Eggnog Bundt Cake

This rum-spiked Eggnog Bundt cake gets an extra flavor boost from the addition of eggnog, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It's a perfect cake for the holidays when the stores are filled with eggnog. It's a great cake to serve at holiday dinners or bring to a party. And it's another way to get your eggnog fix.

A true, but not surprising confession is that I love eggnog. It's a rich drink that's made delicious with nutmeg and if serving it at a party you can top it with whipped cream for true decadence. One of my favorite ways to enjoy eggnog is to mix with orange juice. To me, it tastes like an orange creamsicle which was one of my favorite ice cream bars when I was growing up. Anyway onto the baking a delicious eggnog bundt cake.

Eggnog Bundt Cake

This recipe is based on my aunt's Lemon Bundt Cake recipe. That recipe comes out perfect every time, so some of the techniques I use for that cake I also used for this cake.

For this cake, I used eggnog instead of just cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum. The eggnog replaces the sour cream or buttermilk I usually use in bundt cakes, but since the eggnog also has sugar I needed to reduce the amount of sugar, but the question was by how much. The label on the eggnog said that 1/2 cup of eggnog contained 20 grams of sugar. This recipe uses 1 cup of eggnog, so that meant I would be adding 40 grams of sugar to the cake just from the eggnog. Since 1/4 cup of sugar weighs 50 grams, I reduced the amount of sugar I normally use in my bundt cake recipes by 1/4 cup. The cake came out perfectly, not too sweet, but sweet enough.

How to Get a Perfect Bundt Cake

Get the Right Equipment. For this eggnog bundt cake, you need to use a 12-cup bundt pan or a 10-cup tube pan. I recommend using Nordic Ware bundt pans. I love these pans. They're well made, conduct heat well, so you don't end up with brown spots and they're designed to move it easily to and from the oven. For most of my bundt cakes, I use the Nordic Ware Platinum Collection Anniversary Bundt Pan. If you're adding to your set of baking tools I recommend investing it a good bundt pan. It's a great all-around pan for making delicious pound cakes for home or to share with others. And if you're going to buy a new bundt pan, don't settle for one that is flimsy or thin, get this one.

Prepare the Pan. One of the things that happens more often then I like is a broken bundt - a cake that comes out of the pan in more than one piece. I learned the perfect way to butter and flour a bundt pan from America's Test Kitchen. You create a paste from melted butter and flour and use a pastry brush to coat the inside of the pan. This method ensures that there are no missed spots.

Measure Carefully. I list the ingredients in amounts and by weight. Weighing the flour and sugar will give you the most consistent results. Too much flour will result in a dry cake and too little flour will result in a sunken cake.

Use Room Temperature Ingredients. The eggs, butter, and sour cream are at room temperature. Room temperature means the ingredients are 65-68 degrees F. Adding these ingredients ensure that they emulsify properly.

Don't Undermix or Overmix. It is important to beat the butter and sugar long enough until it becomes creamy and is properly aerated. This step is important because air is whipped into the cake batter and these air bubbles will expand during baking causing the cake to rise. When adding the flour mix only long enough to incorporate the flour. Mixing too long or on too high a speed will cause gluten to develop which will result in a tough cake.

Cooling the Cake. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting it onto a plate or cooling rack. I made this cake three times. The first time I let it cool for 10 minutes and it broke when I inverted the pan. 10 minutes wasn't long enough for this cake to firm up. The second time I let it cool for 30 minutes and it wouldn't easily come out of the pan. When it did, large chunks were still stuck to the pan. Cooling the cake too long in the pan caused the cake to become damp and stick to the pan. The third time I let it cool for exactly 15 minutes and it came out perfect.

I hope you enjoy this cake. It was a big hit with friends, family, and co-workers. It's now on the list for the annual holiday baking. If you try this recipe leave a comment. If you post on Instagram you can tag me @bakesbybrownsugar and use the hashtag #bakesbybrownsugar.

Happy Baking and Happy Holidays!

Eggnog Bundt Cake

The holidays are here and it is time for eggnog. This cake contains eggnog, cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum and results in a deliciously sweet dessert

5 from 4 votes

Print Pin Comment

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 50 minutes

Cooling Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 3 hours 20 minutes

Servings: 16 servings

Author: Cheryl Norris

Ingredients

Pan Release

• ▢ 1 tablespoon (14 grams) unsalted butter melted
• ▢ 1 tablespoon (10 grams) all-purpose flour

Eggnog Cake

• ▢ 3 cups (342 grams) cake flour sifted
• ▢ 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ 2 1/4 cups (450 grams) granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter room temperature
• ▢ 5 (250 grams) large eggs
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 tablespoons dark rum
• ▢ 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ▢ 1 cup full-fat eggnog room temperature

Eggnog Rum Glaze

• ▢ 1 1/2 cups (173 grams) powdered sugar sifted
• ▢ 1 1/2 teaspoons dark rum
• ▢ 3 tablespoons eggnog

Instructions

FOR THE PAN

• Stir together the melted butter and flour in a small bowl until a paste forms. Using a pastry brush, coat all interior surfaces of a 12 cup Bundt pan. (If mixture becomes too thick to brush on, microwave it for about 10 seconds, or until warm and softened.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

FOR THE CAKE

• Crack the eggs into a separate bowl. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg together in another bowl and combine with a whisk.
• Place the sugar and the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 8 minutes.
• Scrape down the bowl. Add eggs one at a time on low speed and then increase to medium until each egg is well incorporated. Stop the mixer after adding the first 3 eggs and scrape the bowl from the bottom to ensure the ingredients are well mixed. Add the remaining 2 eggs and scrape the down the after adding the last egg.
• Whisk together the eggnog and lemon juice in a measuring cup. Add one-third of the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until well combined, but do not over mix. Add one-half of the eggnog and mix on medium speed until well combined. Add half of the remaining dry ingredients, then the rest of the eggnog. Add the remaining the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds.
• Scoop the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake will also begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
• Remove the pan from the oven and cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes. Do not let the cake cool too long in the pan or it will stick. Place a cooling rack over the cake pan and invert the cake onto the rack. Cool the cake for 90 minutes. Pour or spoon the glaze over the cooled cake.

FOR THE EGGNOG RUM GLAZE

• Combine the powdered sugar, the rum and 2 tablespoons of eggnog. Stir until the glaze is smooth. If you want a thinner glaze, add the remaining tablespoon of eggnog and stir until incorporated.

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