Christmas Bundt Cake

Impress your friends and family this holiday season with this easy-to-make Christmas Bundt Cake. With swirls of red and green making a festive appearance when sliced, the icing on the cake is a drizzled glaze that’s garnished with holly and berry decorative sprinkles.

One of my favorite ways to elevate a boxed cake mix is to bake it in a bundt pan. From a classic shape to one with an intricate design, these cakes always look spectacular. And here, I’ve added a little red and green surprise swirl to make this simple cake recipe perfect for your Christmas dessert table.

Best of all, you don’t need any special baking or decorating skills to follow this recipe. Once you see how easy it is, you’ll start thinking of fun ways to take this same recipe and use it for other holidays and occasions just by switching out the food coloring options and decorative sprinkles on top!

But let’s stick to Christmas first, so you can see how easy it is to make this bundt cake that is certain to be a hit at your holiday events.

Ingredients Needed

• White Cake Mix – use your favorite boxed cake mix brand (15.25 ounces).
• Ingredients Listed On The Boxed Cake Mix – mine called for water, vegetable oil, and eggs, so check yours for specifics.
• Almond Extract – to flavor the cake.
• Gel Food Coloring – you’ll need red and green.
• Powdered Sugar – for the glaze.
• Vanilla Coffee Creamer – to mix with the glaze.
• Sprinkles – I used holly and berry sprinkles for a festive touch on top of the glaze.

How To Make Christmas Bundt Cake

Note: This is a summary of the recipe steps. For complete instructions, see the recipe card down below. 

1. Prepare the cake mix according to the box directions and stir in 1 tablespoon of almond extract.
2. Separate the cake batter into 3 separate bowls. Dye one bowl green, and one bowl red and leave one white.
3. Pour the bowl of white cake mix into a well-greased Bundt cake pan.
4. Dollop the red and green cake batter over the top and use a skewer or knife to gently swirl the batter together.
5. Bake for 45-55 minutes in a preheated 350-degree F oven until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. When done, remove from the oven and leave the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting over a cooling rack to remove the cake.
7. Let the cake cool completely before adding the glaze.
8. To make the glaze, in a medium bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of coffee creamer.
9. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake and decorate the top with holiday sprinkles.
10. Let the glaze harden for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Tips For Baking Success

• Make sure to grease the Bundt pan extremely well, especially if it’s one with crevices in it. Use your favorite cooking spray or butter.
• Use gel food coloring. It works better in baked goods for a more vibrant tone.
• It’s better to slightly undercook the cake rather than overbake it. Here’s why: when you pull it out of the oven, you’ll need to leave it in the Bundt pan for at least 10 minutes before inverting it and flipping it out on a cooling rack. While it’s still in the pan, it will continue to cook just a bit.
• Let the cake cool completely before glazing. This could take several hours. It needs to be completely cool so that the glaze will set and harden once you drizzle it on.

Substitutions

• I used almond extract for the white cake mix to help flavor it, but you can use any flavor you like. Stick to a clear extract, though, so it doesn’t change the color of the cake.
• You can swap out the vanilla coffee creamer when making the glaze for heavy cream, milk, or even water.

Variations

Once you see how spectacular this cake turns out, you’ll want to experiment with other shades of gel food coloring for the pretty swirl effects. Here are a few ideas.

Green: using different amounts of the gel food coloring in two bowls of white cake batter, make a light green and a darker green to swirl together. Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day or a spring brunch cake. How about four-leaf clover sprinkles for the perfect decoration?

Red / Pink: using different amounts of the gel food coloring in two bowls of white cake batter, make pink and red shades swirl together. Perfect for Valentine’s Day! Of course, you’ll want red and pink heart sprinkles for the final touch.

Orange And Green: swirl these two shades for a Halloween cake. Use orange, green, purple, and black sprinkles for the garnish.

Blue: using different amounts of the gel food coloring in two bowls of white cake batter, make a light blue and a darker blue to swirl together. Perfect for a winter cake or Disney’s Frozen theme, complete with snowflake sprinkles.

Storage

Cover in a sealed container and store on the countertop for up to 5 days. You can also store it in the fridge, sealed and covered.

More Bundt Cake Recipe

Lemon Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

White Chocolate Cranberry Bundt Cake

Halloween Bundt Cake

Brown Butter Bundt Cake

Pineapple Bundt Poke Cake

Incredible Lemon Bundt Cake

Carrot Banana Bundt Cake