All-in-One Holiday Bundt Cake Recipe (2024)

I buttered the heck out of my bundt pan (and floured it) - no stick. Had frozen cranberries that I chopped up, and minced crystallized ginger. I decreased the white sugar to 3/4 C and might go to 2/3 C next time. Love the idea of bittersweet choc that someone else did. I'll be sure to make again.

Definitely use raw, fresh cranberries, and I happened to have a quarter of a bag of dark chocolate Ghiradelli chips left over from another recipe so I threw those in too. The tart cranberries and the chocolate together is delicious. My bundt pan is teflon, but I still buttered as directed and had no problem with sticking.

Baking directly on the oven rack (no tray under the pan) allows for the flow of hot air through the tube avoiding undercooked cake around the ring

Anything you can bake in a bundt pan can be baked in a couple of loaf pans. Baking times are always different oven to oven. I start checking at 40 minutes, probably way too early. Lily, an earlier commenter, baked hers in two 8" cake pans for 45 minutes, which is a good reference.

This was delicious. Unfortunately, my brother's dog thought so too and we lost about a quarter of it to him. : )

This cake is definitely a winner! As suggested, absolutely double the cranberries, use fresh ginger, and add the bittersweet chocolate chips. I melted a tablespoon of butter, mixed in a tablespoon of flour and painted the mixture onto my bundt pan. The baked cake slipped out of the pan without a crumb left behind. I brought the cake to a Christmas dinner and everyone groaned, thinking it was a fruitcake. I later graciously accepted their apologies as I refereed who would get the last piece.

I added an overripe persimmon, cut the white sugar to 2/3c and shredded the apple with the skin on. Excellent! A big hit.

Don't put a baking sheet (cookie sheet) under it like some folks do while baking things that might rise too much and spill over. I do this sometimes so I don't have to clean black burnt bits off the bottom of the oven.

This is a very tasty cake but I had a problem. I used the convection feature to bake and while it's not a true convection it does help things bake more evenly and often much faster than the recipe calls for. At 40 minutes the toothpick came out quite clean in several spots (I inserted it deeply into the highest points). But it turned out the cake was quite under done around the inner most "ring". Done everywhere else but really soggy there. Advise testing there as well.

I'm always deeply suspicious that my bundt pan is going to claim half my cake. Use lots more cooking spray than you think you'll ever use, or butter the heck out of the pan, using lots more butter than you can imagine you'll need. I prefer the cooking spray as it hasn't let me down.

I make this every year sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Always a crowd pleaser.

King Arthur sells an "ever-bake Vegetable Oil Food Release". Nothing sticks when it is used even in the most intricate of bundt pans.

For even more maple flavor, use maple sugar (available from King Arthur Flour or Vermont Country Store) in place of a tablespoon of the powdered sugar.

Has anyone made this cake in mini loaf pans for holiday gifts? If so, what is the baking time? Thank you.

This is a fabulous cake - we have it every Christmas Eve.

Out of ginger, I reduced the sugar a bit and added 1/4 cup of minced crystallized ginger - it added a nice zip. And yes to the dark chocolate chips.

I did use the chocolate chips, but next time I would leave out the pecans; they seemed like a distraction. I would also make a bit more of the maple glaze - it seemed to nicely tie together all of the other flavors.

I had 3 very ripe Hachiya persimmons and substituted the pulp, whirled in a blender with the 1/2 tsp. soda, for the pumpkin puree. It was fantastic!

This is such a good cake! Light, moist, so many flavors! This is going into permanent rotation at my house. I used walnuts since I didn't have any pecans. Delicious.

Made this exactly as written (plus optional chocolate chips) for Thanksgiving dinner guests to take home a wedge for breakfast Friday morning. Came out beautifully, and did, indeed, make for a delicious breakfast. When I make it again, I might use fewer chips or mini chips so that the chocolate would be better distributed/less dominant. Overall, a wonderful cake.

This cake is perfect as written. Thank you!

Very nice cake for the holiday season. I made it for a Halloween party and it got good feedback. I found the flavors to be mild overall so I will add a bit more ginger next time. I used 2/3 cup of white sugar instead of 1 cup, and only 8 Tbls of butter as that's what I had, and 8 1/2 oz of dry weight APF. My cake was done at 60 minutes and released out of the bundt pan very easily.

Paint pan with melted butter mixed with flour. 1/2 C white sugar and 1/4C brown sugar. Crystallized, fresh & ground ginger. Double nuts and grind them. Double fresh cranberries. Add ground allspice and clove. Add a persimmon if you have one. Grate apple.

If I make this cake in say, February and there are no fresh cranberries in the grocery store…what would work as a substitute?

Such great flavor. However, like some others, had a very difficult time getting to bake through. Even after 90 minutes, it was 'claggy' in the middle (though the tester came out clean) and there isn't enough butter in the world to get this to glide out of my Nordicware bundt pan. most of the cake broke away and stuck to the pan. If I try this again, I'll do in two loaf pans as some have suggested.

Good recipe but I didn’t put enough spice into it. I used fresh ginger and fresh cranberries, but next time I’d add more allspice and cinnamon and add powdered ginger as well. And more cranberries for that matter. Also liked previous comments about less white sugar and apple with skin on.

Just made this fresh out of the oven and love it!! The flavor of the apple and cranberries is such a nice tart balance to the sweetness of the cake. I made my own date paste and subbed 1:1 for the sugar. No need for a topping.

Agreed with Kat. Not a showstopper. Very pleasant. Good breakfast cake. That’s it

To make sure my cake comes cleanly out of the Bundt pan, I melt some butter and add a little flour to make a thin paste. I then paint the inside of the pan with this mixture. The brush gets into the troublesome nooks and the opaqueness of the paste ensures that I don’t miss a spot. I learned this trick from Cooks Illustrated

We're really confused by the online love for this recipe, as I very optimistically baked it for the first time and brought it to a large Thanksgiving gathering. Everyone thought it was just "okay". We had to double the icing ingredients to make enough to cover it. We also (thank god) had decided to make candied peel and add it on top- which is what really saved this desert. The citrus added a distinct flavor to an otherwise very muddled bake.