You know bundt cakes by their signature ring shape with a hole in the middle — they almost look like giant cake doughnuts. What you might not know, however, is just how versatile they can be (and the best bundt pan to use). We've tested plenty of variations on the classic cake, from a coconut chiffon recipe with coconut frosting to an indulgent, rich porter bundt with whiskey-caramel sauce. Here's our crave-inducing collection of apple, carrot, chocolate, parsnip, and lemon bundt cake recipes plus coconut, ganache, grape, and cola-flavored glazes, fillings, and frostings.
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Carrot and Orange Cake with Sour Cream Glaze
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This carrot cake from cookbook author Nik Sharma is something special. "Chopped pieces of dried apricots and candied orange peels give each slice of cake a spot of unexpected fruit sweetness, while the pistachios add texture to the soft cake," he says. "Serve it with a cup of warm tea or coffee to complete the experience."
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Porter Bundt Cake with Whiskey-Caramel Sauce
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This richly flavored cake features quintessential Irish ingredients such as dark porter beer, dark brown sugar, and whiskey.
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03of 20
Strawberry-Honey Cake with Sour Whipped Cream
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This floral, honey-inflected strawberry cake from chef Eli Dahlin is his springy take on a sticky toffee pudding. The more holes you poke in the cake, the more the honey syrup will penetrate every last bite.
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Coconut Chiffon Bundt Cake with Coconut Frosting
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Chef Joanne Chang is a master of all kinds of desserts, from elegant French to homespun American like this classic coconut bundt cake.
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Double-Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Glaze
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Many bundt cakes are heavy and buttery, but this one is surprisingly light and incredibly moist under its silky chocolate glaze. Strong-brewed coffee in the batter intensifies the chocolate flavor while cutting the sweetness.
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Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze
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This is the ultimate buttermilk bundt cake, nicely browned on the outside, with a soft, tender crumb.
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Applesauce-Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
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Former F&W editor Kristin Donnelly is devoted to her mother's one-bowl bundt cake because of its clove and cinnamon spices and simplicity. As an exchange student in France, she even paid top dollar for chocolate chips and applesauce at an American market to make it for her host family. Today she adds a kick of black pepper to the batter and serves each slice with a cool-sour dollop of crème fraïche.
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Spiced Upside-Down Apple Bundt Cake
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David Guas, co-author of the cookbook DamGoodSweet, tops his apple bundt cake with a nicely salty streusel of pecans and toasted rolled oats. He bakes the streusel on its own to make it extraordinarily crisp, then pats it over the warm cake right out of the oven.
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Cocoa Cola Bundt Cake
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Traditional Coca-Cola cake, a staple of the American South, usually comes in the form of a chocolate sheet cake that's doused in a gooey glaze. In her modern-day version, cookbook author Vallery Lomas flips tradition on its head by making a cola-flavored cake with cola-flavored icing. She adds warming spices into the cake, like cinnamon and nutmeg, along with a dash of both orange and lemon zest, deepening the cake's chocolatey, cola-y flavor.
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Sicilian Orange Bundt Cake
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This light cake is something Sicilian grandmothers often serve for tea; at Rocca delle Tre Contrade in Sicily, guests snack on it all day long. For a tender cake with a light texture, be careful not to overmix the flour into the batter.
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Philly Fluff Cake
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A Philly Fluff Cake, despite the name, is dense, moist, and tender, with rich swirls of bittersweet chocolate and a well-browned, sugary crisp exterior. It's more similar to a pound cake than a fluffy cake; a generous portion of cream cheese in the batter lends the cake a gentle tang, perhaps offering a clue to half of its name. A mixture of canola oil and butter stands in for traditional shortening, still giving the cake a pleasant moisture while adding delicious buttery flavor.
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Moscato Pound Cake with Grape Glaze
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Moscato gives this cake a lighter, more tender crumb than a typical pound cake while imparting a subtle sweetness. Freeze-dried grapes bring vibrant color to the glaze. If you like, you can substitute lime juice in place of Moscato in the glaze for a brighter pink color.
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Deep Dark Chocolate Coconut Cake
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This dense chocolate bundt cake contains a hidden ring of sweet coconut filling. To finish, it's topped with layers of cocoa glaze to lock in rich flavor and a moist texture.
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Tortuga Rum Cake
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Clear Flour Bread in Brookline, Massachusetts, makes this spectacular rum-soaked cake with almond flour for a moist, delicate crumb and lovely aroma. Be sure to pour the rum syrup over the top while the cake is still warm so the syrup is fully absorbed.
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Lemon Bundt Cake
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When Matt Lewis became a baker, he started a quest to re-create the lemon bundt cakes of his youth. After "a million different versions," he says, he achieved lemon cake bliss, using the zest of 10 lemons and a little lemon extract to get the flavor just right. The cake has a moist crumb (thanks to a lemony syrup brushed over the top) and a crackling, sugary glaze.
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Flambéed Candied Chestnut Cake
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This rich cake from 2017 F&W Best New Chef Angie Mar is delicious served with a dollop of crème fraîche or, as they served it at The Beatrice Inn in New York City, with a scoop of white truffle ice cream and shaved white truffles.
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Brown Butter, Radicchio, and Parsnip Cake
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With warm spiciness from nutmeg, a satisfyingly crunchy top, and beautiful flecks of parsnip and radicchio, this bundt cake makes the case for being served at either breakfast or dessert — and the leftovers taste even better the next day.
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Chocolate-Red Wine Cake
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A recipe in Anne Willan's 2001 Cooking with Wine inspired this fluffy, not-too-sweet cake, which uses just enough wine in the batter to give it a slight boozy flavor.
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Apple and Olive Oil Bundt Cake
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At Coyle’s Bakeshop in Seattle, chef-owner Rachael Coyle always keeps a bundt cake or two in the case. This autumnal version, an adaptation of an Italian apple cake, is moist and light, fragrant with freshly ground spices and studded with chunks of fruit. In the spring, substitute fresh rhubarb for the apples.
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Lemon and Orange-Glazed Pound Cake
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Bill Bowick, the original owner of Charleston's Sugar Bakeshop, created this impressive recipe to use the treasured bundt cake pan that milliner Leigh Magar got from her great-grandmother. Leigh served the cake at her grandmother's 92nd birthday party.
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