This Vegan Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake is all about fall! Spicy, sweet, filled with apples and pumpkin, and dripping with a date caramel topping. It’s *plant-based, vegan – so dairy and egg free; and good enough to take along to a party! (This recipe may contain affiliate links. Clicking on these links may earn Veggie Fun Kitchen compensation at no additional cost to you.)
Start by mixing up your dry ingredients and wet ingredients in separate bowls.
Have the apples chopped and ready to go. You will use two apples in this recipe. I always use two different kinds for flavor variety – usually a Granny 
Smith and then a sweeter red or yellow. Peel and chop into small bite-sized pieces.
After you mix your dry and wet ingredients together with a mixer for a few minutes, fold in the chopped apples and chopped pecans. Pour evenly into a prepared bundt cake pan.
You know that “prepared’ means to use a fat (I use vegetable shortening) and flour – right? But did you know that the “grease” or fat is the important part and that you only add flour so that you can easily check to make sure that you thoroughly greased the pan? It’s super easy to miss a spot in the pan when greasing. Flouring the pan after greasing allows you to see any spots you might have missed. That’s right – after greasing your pan, add the flour, shake around and then dump the excess. Wiggle around in the light to check for shiny spots where the flour didn’t stick. Those are the spots that didn’t get enough grease. Re-grease!
Put your cake in the oven for about an hour, checking to make sure it’s slightly pulled away from the edge when done. Set the pan on a cooling rack for about ten minutes or until you are able to handle and gently turn onto the serving plate.
While your cake is cooking, you can make your date caramel sauce. I originally found this Date Caramel recipe on Shane & Simple (shaneandsimple.com. All of his recipes are vegan and plant-based and contain a minimal number of ingredients (and honestly, pretty fabulous). The date caramel sauce is delicious and easy to make. I’ve poured it warm over ice cream (vegan of course!) and honestly just eaten with a spoon lol. It makes a perfect topping for the Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake because the cake itself is not super sweet and so it does need a sweet topping to accompany it.
Use 18 pitted Medjool Dates. Soak the pitted dates in hot water for about 30 minutes while the cake is cooking. Simply drain and blend in a high speed blender along with almond milk, vanilla, and a little salt. The original recipe calls for only 1/2 cup plant milk. I doubled the milk to make it easier to drizzle. Here is a trick I use to get the caramel sauce to look “drizzled” and not glopped on: I put it in a pastry bag and simply squeeze it out where I want it to go. 
Top with chopped pecans and some golden sugar sprinkles for fun, and this cake is ready to go!
It’s delicious served warm or cold with a nice cup of coffee or tea. 
Sometimes for fun, I’ll go ahead and put the extra date caramel sauce in the middle so we can scoop some extra on to the plate. Yum!
*SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE OIL: Yes, I said this recipe is plant-based, even though it does contain oil. When I first developed the recipe, I made it without oil. It’s perfectly fine that way. It’s plenty moist from the pumpkin and apples and doesn’t really need it for moisture – BUT – and I’m being honest here…it is improved by adding the oil. The texture is just better. When I make this cake, I make it to take and share – not just consume myself. I already feel judged for bringing all the “crazy” vegan food along to events so yes, when making this recipe to take and share and present as FABULOUS vegan food, I do add the oil. When making it to feed my family I simply leave it out. It’s fine! The choice is yours:)
Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake (Vegan)
This Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake is vegan and plant-based. It has all the flavors of fall with chopped apples, pumpkin, maple syrup, pecans, and topped with a date-caramel sauce. Serve warm or cold with coffee or tea.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 Tablespoon baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Wet Ingredients
- 1 15 ounce can solid pumpkin NOT premixed pumpkin pie filling
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 2/3 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
Other Cake Ingredients
- 2 apples, skinned and chopped I use 2 different kinds for variety
- 1/2 cup pecans
Date- Caramel Sauce
- 18 Medjool dates pitted and soaked in hot water
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
Bundt Cake
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Preheat oven to 350° and grease and flour your bundt pan. Set aside.
