Spring has given us many brisk mornings. I’ve been waking up chilled despite the heavy comforter on the bed and two warm little dogs under each arm. It’s made me relish that first cup of steaming hot coffee, and it’s changed my mood from bright and citrusy to cozy and cinnamon-spiced.
There’s a lot to love about this cake. It’s made in a bundt pan, which means it’s a quick fix. It makes your house smell like a cinnamon bun as it bakes. It is absolutely doused in deep, dark homemade caramel sauce, and it’s sprinkled with fine crunchy flakes of Maldon salt. This is one delicious cake.
I never intended to have a bundt pan collection, but it seems to have happened over time. One of my favorite pans is Nordicware’s Jubilee Bundt Pan. The design creates angular divots that hold pools of glaze or in this case, dark salted caramel sauce (swoon!).
This recipe calls for a 12 cup bundt pan, but if you use the Jubilee pan as I have, you’ll have leftover batter because it is 10 cup capacity. I suggest filling the Jubilee pan no more than 3/4 full and use the remaining batter to make a few cupcakes.
This cake is so good with coffee, it could almost be considered breakfast, but it’s also really good warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. In other words, it’s good anytime!
Salted Caramel Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Snickerdoodle cake
- 2 1/2 cups low protein all-purpose flour such as White Lily or cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 5 ounces 1 small can evaporated milk
- 1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 2 eggs beaten and at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup butter melted
Carmel sauce
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter cubed
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of fine grain salt
- Maldon flake salt or other flake salt
Instructions
- Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 12 cup bundt pan with flour-based baking spray (such as Baker’s Joy). Alternatively you may grease the pan with shortening and coat it with flour, but this may prove difficult if your bundt pan has a lot of detail in the design.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar and cinnamon in a large batter bowl. Add the evaporated milk, yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Beat on low speed with an electric mixer until just combined. Gradually add in the melted butter. Scrape down the bowl; beat for 2 minutes until all ingredients are well blended. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a tooth pick tester comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes in the pan, or until the cake’s edges start to pull away from the pan. Turn the cake onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Make the caramel sauce: Melt the sugar over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Gently prod the sugar as it melts to promote even cooking. Cook until the sugar turns deep amber and add the butter all at once, using a whisk to combine. Be very careful with this addition because the butter will cause the caramelized sugar to bubble and sputter. Keep whisking until the butter incorporates (this make take a minute or two). Remove pan from heat and gradually pour in the heavy cream, whisking constantly. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the vanilla extract and pinch of salt.
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let thicken slightly in the refrigerator, about 30 minutes.
- Place the cake on a serving plate with a lip. Pour half of the caramel sauce over the cake and garnish with on or two pinches of flake salt. Reserve the remaining caramel to serve on the side in a gravy boat, or add extra caramel to individual slices.
- Store the cake covered at room temperature for up to three days. Refrigerate unused caramel sauce and re-warm in the microwave or on the stove top when ready to pour over cake slices.
This is EXACTLY the kind of cake I've always been looking for. Cinnamon and caramel and all that stuffed in there–I have totally bookmarked this. Thank you SO much for sharing this gorgeous recipe!
I have this bundt tin – it was the first one I borught because it was my immediate favourite when I first started looking at them. I've struggled to find simple recipes to really show off its shape though but you've just given me a very good answer 🙂
What a gorgeous cake. I can understand the bundt pan collection. I'm starting to build up my own collection of cake stands and various other pans. Unfortunately I am running out of space so it is looking like I am going to have to move in order to accommodate this obsession. 🙂
How beautiful! I absolutely love that bundt pan…it perfectly holds all that warm caramel 🙂
Nordicware bundt pans are stunning and your cake is simply gorgeous.
I love how you let the caramel just flow down, off the cake stand onto the table.
What a delicious mess!
The sauce look so delicious on that cake!
http://beautyfollower.blogspot.gr
I'm totally making this tonight! Thanks for sharing!
What a cool bundt pan! Makes this look even fancier 🙂 Caramel + snickerdoodle flavors sound wonderful together!
Holy smokes, this cake is gorgeous!
I just bought a new bundt pan and I was debating between the Jubilee and Bavaria, both are so pretty. I picked the Bavaria but this cake makes me also want the Jubilee. I just have one question regarding your recipe, it says to grease a 12-cup bundt pan but the Jubilee is only a 10-cup so did you use all the batter or omit some of the batter?
Hi Anonymous, I only filled the bundt pan 3/4 full, and used the remaining batter for cupcakes. I will add that note that in the blog text. Thanks for raising the question! -h
OMG you have the bundt cake tin that I want so badly but I can't find anyone who will ship it to NZ! So beautiful.
Everything you make/have made leaves/left me speechless. Without sounding like a creepy fan (i hope not anyways), YOU are what perfections looks like 🙂
Aww, Theresa! ♥♥♥ !!!
Yeah, I've got to go with Theresa Helmer on the fine point that she makes.
-Rebecca (who shall apparently remain anonymous since that appears to be the only option that allows me to comment)
Seriously, why do blogs absolutely refuse to allow me to comment? I am NOT going to create a blog of my own just to be able to drool all over your posts. Trying again…
-Frustrated in Fort Worth
Ah-ha! It's CHROME that won't let me post comments. IE appears to work just fine. Whew!
-Slightly less frustrated in Fort Worth
My point, btw, was simply that wanted to agree with Theresa Helmer. You = perfection! I totally want to bake this beauty – except I'd eat the entire thing myself and that probably couldn't be considered a good thing. Dang.
