Moist Vanilla Bundt Cake Recipe

This moist vanilla bundt cake has a tender crumb and golden crust. Covered in not one but two glazes, this vanilla bundt cake recipe ensures that this cake stays moist for days!

It's easier than ever to bake a vanilla bundt cake that rises up beautifully with a golden crust on the outside and releases well from the bundt cake pan. Since it stays fresh for up to 5 days while keeping it room temperature, this vanilla bundt cake is perfect to make a few days before your family comes to visit for the holidays!

Read on to learn everything you ever needed to know about making moist vanilla bundt cake! 

Vanilla Bundt Cake Ingredients

Buttermilk: Buttermilk is the magic ingredient to make any cake moist and delicious. If you do not have buttermilk, you can use one of my preferred buttermilk substitutes.

Vegetable oil: I use vegetable oil to keep my cakes moist like my red velvet cake and my pumpkin spice cake.

High-quality vanilla: I prefer the vanilla from Nielsen-Massey. Vanilla is very expensive, but when it's the only flavor in your cake, now is the time to use it. The better the vanilla quality, the better the cake will taste!

How to Make Vanilla Bundt Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (177ºC) and adjust the rack to the lower-middle of the oven so it's not too close to the top element.
2. Coat your bundt cake pan in a thin, even layer of cake goop or another pan release that contains flour. Oil sprays will not work and may cause your bundt cake to stick to the pan.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then, set it aside.
4. Next, using another medium-sized bowl, combine together your room temperature buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract and then set it aside.
5. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the room temperature butter on low speed until it's smooth using the paddle attachment.
6. Then, sprinkle in your sugar and cream it until it is light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl if needed.
7. While mixing on low, add in your room temperature eggs one at a time. Let them mix fully before you add the next egg.
8. Next, add in ⅓ of your flour mixture, and then ⅓ of your liquid mixture. Repeat this process two more times. Scrape the bowl as needed. Mix the ingredients just until they are combined. Do not over-mix.
9. Pour the batter (the batter will be thick) into your prepared bundt cake pan.
10. Bake the cake at 350ºF (177ºC) for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the deepest part of the cake comes out clean. My cake took exactly 47 minutes to bake.
11. Remove the cake from the oven, and let it cool for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack.

Make Your Own Simple Syrup Using These Steps

1. Place water and sugar in a medium-sized saucepan.
2. Then, heat the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
3. Once it's brought to a boil, remove the pan from heat.
4. Then, add in vanilla extract.
5. Let it cool.

Preparing the Vanilla Glaze

1. Sift powdered sugar into a medium-sized bowl.
2. Add in your buttermilk and extract and stir until it is smooth and creamy.
3. Then, add a couple of drops of white food coloring if you want your glaze to be more opaque.

Bundt Cake Decorating Instructions

1. When you first take the cake out of the oven, brush ⅓ of your simple syrup over the top of the cake.
2. Let it cool for 15 minutes.
3. Then, turn the cake over onto a cooling rack. I put my cake on a cardboard cake round to prevent sticking. Make sure the cooling rack is over a cookie sheet to catch any glaze drips.
4. Brush the cake all over with the simple syrup and then let it cool for 2 hours.
5. Drizzle your thick, vanilla cake glaze over the top of your cooled cake.
6. Once the glaze stops dripping, you can transfer the cake to a cake plate.
7. Keep your bundt cake covered with plastic wrap, or keep it at room temperature inside a cake dome to keep it from drying out. 

FAQ

Where did the bundt cake come from?

Bundt cakes are believed to have originated from Germany. They are similar to the Gugelhupf cakes from Europe which are made from a yeasted dough (usually with nuts and fruits) and baked in a decorative, tube-shaped pan. These cakes are usually taller and skinnier than a typical bundt cake. 

The word "bund" in German means "tied" or "bind," so one theory is that a "bund cake" is so named because it was served at social gatherings or for people that you were emotionally or socially tied to. 

When German immigrants came to America, they couldn't bring their Gugelhupf pans with them because they were made of cast iron or thick ceramic, and therefore they were too heavy to travel with. Today, bundt cake pans as we know them are a little lighter, shorter, and rounder than traditional Gugelhupf pans. 

In the 1940s, H. David Dalquist who co-founded the company Nordic Ware created an aluminum version of the traditional Gugelhupf pan. A "t" was added to the name bund for trademark reasons and thus the first "bundt cake pan" was born. And it flopped! No one was interested in buying them.  

Nordic Ware almost discontinued the pan due to a lack of interest. In 1966, Ella Helfrich took second place at the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and won $5,000 with her bundt cake recipe, the tunnel of fudge. This resulted in over 200,000 requests for the bundt cake pan from the public. Since then, over 60 million bundt cake pans have been sold, and it is the most sold pan in the USA. 

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