The Boozy Apple Cinnamon Sourdough Bundt

Back in 2011, I made my first original recipe cake in observation of National Bundt Day, and it is now the longest creative streak I’ve maintained in my life.
It almost ended in 2015, when I baked my cake two days late and didn’t post about it until March 2017. It might have ended several other times, if not for Facebook memories showing me posts along the lines of “holy shit I have to bake a cake in (very small number of) days and I just…?!” and reminding me that it was almost November 15.

There are years when my mindset is “YAY CAKE!” and years when it’s “oh. cake time.” and very little in between. What keeps me baking during the latter is the hope that the following year will be one of the former.

This year, honestly, if the results weren’t edible I might not have bothered. But I did. And it was delicious. I didn’t get as many photos of the process as I typically do, for a few of reasons. One was my moderate detachment from the whole process and focus only on the results. One was this is a really straightforward cake and most of the steps don’t require illustration. One was that it was a really heavy and hectic time in our household and I just wanted to get the cake in the oven as quickly as possible

BEFORE YOU START

For this particular cake, I used Lucy Glo apples and a honey bourbon cream liquor for the cake, apple bourbon for the glaze, and was not at all shy about cinnamon. The result of that combination was a not-too-sweet spice cake with a floral undertone from the honey liqueur. But as I was baking, I pondered other slight variations and I’m pretty sure I’ll do another version of this cake with a salted caramel lean very soon.

So for the apples, pretty much any apple will work, just keep in mind the sweetness level as it will interact with your other ingredient choices.

The honey bourbon cream liqueur I used was a random Grocery Outlet find so if you can find something similar, great. If not, you can substitute another cream liqueur, use 2 tablespoons of bourbon + plant or dairy milk to equal 1/2 cup, or if you’re not a booze in your cake person, use all plant or dairy milk. For the glaze, same thing, substitute pretty much any whiskey or brandy or rum you want, or just use all plant or dairy milk.

THE BOOZY APPLE CINNAMON SOURDOUGH BUNDT

FOR THE CAKE

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
4 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup honey bourbon cream liqueur
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

FOR THE GLAZE

2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp apple bourbon
2 tbsp oat milk

MAKE THE CAKE

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Grease/spray and flour a 10-cup Bundt pan. I used the Nordic Ware Heritage pan gifted to me by my beautiful friend Chimi after I was lamenting last year that my previous Bundt cake would have been so much better if I had that pan and I SWEAR that was not intended to be a hint but she’s just so sweet like that. If you have a similar pan, it will work really well for this cake because it holds the apple slices in place, but any 10-cup pan will work, just make sure when the time comes to spoon the first bit of your batter carefully into the pan so you don’t dislodge your apple slices.

Peel and core your apples, and slice them about 1/8″ thick.

Place them in the pan to create a nice decorative pattern. You’ll probably have some left (I had about a third of a cup), so chop them up to fold into the batter later.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on med-high speed until thoroughly combined and slightly grainy looking.

Add eggs, mix on med-high until light and fluffy, about a minute.

Add sourdough starter, cream liqueur, and vanilla, mix on medium speed until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, until well combined and lump-free.

With mixer on low, slowly add dry ingredients to wet, and mix just until combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, and fold in the chopped apple.

Being very careful to not dislodge your oh-so-carefully-placed apple slices, spoon/pour your batter into the pan.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until top is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for about 15 minutes before turning it out

to cool the rest of the way while you

MAKE THE GLAZE

STEP ONE: Do not do what I did at first which was say “meh I don’t really feel like having that much glaze on the cake because I want the apples to really come through” and then think that you can somehow use the same amount of liquid but only half the powdered sugar? and that will somehow only just make less glaze? which is not how science works? so you will end up having to relocate your cake from the cake plate to pour most of your very loose glaze back into the bowl to add more powdered sugar to make it a proper glaze consistency?

As previously mentioned, it was a very heavy and hectic time in our household and in hindsight I’m grateful that was the worst mistake I made with this cake.

STEP TWO: Make your glaze properly by combining the proper amounts of all the ingredients in a small bowl and whisking until smooth. Pour over the cake while it’s still warm.

Those of you keeping score at home may recall that I had acquired a pretty new cake plate early in 2023 that I had every intention of using for my November 2023 cake except when the time came I couldn’t remember where I had stored it. That has not changed, I looked everywhere I could imagine storing a cake plate to no avail. But thankfully I also have this one, which is pretty clever and converts to not only a chip & dip set but a punchbowl.

(A note about links: None of these are affiliate links, I receive absolutely no compensation should you make any purchases via the links in this post. The peeler and cake plate are items I received through the Amazon Vine program, and the Bundt pan is just an amazing pan.)

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