Cream Cheese Swirled Apple Cake

This Cream Cheese Swirled Apple Cake is a soft, buttery, apple cake, swirled with rich cream cheese filling that will quickly become a fall favorite in your house!

I have partnered on with Challenge Dairy on this recipe. I have used Challenge Butter for years and I love their products. All opinions are my own.

So here we are, fall is upon on! This summer was such a strange one here in NJ. It felt like it rained 80% of the time, so we never really got to enjoy a lot of beach days or summer sun. I usually try and hang onto every last minute of summer, but this year I was glad to see it go. By mid-August I was fully ready for all things fall. And here we are!

MY OTHER RECIPES

Apples are, of course, readily available all year long at your local supermarket, but I just love when it’s apple season and they are plentiful. I haven’t been able to talk my boys into going apple picking with me the last few years, but I think this year I’m not giving them the choice! Get ready boys, we’re about to apple EVERYTHING!

This cream cheese filled apple bundt cake is actually a spin on an older recipe I have here on my blog, my Apple Cake with Browned Butter Frosting, which is a great one. But since I can’t leave well enough alone, I decided…wouldn’t it be even better filled with a rich cream cheese layer? I don’t think you’ll disagree.

This apple cake is made in a bundt pan, so make sure that you coat the pan with nonstick baking spray or grease the pan liberally with butter. The last thing you want to do is make an entire cake only to have it stick to the sides of the pan! I use AND LOVE this bundt pan if you’re interested!

And I partnered with my longtime friends over at Challenge Dairy on this recipe, which is always a fun thing to do! If you have been a reader for any length of time, you know that I am a HUGE fan of Challenge and have worked with them for many years. Challenge Butter is so fresh, you can taste the difference. They are the only dairy company that controls the whole process from milking the cows, to transporting milk, to packaging the product. And they use milk that has not been treated with the growth hormone rbST, which is very important to my family and me.

While I love their butter, I also really enjoy their cream cheese as well…they use real milk, cream, and natural ingredients, which truly make it a quality product. Challenge Butter and Cream Cheese are both made the old-fashioned way, from the freshest milk and cream from happy cows at family-owned dairies.

The cake batter comes together very easily, and the cream cheese filling is very simple. You will have this cake in the oven in about 20 minutes!

And really, you can’t forget a heavy-handed sprinkle of powdered sugar!

This is really such a great cake to enjoy with coffee in the morning, or as dessert after dinner.

Bring on all the fall recipes!

Print

Cream Cheese Swirled Apple Cake

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Ingredients

Cheesecake Filling:

• 8 ounces Challenge Cream Cheese, room temperature
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons flour

Cake

• 1 cup Challenge Butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 3 cups chopped Granny Smith apples (3 small)

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Instructions

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Generally grease a bundt pan with butter or shortening, or alternately coat liberally with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. Prepare your cheesecake filling in the bowl of your stand mixer
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle mix the cream cheese and sugar together on medium speed for 1 minute until combined. Add in the vanilla, egg and flour and mix for 30-45 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary until smooth. Transfer this mixture to another bowl and set aside.
4. Prepare the cake batter in the same bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed for 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Add in the eggs, vanilla, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and continue mixing for 1 minute until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
6. Turn the mixer to low and mix in the flour until just combined.
7. Stir in the apples until evenly incorporated.
8. Spread half of the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Make a well in the middle of the batter for the cheesecake filling.
9. Carefully spoon the cheesecake filling into the batter, trying your best not to let the cheesecake mixture touch the sides of the pan.
10. Spoon the remaining cake batter onto the cheesecake filling and spread gently to cover the cheesecake filling.
11. Bake for 55 – 60 minutes.
12. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes and then flip the pan onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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