Vanilla Bundt Cake

Name: Vanilla Bundt Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 105 min
Ingredients: 1 cup salted butter (at room temperature); 3 cups granulated sugar; 6 whole eggs (at room temperature); 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 3 cups all purpose flour; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1 cup sour cream; powdered sugar (for garnish)

5 from 1 vote

3 comments

December 21, 2021

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This is a basic (but delicious!) Vanilla Bundt Cake Recipe. It’s a moist and tender butter and sour cream based batter that is delicious as a stand alone dessert with just a little powdered sugar or with some whipped cream and berries. So simple, but certainly a show stopper. Kind of like a cross between my Vanilla Cake and my Lemon Pound Cake, minus the lemon.

What is the Difference Between a Bundt Cake and a Pound Cake?

So, this is an interesting question to answer because lots of different cake batters can be baked in a bundt cake pan, thus making it a ‘bundt cake’, pound cake included. Traditional pound cake is made with butter, sugar, eggs and flour. This is more of a sturdier and extra moist sour cream pound cake.

What Can I Expect From This Bundt Cake Recipe?

This recipe only calls for 8 main ingredients: butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla, sour cream, all purpose flour, salt and baking soda. If you use good quality ingredients, the simplicity will shine through. This baked bundt cake recipe is:

moist and slightly dense
lightly sweet with a vanilla taste
delicious on its own or paired with fresh fruit

How to Make This Bundt Cake Recipe

Grease Bundt Pan

This might be one of the most important steps in making this cake. You can’t really enjoy your bundt cake it if you can’t get it out of the darn pan. Grease a 10-cup bundt pan well with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Can I Use Butter to Grease My Pan?

While butter in theory would work, I find you can never quite get it in all the nooks and crannies, making your cake more likely to stick. It just never works quite as well as cooking spray. If you solemnly swear to use plenty of butter and take your time coating the pan well, then yes, go ahead and use butter. But I stand by my recommendation of cooking spray.

Cream Butter and Sugar

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together for a solid 7 minutes. There’s a lot of sugar compared to the butter so it won’t cream completely like it would for a cookie dough, however, getting that butter and sugar smooth before adding in the eggs is key to a smooth bundt cake batter.

Add in Eggs, One at a Time

With the mixer on low, stir in the eggs one at a time until the batter is light and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix again another 2 minutes until light and fluffy.

Alternate Flour and Sour Cream

Stir in about half of the flour, baking soda and the salt until just combined. Add in the sour cream and stir again. Finish with the last of the flour and finish stirring until just combined. Finish off the batter by scraping the sides and bottom of the mixer and stirring it by hand to ensure a completely smooth batter.

Bake

Pour the batter into the greased bundt pan evenly and smooth the top. Bake 75-90 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15-20 minutes before inverting the cake pan and releasing the cake from the bundt pan.

Top the Cake with powdered sugar and serve with any desired toppings.

When to Invert your Bundt Cake

There is a window of opportunity to get your cake out of its pan in one beautiful cake (as long as you’ve greased it well.) You don’t want to cool the cake completely in the bundt pan (will be hard to release from the edges) and you don’t want it to be piping hot either (cake will be too tender to come out in one piece) so a good rule of thumb is you want the cake pan to still be warm but not hot enough that you can’t handle it with your bare hands. That is a great time to release the cake from the pan.

Favorite Toppings

In my photos I obviously chose some homemade whipped cream and fresh raspberries (which was delicious!) but here are a few more options:

Vanilla Ice Cream
Fresh Sliced Strawberries
Spread with Nutella
Lemon curd
Berry Jam

Storing Options

Because this is a nice thick cake, as long as it’s wrapped well with plastic wrap, it should last 3-4 days at room temperature. Of course, the longer it sits, the more likely it is to dry out, but nothing that a little whipped cream or ice cream can’t fix.

To freeze, wrap in several layers of plastic wrap and foil or place into an airtight zip top bag with as much air removed as possible. Freeze for up to 3 months. Freeze in individual slices or as a whole cake.

slice of bundt cake with cream and raspberries

Other Cake Recipes You Will Love:

So there you have my classic Vanilla Bundt Cake Recipe! I hope you love it as much as we all did! Save, bookmark, print, pin or share this recipe because you’re not going to want to lose this family favorite. Have a great day!

5 from 1 vote