Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze is a perfect snack cake. The tangy-sweet buttermilk glaze forms an ultra-thin coating over the melt-in-your-mouth cake.
If you read my blog with any frequency, by now you know that buttermilk is one of my favorite ingredients. I use it in all sorts of recipes from mashed potatoes to scones.
But I absolutely love using buttermilk in cake batter, not only for the special flavor, but mostly for the tenderizing effect that the slightly acidic ingredient has on the cake crumb.
No other ingredient makes as soft and tender a cake as buttermilk does.
How to make the best Buttermilk Bundt Cake:
- Don’t be tempted to swap out yogurt or soured milk, it’s really not the same.
- If you don’t want to buy buttermilk because you don’t want left overs in the fridge (seriously though, use it in mashed potatoes. It will change your life!!) the best substitute is buttermilk powder.
- Use the reverse creaming method for a super-tender cake.
- If you’re interested in learning why I use this method for mixing butter cakes rather than the traditional “cream the butter and sugar” method, check out my Cake Batter Mixing Methods post (I’m talking to you, baking science geeks!).
- Add a full tablespoon of the best vanilla extract for the best vanilla flavor.
- Glaze the cake while it’s slightly warm so the glaze to set to a shiny finish.
- If you glaze the cake while it’s too warm the glaze will melt and if you glaze the completely cooled cake the glaze won’t set as nicely.
- If you keep a Sourdough Starter, you should definitely try my Sourdough Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze.
Scroll through the process photos to see how to make and glaze Buttermilk Bundt Cake:
Generously butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan before pouring in the batter. The cake can get stuck in the nooks if you don’t butter it well.
Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning it out onto the cooling rack.
Glaze the cake on a rack set over a clean sheet pan. Collect the run off from the sheet pan and re-glaze the cake until the entire surface is covered. Glaze the cake while it’s still slightly warm for the best finish.
The cake is delicious all by itself, but I love to serve it with fresh berries or seasonal fruit. I find it pairs especially well with apricots or peaches.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, I’d really appreciate a 5-star review.
Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze
Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Glaze is a perfect snack cake. The tangy-sweet buttermilk glaze forms an ultra-thin coating over the melt-in-your-mouth cake.
Ingredients
Buttermilk Cake
- 2 large eggs plus 2 yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup (8 oz, 240ml) buttermilk
- 2 1/2 cups (11.25 oz, 315g) cake flour
- 1 1/3 cups (11 oz, 308g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon table salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (6 oz, 168g) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 1" chunks
Buttermilk Glaze
- 2 cups (8 oz, 224g) confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 cup (2 oz, 60ml) buttermilk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan or using baking spray.
Make the batter
- Whisk together the eggs, yolks, vanilla and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk, set aside.
- Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixer bowl. Mix on low speed to combine the dry ingredients. Toss the chunks of butter into the flour mixture.
- Add the reserved 1/2 cup of buttermilk increase the speed to medium. Mix on medium high for 2 minutes to aerate the batter. Scrape the bowl.
- Add the eggs in 3 batches, scraping the bowl between each addition. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake until the cake springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
- Cool for 5 minutes in the pan. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack set over a clean sheet pan.
Make the Glaze
- Combine the sugar, vanilla and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the glaze over the still slightly warm cake. You can scoop up the glaze from the sheet pan and use it to fill in any gaps in the glaze.
- Cool completely and allow the glaze to set. Transfer to a serving plate.
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Cathy
Sunday 12th of February 2023
The recipe looks DIVINE and I love using buttermilk! One question - can AP flour be used or must it be cake flour? OR is there a way to convert AP flour into cake flour? I can't wait to try it! Thank you.
Cathy
Monday 13th of February 2023
@Eileen Gray, Thank you for the reply. I think I'll just spring for cake flour :) Since baking is such a science, I'd hate to risk ruining a cake. I'll let you know how it comes out. Thanks again.
Eileen Gray
Sunday 12th of February 2023
You can't just make a 1:1 swap for cake flour to ap flour. Ap flour will absorb more moisture and develop more gluten than cake flour and would make a heavy cake. It's not a perfect substitution, but for each cup of cake flour you can substitute ¾ cup of all-purpose flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of corn starch. For this recipe that would mean replacing the 2 1/2 cups of cake flour with 1.8 cups of ap flour (for simplicity you can measure 2 cups and remove 2 tablespoons of flour) and 5 tablespoons of corn starch.
Barb A. J.
Sunday 12th of February 2023
I’m so glad I found this recipe designed for a Bundt pan. I wanted to make your Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, but I sent you a message asking if I could bake it in a Bundt pan. Now I have this one that I was trying to find. Thanks !!!
Eileen Gray
Sunday 12th of February 2023
Lol, I just responded to your other question with a link to this recipe. Glad you found it.
Regine
Tuesday 13th of December 2022
I see you wrote 1 tbsp baking powder. Just making sure you did not mean 1 tsp baking powder as 1 tbsp is 3 tsp. Thanks. Waiting to hear from you before I make it.
Regine
Wednesday 14th of December 2022
@Eileen Gray, Thanks. I did make it and it looks good. But I have not yet tasted it. Will do later this evening after dinner. I will let you know. Thanks.
Eileen Gray
Wednesday 14th of December 2022
I mean 1 tablespoon. This is a big cake and fairly heavy batter. It needs the leavening from plenty of baking powder.
Jane Baker
Wednesday 27th of April 2022
This recipe helped me beat my sister. She's always bragging about her baking abilities. Thanks to this recipe she can't continue to put down others cooking.
Eileen Gray
Thursday 28th of April 2022
Lol.
Ulrike
Sunday 20th of February 2022
I adapted the recipe with German flour and European units. Great cake! Thanks for sharing