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Mix all wet and dry ingredients together in separate bowls
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Add dry ingredients at once to wet ingredients and mix together using a mixer for about 4 minutes or until smooth.
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Peal and chop apples into small pieces and fold into cake along with pecans.
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Put in 350° oven for about an hour or until sides are pulling away.
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Take out of oven and allow to cool slightly before turning onto serving plate.
Date-Caramel Sauce
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While the cake is cooking you can prepare the date-caramel sauce. Pit 18 Medjool dates and soak in very hot water for about 30 minutes or until very soft and almost mushy.
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Drain water and put into high-speed blender along with almond milk, vanilla, and sea salt.
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Blend on high for about 3 minutes until all in smooth and fully incorporated into a "caramel sauce".
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Put in a pastry bag to artfully drizzle on top of cake. Add pecans to garnish and a chunky sugar if desired. I found a pretty gold sugar by Wilton.
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Serve warm or cold.
Recipe Notes
Please see special note about the oil in the post at the end. For a truly "pant-based" recipe, one doesn't use oil. You can leave it out and it will still be moist and delicious. It honestly is better with the oil though so as this is a "make and take" type of recipe, I included it this time. The choice is yours.
If you want more great pumpkin recipes, click on the following links! Every month through Food Party Extravaganza, I’ll bring you more awesome recipes from around the web!
- No-Bake Pumpkin Cookies from Caroline’s Cooking
- Butter Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Vega Malaysian Red Pumpkin from Sneha’s Recipe
- Pumpkin Saffron Rice from Palatable Pastime
- Roasted Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin Fries from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Low-Carb Pumpkin Pecan Scones with Cinnamon Glaze from Reviews, Chews & How-Tos
- Chicken, Pumpkin & Bean Enchiladas from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
- Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake (Vegan) from Veggie Fun Kitchen
- Coconut Curry Roast Pumpkins from Food Lust People Love
- DIY Pumpkin Spice Latte with Almond Milk from Hardly a Goddess
- 15 Minute Ravioli with Pumpkin Cream Sauce from Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
I guess I’m really vegan ignorant. Is vegetable oil not plant based. I do use olive oil when cooking for my friends who are vegan. Is that a no no? Oh, and your cake looks luscious, by the way.
Hi – I’m glad you asked the question! Oil is definitely vegan. I consider myself a whole food plant based vegan and this is where it gets a little tricky. The terms “plant-based” and “vegan” have one very huge thing in common: they both exclude animal products. There are differences though. For example, most vegans will not eat honey whereas plant-based eaters might. Vegan is more of a lifestyle which includes the food choices but also includes not wearing or purchasing or participating in events that use animals; while plant-based eaters might use animal products or participate in animal-use events. Plant-based eaters limit, as much as possible, processed foods that a vegan-eater might find acceptable. A great example of this would be potato chips -vs- a baked potato. A potato chip would be okay with a vegan but not a plant-based eater – they would eat a baked potato instead. So oil, which is considered to be totally processed and stripped of it’s useful plant properties would not be as acceptable to a whole-food plant-based eater. Recipes on this blog are both vegan and plant-based. Any time there are exceptions I point it out and allow the user to decide it if fits within their eating philosophy. Hope this answered the question. Again, thanks for asking and I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Looks wonderful dripping with caramel. I think October should be called caramel month. Paired with pumpkin, it’s the best!
Thanks! Caramel is tricky if you are trying to go vegan. You can do a caramel with coconut cream (which I’m working on), but this is a wonderful no fat and natural sweetener (the dates) alternative.
Fabulous way to combine two fall favorites. Sounds amazing.
I hope you enjoy!
This looks like such a delicious mix, especially with that caramel on top! I am a big fan of baking with dates, and apple and pumpkin are always good too.
Thanks! It seemed like the perfect fall trifecta!
Oh yum – I am so interested in trying this, especially the date caramel!
I hope you enjoy it!
I love the medjool dates sauce- looks so good!