Glazed Donut Bundt Cake

there's a hole in this cake

The Powdered Donut Cake from my book Snacking Cakes was one of the most popular recipes I’ve ever written and I still get tagged in photos of it every week. It is a quick and easy one bowl affair covered in a thick blanket of snowy white powdered sugar that will surely get all over your shirt when you eat it but that’s part of the fun, you know? Just don’t take a deep breath when you have a slice close to your face.

But I got a bee in my bonnet about a slightly different version of that cake, baked in a bundt, and coated in thin, crackly glaze. I wanted to make something more substantial, maybe even a little bit dense, but in a good way. Most of the ingredients in this cake that’s big enough for a party of just about any size are the same as the original (lots of butter, nutmeg, and vanilla to flavor it.) The result is even more like a sliceable old fashioned donut than the original.

The batter is thick and lush and the baked cake has a golden brown crust with a fine and tight crumb, much more like a pound cake. This has mostly to do with the way the cake is mixed. We are going to temp our ingredients and bust out our electric mixers for this baby, and it’s worth the trouble.

The sugar and butter are beaten together until perfectly creamy which serves two purposes:

1. mechanical leveling: aka creating air and lift in the batter

2. It helps the sugar dissolve into the butter making a smooth and homogeneous batter which will bake evenly. The other liquid ingredients (eggs and sour cream) should also be room temperature which will ensure a smooth and emulsified batter.

The glaze also has a generous amount of vanilla and is applied in two stages. Once when the cake is warm, and once again when it is cool. This creates a thin and crackly coating just like the one at your favorite donut shop.

I have never had good luck with getting bundt cakes to come out of the pan cleanly with baking spray (I tried with this one and 1/2 of the cake was still in the pan when I tried to tip it out.) So, I turned to old faithful, a thin and even coat of softened butter and a light dusting of flour. It is bad baking luck to mess with other peoples’ bundt pan preparation preferences, so if you like to do something else to prepare your pan, go for it!

A note on pans: I’m sure some of you are big Nordicware fans like me and keen observers may notice that I baked this cake in the Nordicware Party Bundt pan, which has a 10-cup capacity. The batter just fit into the pan and did not overflow in the oven, but I suggest in the recipe that you use a larger pan or bake the extra batter in another pan if you’d like to use your Party Bundt.

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And finally…Any self respecting elder millennial knows you can’t make a bundt cake without quoting My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Glazed Donut Bundt Cake

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Glazed Donut Bundt Cake

Yield: 1 large bundt cake, 12-16 servings

Time: 90 minutes

Donut Bundt

1 cup/225 grams unsalted (or salted) butter softened but still cool

2 cups/400 grams granulated sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups/335 grams sour cream, at room temperature

2 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg, about 1 whole nutmeg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)

3 cups/380 grams all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Crackly Vanilla Glaze

1 1/2 cups/180 grams confectioners sugar 

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons milk

Big pinch kosher salt

1. Set a rack in the center of your oven and heat to 325ºF. Butter and flour a 12-16 cup bundt pan (see note above about pans), making sure to coat every nook and cranny with butter and flour to ensure that the cake doesn’t stick. 

2. In a medium bowl stir together the flour and baking powder. 

3. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Mix on low speed until the sugar is moistened, then turn the mixer to medium high and beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated before adding the next. The mixture may split a bit, but it will come back together when you add the rest of the ingredients. 

5. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add nutmeg, vanilla, and salt and mix on medium speed until combined.

6. Add the sour cream and flour mixture in three additions each, and mix on low speed until combined, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally to ensure there are no dry pockets. 

7. Transfer the batter to the pan and tap on the counter a few times to release any large air bubbles. Bake the cake until puffed, golden, and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, 60-70 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool.

8. While the cake is cooling, make the glaze. In a medium bowl, whisk the confectioners sugar, vanilla, 2 tablespoons milk, and salt together until smooth. The glaze should be the texture of runny honey. If it is too thick add a bit more milk. If it’s too thin add a bit more confectioners sugar. 

9. Let the cake cool in the pan set on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then invert it onto the rack. 

10. Use a pastry brush to brush the warm cake with glaze. Then let the cake cool completely and brush the rest of the glaze over the top. Let the glaze set for 20 minutes before slicing.