Super moist and buttery vanilla bundt cake with flavorsome berry swirls inside. The cake is topped with gooey vanilla icing!
Do you like pound cakes? My relation has been very on and off with these dense, rich and heavy on the butter cakes. I only like a bundt cake when it has a great flavor or hides marvelous swirls of some sorts. Just like this. Oh and also chocolate! Marble cakes are my favorite!
IS THIS VANILLA BUNDT CAKE RECIPE ANY DIFFERENT
It of course is. Lets find out how!
Most bundt cakes use a ton of butter/margarine as fat. It sure packs a lot of texture to the pound cakes. But pound cakes of those kind lack flavor for sure.
So what do we do?
We want our bundt to have the soft texture that butter imparts. But we need something little extra to recover from the flavor loss.
I have replaced some of the butter in the recipe with clarified butter. Yes you heard me right! It adds an enormous amount of flavor to the cake. Wait till you bake it for yourself.
Also a little lemon zest and juice goes in. Don't worry you wont taste any lemon in the cake. It instead is very vanilla, berryyyy and super buttery in every bite!
Also we have to chat about these beautiful swirls. What do you think? Aren't these lovely? How did I get them so thick? I call them animal print berry swirls. Don't they look like one?
Layering this vanilla bundt cake was the most fun bit. And these swirls are only what makes this bundt cake even more pretty!
I used homemade blackberry jam/preserves and added it to some of the cake batter. Also added two small drops of purple food coloring. This is totally optional.
Lets have a look at how we are going to layer this beautiful cake.
Image in the middle is second layer of this vanilla bundt cake recipe. You see when we demould our cake, this layer becomes the top berry layer. Spread it nice and wide.
For the third layer, I swirled vanilla batter into berry batter to reveal all those thick and distinct swirls.
Alternate the layers vanilla and berry batter till your purple batter lasts. And that's how we get those marble like swirls and a super heightened cake!
This extra step doesn't take much time and is totally worth the effort!
Spread the remaining vanilla batter on top and bake!
And how does this taste? Well, I and Pranay polished off this giant cake in two short days! That explains it all.
You grab the recipe while I am off to shed some calories. Silent sob!
Vanilla bundt cake with blackberry swirls
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups (180 gms) Cake flour
- ¾ Cups (150 gms) Sugar
- ¼ Cup (49 gms) Clarified butter
- ½ Cup (115 gms) Softened butter (salted)
- 3 Large eggs
- 1 Tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 tsp Lemon Zest
- ¾ tsp Baking powder
- ¾ tsp Baking soda
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 3 Tbsps (60 gms) Blackberry jam/preserves (seedless)
- 2 drops Purple food coloring (optional)
Vanilla Icing (Optional)
- 1 cup (120g) Confectioners' sugar
- 3 Tablespoons Heavy cream
- ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- 1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease/spray a 6 inches bundt pan.2. Sift cake flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.3. In a large mixing bowl whisk butter, clarified butter and sugar till it gets light. About 3-4 minutes. Add egg one at a time and beat well after each addition.4. Add vanilla, lemon zest and juice. Mix them in. Add flour in two additions and fold to combine. The batter will be thick. Do not over mix.5. Take about 6 tablespoons of batter out and add jam to it. Add two drops of food coloring. Layer the purple batter with vanilla in three-four additions (as shown in process pictures).6. Bake for about 35-40 minutes. The cake is ready when it passes the tooth pick test. Cool it for 10-15 minutes in the bundt pan. Cool down further on a wire rack before glazing.For the icing-Mix and whisk all the ingredients together until smooth. Glaze the cake right before serving. As this icing sets on the cake as time passes. If you ask me it is best enjoyed fresh!
Notes
- Don't skimp on the beating time of butter and sugar. We really need to get this mixture light and airy. It's air, that is beaten into mixture which makes our cake rise along with the leaveners.
- Don't overmix the batter after adding flour. Just mix until flour disappears in the batter.
- You can use any jam/preserves you prefer. How about strawberry? Oh and raspberry? or even peach!
- You could replace clarified butter with butter, But I recommend using clarified. It enhances the cake flavor many folds!
- If adding salted butter, skip salt. If going for unsalted butter add, ⅛ tsp salt to dry ingredients.
Nutrition
It says add salt, but how much?
Hi! I just corrected that. If using unsalted butter, add 1/8th tsp salt else skip it. Happy Baking!
Just made this yesterday! I didn't have cake flour so I mixed all-purpose flour with corn starch and sifted it twice to make my own cake flour.
Cake flour when you only have All Purpose:
(Take 1 cup of all purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of the flour and then insert 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, sift twice) [ Repeat for the next cup]
I also had to substitute white vinegar with the lemon juice (realized last minute I didn't have any!)
The clarified butter definitely had its desired effect!
The cake was very moist and flavorful! Sadly, my swirls weren't nearly as gorgeous as your photos, but the taste was great!
Thank you for this lovely recipe!
How much salt?
Since I used salted butter, I didn't use any. You may add upto a generous pinch if adding unsalted butter.
Beautiful cake Neha! Very neat swirls
Thanks Angie!
Those swirls are so dreamy! I love making poundcake, but I've never added fruit swirls like this. Definitely trying it next time!
Thanks Tracy! And they taste yum too.
I am not good at baking but I always love to bake. Can you share the eggs alternative please? We don't eat eggs thats why 🙂
Hi Priya! For this recipe you can try egg replacer powder. I haven't tried it yet, but I suppose it should work just fine. Do report back how it turned out, if you do. 🙂
I need to go out right now and buy a bundt pan just to be able to make this Neha. I am inspired! Such a pretty cake with lovely layers. A work or art!
Oh I am more than sure you will enjoy baking pound cakes. So easy and fun! Thanks for stopping by!
Just gorgeous! It's been years since I made a marbled cake, and this may just be the next one I make!
So glad to know you liked it Mimi. <3
Love the swirls and the combination of flavours ! Thank you Neha !
I am gratified to know you like it. 🙂
I tried this recipe today and it came out great. Thank you for the wonderful share Neha!
Glad to know you enjoyed it Kristine!
How pretty and festive, Neha. Thanks for the recipe!
Such a beautiful and awesome cake crafted so well! Great work Neha!!
Thanks Nisha!
Gorgeous berry marbling! The cake looks bakery perfect.
I am honored Angie!
Awesome recipe! I just bought a bundt pan and can't wait to try this out.
I am sure you will love this cake Ginny!