-Fort Wort
Bahahaha! Rebecca YOU are perfection! Thanks for the laugh.
I've definitely had 1 (okay 3) too many pieces of this cake. If only we were neighbors. I'd definitely share. (Shall I move to Fort Worth?) xo -h
Just look at the way that cake catches the sauce. Swoon indeed. It's beautiful and delicious looking.
YES, move to Fort Worth!! WOOHOOO!!!
Oh. Wait.
On second thought, you may not appreciate having me permanently parked in your kitchen, drooling all over your counters.
Hmmm. What if I offered do the dishes? Daily? Hourly?! Count me in! *LOL*
-Suddenly happy to be in Fort Worth
I knew it would be beautiful:)
I love Nordicware products.
Hi Heather, You are sick and twisted and perfect. Holy moly everything you make….wow…there are no words. I can already taste this cake. I have to come up with a reason to make it so I don't eat the whole thing myself. Good G-d woman! You are awesome. I love your first book, I look forward to your second. Salt and sweet, you're speaking my language. – Dana
Haha, thanks Dana! And I'm so glad you like the first book. I'm just too excited about the second one! Can't wait to share.
♥♥♥!
Salted, caramel, snickerdoodle, and cake? Could it get any better? Thanks for the recipe, it looks great!
This is a bundt pan that I must get! They are like a combination of waffles and cake, best ever!
Wow!! I need to get one of those pans! Just for pockets of caramel at least. ��
Gorgeous! Can I have some? 😀
It looks very close to perfect!
Hi Heather! I've been a long time follower of your blog. In fact I even got your first cookbook! I have made several of your recipes and had nothing but stellar results. That said, I made this cake yesterday and while everyone has agreed that it has great taste and the caramel is amazing there were a few comments that it was a bit dry. Do you have any thoughts on why that might be? Thanks!
Hi Rachel!
Well, shoot! I'm sorry to hear you had a dry result. I use White Lily all-purpose flour in almost all of my recipes and it has a low protein content similar to that of cake flour. It's very soft. That could account for your dry cake result, and is certainly worth noting in the recipe (I will add this to the recipe text). My suggestion would be to replace the all-purpose flour with cake flour.
Thanks for the feedback Rachel! Sorry you had a less than perfect result. xo-h
Whoa mama! That is beautiful!! I've pinned this all over the place on Caramel Concoctions =)
YUMMY!
Wow! I bought the pan just so I can make this cake. Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe. Hope it tastes as good as it looks. I have a couple of questions: 1.) Can I make the caramel sauce ahead of time and keep it in the fridge? Then, reheat it and assemble it later. I think it would be a great cake to make for a pot luck but I don't want to assembe ituntil right before serving. 2.) Can I use any kind of salt from a grinder? Like Himalayan – it's so pretty and pink. Or, maybe… Read more »
Hi Anonymous! I hope you get lots of use out of that pan! I love mine. Okay, on to the answers. 1. Absolutely! This is a great idea for busy cooks and good time management. You are absolutely correct that the caramel will need to be re-heated after refrigeration. I usually pop it in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds. This can also be done in a saucepan on the stove top over low heat. 2. Himalayan is a gorgeous salt – yes! I suggest using the coarsest setting on your grinder. Finely ground salt will dissolve too easily.… Read more »
This Cake includes all my favorite things
Hi Heather – I just made this over the weekend and had a couple of minor issues. Overall, everyone loved the cake but I noticed it was a bit dry and I can't figure out why. I used cake flour and sour cream which both items usually make any cake super moist. When I put the melted butter in, I think it was still warm/hot. Could that have affected anything? I usually melt the butter ahead of time and let it cool before using. Also, I followed the recipe exactly and I actually didn't have any left over batter. In… Read more »
Hi there! Gosh – so sorry that you hit a couple of snags with this recipe. I don't think the butter being warm would affect the cake's moisture content. It's really hard to say what happened (and why you didn't have too much batter – weird!). Did the cake seem over-baked at all? One thing I've noticed about the Nordic Ware bundt pans – they are mega heavy gauge and hold in heat long after they are removed from the oven. If you feel the cake was not overbaked, then I would suggest increasing the butter content from 1/2 cup… Read more »
Hi Heather – thanks so much for your quick response to my questions about the odd snags I had with this cake. I'm still baffled by the fact that I did not have extra batter! Especially since, the cake turned out great…other than being slightly dry. Oh well, I will definitely try again. Thanks for the rescue butter sauce recipe. And, thank you for the additional recipe suggestions for this cake. That was so nice of you to provide other suggestions and corresponding links. My oven does have a tendency to overheat from time to time so that could be… Read more »
Hi Heather. If I turned this exclusively into cupcakes, is there a frosting you could recommend?
Thank you for the continued inspiration!
Hi Jennifer! Sorry for my tardy reply! I think salted caramel frosting would be perfect on these! You can find my recipe at the following link.
http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2010/05/triple-salted-caramel-cupcakes.html
xo-h
Dear Heather, I join all the others who enjoy your website and recipes. I made this cake and it is delicious, however I have run into a problem. About 2/3 the way through the bake, the top of the cake was baked and then spilt and allowed the uncooked batter from inside to flow out over the top and down one side between the pan and the cooked cake side. The cake ended up being lopsided. I tried the recipe again using smaller bunt mini-cakes and the same thing happened. About 2/3 the way into the bake, the top split… Read more »