My crack cake recipe is one for the books! Moist and gooey, this cake can be served as dessert or for breakfast with a fresh cup of coffee.
Yellow cake mix, vanilla pudding, cinnamon, and white wine will give you a golden moist, and decadent cake. Just for good measure, we soaked the cake with a glaze made of butter, sugar, and more white wine.
Once cooked, the alcohol from the wine will dissipate and leave a wonderful flavor. Whatever the time of day, your kitchen will smell heavenly. This cake is so addictive, friends and family will be requesting it again and again.
CRACK CAKE INGREDIENTS
- Boxed Cake Mix: Your choice of yellow cake mix brand. I use Betty Crocker brand. Yellow cake has a special flavor. It is soft and buttery, moist and eggy.
- Instant Vanilla Pudding: I used Jell-O brand. This ingredient makes the cake extra moist and flavorful.
- Cinnamon: Ground cinnamon adds a bit of spicy warmth.
- Sugar: White Granulated
- Light Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds a deep rich flavor since molasses is a key element.
- Vegetable Oil: or any unflavored oil.
- Milk: Whole or 2% cow’s milk.
- White Wine: Whatever you have on hand. This is the secret ingredient to both the cake and glaze. Once cooked, you will not taste the alcohol. A chardonnay or pinot grigio is recommended.
- Eggs: Large
- Vanilla Extract: having warm notes, vanilla is a must for a good cake.
- Butter: Unsalted butter. Real butter, there’s nothing like it.
TIPS
- The best advice I can give you is to thoroughly prepare your bundt pan, just before you pour your batter into it. If you want the beautiful pattern to show on your cake, you will want to remove the cake as instructed. If you leave it in the pan too long, it will stick.
- This cake is seriously addictive. I had to put the leftovers in the freezer because my family couldn’t stop snacking on it!
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
HOW TO MAKE OLD FASHIONED CRACK CAKE
- Mix the dry ingredients.
- Add the wet ingredients.
- Beat until the batter is smooth.
- Spray the bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the batter.
- Bake.
- Pour glaze over the cake and allow it to soak up the glaze. Let it cool.
- Turn the cake onto a serving plate.
***See the full instructions below.
STORING + FREEZING + MAKE-AHEAD
- How Long Can You Keep This in The Fridge? Once made, your crack pound cake will last up to three days in the fridge.
- Can You Freeze This? Wrap the cooled crack cake with wine tightly, label, and freeze for up to three months. When ready to eat, full thaw and enjoy!
- Make-Ahead: This crack breakfast bundt cake can be made several hours ahead of time. Just loosely cover (don’t seal tightly).
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.
MORE CRACK RECIPES
- Crack Dip
- Crack Potatoes
- Crack Chicken Penne
- Crack Chicken Casserole
- Crack Potato Soup
- Crack Green Beans
- Crack Chicken Spaghetti Bake
- Crack Chicken
- Crack Chicken Noodle Soup
- Christmas Crack
MORE DESSERTS WITH ALCOHOL
- Bourbon Balls
- Bourbon Brownies
- Bourbon Toffee
- Rum Balls
- Pumpkin Pie Bars
- Pina Colada Cake
- Tiramisu
- Margarita Cake
MORE BUNDT CAKE RECIPES
- Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Red Velvet Bundt Cake
- Apple Bundt Cake
- Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Million Dollar Pound Cake
- Tom Cruise Cake
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Crack Cake
My crack cake recipe is one for the books! Moist and gooey, this cake can be served as dessert or for breakfast with a fresh cup of coffee.
Servings: 12 slices
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
- 1 (3.4-ounce) box instant vanilla pudding
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Glaze
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 ounce White Wine
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Arrange oven rack to lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 325ºF (163ºC).
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk cake mix (1 box), instant vanilla pudding (1 box), cinnamon (2 teaspoons), 1/3 cup white sugar, and brown sugar (1/4 cup) together until evenly combined.
- To the cake mix mixture, add vegetable oil (3/4 cup), milk, (1/2 cup) white wine (1/2 cup), eggs (4), and vanilla (1 tablespoon).
- Using an electric mixer beat until batter is smooth.
- Heavily spray a 10 or 12-cup bundt pan with Bakers nonstick cooking spray. Immediately pour batter into bundt pan. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until a bamboo skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- When the cake has about 15 minutes left to bake, start making the glaze
Glaze:
- In a small saucepan, cook butter (1/2 cup), sugar (1 cup), and wine (1/4 ounce) until the sugar is dissolved, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla (2 teaspoons).
- While the cake is very hot and still in the bundt pan, use a long bamboo skewer, poke holes all over the cake.
- Set the hot cake on the wire baking rack. Slowly, and in stages, pour glaze over the cake and allow it to soak up the glaze. This takes 15-20 minutes.
- After all the glaze has been applied to the cake, let the cake cool on the wire rack for 1 hour.
- Turn the cake onto a serving plate. Enjoy!
Fans Also Made:
Notes
- The best advice I can give you is to thoroughly prepare your bundt pan, just before you pour your batter into it. If you want the beautiful pattern to show on your cake, you will want to remove the cake as instructed. If you leave it in the pan too long, it will stick.
- This cake is seriously addictive. I had to put the leftovers in the freezer because my family couldn’t stop snacking on it!
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 493kcal | Carbohydrates: 65g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 82mg | Sodium: 400mg | Potassium: 62mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 49g | Vitamin A: 327IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 97mg | Iron: 1mg
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I’m into bundt cakes lately! This one is one of the best I made. I followed the recipe to the t.
Wowza! Thank you so much, Rachel. I hope you’ll try our other bundt cakes 🙂
Can this recipe be made into cupcakes?
Hi, Maureen! I haven’t tried this as cupcakes. Sorry, can’t advice.
What type of white wine do you recommend for the glaze? This looks so good!
Hi, Rhonda! A chardonnay or pinot grigio is recommended. Enjoy and let us know how it turns out 🙂