring cup and place it in the fridge to cool while you prepare the other ingredients. It should be room temperature when added to the batter.
  3. For the brown butter apple bundt cake:
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Generously grease a large bundt pan; set aside.
  5. Peel, core, and roughly chop the apples. Place them in a medium-sized bowl; add 2 tablespoons of flour and toss well to coat; set aside.
  6. In a medium-sized saucepan melt the butter over medium-heat, stirring almost constantly, until it's light amber brown in color and smells slightly nutty - careful not to burn the butter! Remove pan from heat and stir in the vanilla. Set aside.
  7. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the eggs, cooled apple cider reduction, remaining granulated sugar, and brown sugar; mix well to combine. Set aside.
  8. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, baking soda, remaining cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt.
  9. Whisk in the egg mixture, then the butter and oil, then gently fold in the milk; do not over mix!
  10. Add half of the batter to the prepared bundt pan, then sprinkle 1/2 of the apples on top before adding the remaining batter. Add the remaining apples to the top of the batter, then place the pan in the oven. Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before removing it from the pan and transferring it to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  11. For the bourbon butterscotch sauce:
  12. Melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar and cream and whisk until well combined. Bring to a light boil and cook for about five minutes, whisking occasionally.
  13. Remove from heat and whisk in bourbon. Cool slightly before drizzling over cake.

Notes

To save time, the butter may be browned ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to two days. The butterscotch sauce may be may ahead of time and stored in the fridge for up to one day. Warm the butterscotch sauce in the microwave for 10 seconds before pouring it over the cake.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 slice of cake

Amount Per Serving

% Daily Value

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  33. Love this idea! Planning on baking it for thanksgiving this year! What size pan did you use? Do you have an updates recipe for a bigger pan… Maybe 9″? Thanks in advance!

    Reply

  35. I have been drooling over this recipe for weeks and am so excited to make it for Thanksgiving this year. What kind of Apple Cider do you prefer? I haven’t found one that reduces down well.

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Thank you so much, Alicia. I always bake with homemade apple cider from our farmers market. I find most brands reduce eventually… some just take a little extra patience during the process 😉

      Reply

  36. I just made this and didn’t realize until after the cake was baked that the directions don’t tell you where to add the ginger and I completely (accidentally) left it out. Does the ginger go in the apple mixture or the batter mixture?

    Reply

    • Hi Berri. The ginger gets whisked in with the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt). You inspired me to rewrite the recipe this morning in a (hopefully) easier to follow form. I wrote this recipe many years ago, so it was in need of a makeover, so to speak. How did your cake turn out?

      Happy holidays!

      Reply

  37. I just made this recipe and wish I would have read the whole thing before tackling this beast! There are so many steps, bowls and special handling of the ingredients that I found myself getting very frustrated! I have been baking for years and I use it to de-stress. This certainly did not do that! I followed the butterscotch recipe to a T and it was very gritty so perhaps I had the heat too high? I had to make another batch and used Pioneer Woman’s recipe. The cake is baking now. I’m so worried it won’t turn out. I hope it is as tasty as it looks in your pictures!

    Reply

    • Hi Jill. It’s always a good idea to read a recipe through before beginning. I’m so sorry you had trouble with the butterscotch sauce 🙁 It may have been the heat was too high, but it’s hard to say for sure. How did the cake turn out? I appreciate your honest feedback and am always looking for ways to improve. xoxo

      Reply

      • Ashley, this recipe needs to be rewritten. You cay to divide the sugar but you don’t spell pout how much when. You say to add brown sugar to the sauce and to the batter but you don’t spell out how much in each measurement. Just the one listed under ingredients.

        Reply

  38. It did turn out! My oven cooks a bit cool so it took about 85 minutes. Everyone loved it! The cake was very moist and flavorful. I’m almost positive my butterscotch on the first try was cooked too hot as the second I cooked on medium low and it was smooth.

    The recipe was a success overall even with my nervous breakdown. I will start reading recipes all the way through first!

    Happy Holidays!

    Reply

  39. Hi! Wanting to make this but a few things in the recipe are stumping me. 1st in the ingredients it calls for sour cream then in the instructions it talks about greek yogurt, i know you can sub in yogurt for sour cream just checking the discrepancy before i start. Also the Bourbon sauce does it actually have Bourbon? I can’t see that it does unless you sub Bourbon for the vanilla? This looks so yummy can’t wait to try it!

    Reply

  40. Did you change this recipe? The instructions leave out a number of ingredients and I don’t recall having this problem before when I made it.

    Reply

  41. This cake recipe looks fantastic! Question: would it be possible to make a lyer cake version of this bundt cake? I was thinking of doing this for a birthday party. If so – what do you think the bake time and temperature would be? Thanks for your superb ideas.

    Reply

  42. The recipe states “remaining” sugar, and cinnamon and there is no previous mention of using them. I’m assuming some of it was added to the chopped apples? also the recipe states to add the brown to the white sugar but no amount is given in the ingredients section for brown sugar… altho I did read the recipe through, I’m up to that part and I’ll just guess at an amount of brown sugar…! FRUSTRATED…

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. […] 5 oz bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped, plus 2 oz bittersweet chocolate, cut into small slivers (I used Ghiradelli) 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cut into cubes 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Use something decent) 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 4 large eggs 4 large egg yolks 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup sour cream or greek yogurt Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter a Bundt pan. Place the 5 oz of the coarsely chopped chocolate, butter and vanilla in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, then microwave for an additional 30 seconds, stirring until smooth. Set aside. Whisk together 3/4 cup water and the cocoa powder in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly to avoid burning the cocoa. It will thicken up a bit. Remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Sift together the flour, baking soda and baking powder. Stir in the salt. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and yolks together for a few seconds to combine. Pour in the sugar and whip at high speed 5 to 6 minutes, until very pale yellow and thick enough to hold a ribbon when you lift the whisk away from the bowl. The ribbon should rest on the top of the mixture for about five seconds–that’s how you know it’s done. Meanwhile, add the coca powder mixture to the melted chocolate (using a rubber spatula to be sure to get all of the cocoa). For some reason, the chocolate seized at this point for me–not sure why, but it turned out fine. Gently fold in the melted chocolate and then the sour cream to the egg mixture. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the batter in thirds, being careful not to deflate it, but making sure to combine them well. Pour half the batter into the Bundt pan and sprinkle the chocolate slivers on top. Pour in the remaining batter and bake 25 minutes, until the cake is just set but still very moist. Cool for 30 minutes, and invert onto a plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce (recipe follows). Malibu Butterscotch Sauce Adapted from Baker by Nature […]

    Reply

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