Apple cider doughnut cake

[IowaGirl]

There are many apple orchards in southwestern Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa. A favorite fall pilgrimage is to drive up into the "coulees" (valleys) to visit one or more orchards and admire the fall colors. Cider, apples, baked goods, jellies, jams, and other treats fly out of the orchards' shops and into people's bellies.

Sunrise Orchard near Gays Mills, Wisconsin, makes their famous apple cider doughnuts while visitors watch. The centerpiece of the operation is a huge, ancient "Rube Goldberg" apple peeler that denudes apples at a furious rate. It's so much fun to watch the staff make the sinkers, dust them lavishly with cinnamon sugar, and then buy the doughnuts still warm from the kitchen. Yum.

Anyway, I've been looking for a cake that tastes similar to the doughnuts. There's scads of them out there, and they all seem a little different. A couple that look promising are --

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...ke-recipe.html
https://www.thekitchn.com/apple-cide...ecipe-23079008

Edit -- And here's another serious contender -- https://whiskitrealgud.com/apple-cid...cake-one-bowl/

Can anyone recommend a favorite recipe that they've made and really liked? I'd be grateful for your help!

[rickgregory]

I can't recommend one but like there, we get tons of apples here and I really want to try this.

[RonB]

When our son was young, we used to drive up to the mountains near Charlottesville VA to pick apples and the place we went also sold hot apple cider donuts. The problem was that we also wanted to stop at historical Michie Tavern for lunch. The tavern had a historically accurate late 1700s meal served as a buffet with fried chicken as the main course. It makes my mouth water just to think about it...

It didn't matter where you went first, you were always full when you left and had trouble piggin' out at the other place...

[IowaGirl]

Sounds like a fun problem to have!

We bought a dozen donuts warm from the fryer and froze them. 30 seconds in the microwave thaws a couple of these sinkers just about right. Paired with a cup of hot coffee, it's heaven.

[Dadof3Illinois]

I wish I had it but my grand mother would make a really dense spice cake using apple sauce and cider. I’ll look through my old recipes and see if it’s somewhere in there.