If you want something festive and super flavorful, this Christmas bundt cake will be the perfect fit! White cake mix is flavored with a little almond, dyed with red and green food coloring to give it a great holiday color inside and a simple white glaze frosts this beautiful dessert. It is the perfect easy holiday cake for serving a crowd, and I should know since I serve crowds all the time!
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Easy Christmas Cake Recipe
Every year for our annual Christmas party, I like to make some sort of show-stopping dessert that not only tastes great but also is beautiful to look at. A few years ago it was my eggnog pound cake and last year it was this gingerbread tres leches.
This year I thought it’d be fun to add some color to our Christmas and make this Christmas bundt cake that starts with a boxed cake mix then gets upgraded with a few ingredients, some colors, and fun and festive sprinkles on top!
This recipe is perfect for the holidays because it’s quick and easy to make since we’re starting with a box mix and just making it taste and look fancier! You have way to many other things to do and no one will ever know you took a semi-homemade shortcut with this cake!
Kids will love the fun colors inside and sprinkles on top and adults will love the delicious flavor of this cake that’s warmed up with a little almond extract! And while I make it as a Christmas bundt cake, you could always switch out the colors and make it all year long!
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Box white cake mix – You’ll also need whatever is listed as the required ingredients on the box. It’s usually water, vegetable oil, and eggs.
- Almond extract – Gives the cake its flavor profile. Almond is a classic choice for the holidays. If you need something without nuts, you can use vanilla as well but the flavor will be a little different.
- Red and green food coloring – I prefer gel food coloring for bright vibrant colors. I also like that fewer drops are needed to create a bolder color. However, I do know that liquid food coloring is more cost-effective, so either will work.
- Vanilla coffee creamer – This adds a great flavor to the frosting without having to use vanilla extract. It’s thick but also thin enough to make the frosting pourable.
- Holiday sprinkles – Use what you’ve got! Or go out and grab some from Michael’s, any baking supply store, Walmart, Amazon, you name it.
How to make This Christmas Bundt Cake
I’ve said it before but one of the reasons I love this Christmas bundt cake so much is because it’s super simple to make! It’s just mixing all the ingredients then baking the cake batter!
1 – Make the Cake Batter
To start this festive Christmas cake, preheat the oven the 350 degrees.
Next make the cake mix however your box mix recommends. The cake mix I used called for three egg whites, 1/2 cup of oil, and one cup of water but do whatever your cake mix says.
After your base batter is complete, add the almond extract to the batter and stir in completely.
2 – Dye the Cake Batter
To turn this into a Christmas swirl cake, separate the prepared cake batter evenly into three separate bowls.
Place a few drops of the green food coloring into one bowl, a few drops of red in another, and leave the other alone. Stir in the food coloring and if the color is to your liking, you can move on.
If you want the color darker or bolder, you can add additional drops until you get the color you want.
3 – Bake the christmas bundt cake
Prepare a bundt pan by greasing the bottoms and sides of the pan.
Pour in all of the white cake batter so it covers the bottom of the bundt pan evenly. Then using a spoon drop small amounts of red and green batter over the white cake batter, alternating so you have red, green, red, green, and so on.
Swirl the layers together evenly by using either a skewer or a knife and cut through the layers of batter. I usually just swirl through the layers until I like the look of the layers.
This is similar to how we make our swirled Easter cake, just in a bundt cake pan instead of a regular pan. This is a Christmas bundt cake after all!
Place the bundt pan with the swirled batter into the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes. The cake is done when you stick a toothpick inside the middle and it comes out clean.
When the cake is done, let it cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.
To remove the cake from the bundt pan, turn the pan upside down and gently place the cake onto a cooling rack. If you greased the pan well and the cake has had time to cool, the bundt cake should come out nicely.
Let the cake cool completely on the cooling rack before frosting.
4 – Make the bundt cake Frosting
While you wait for the bundt cake to completely cool, make the frosting.
Whisk the powdered sugar and two tablespoons of coffee creamer together in a bowl until smooth. Then keep adding a little creamer at a time until your frosting is a thick consistency and you can easily drizzle it over the cake without it all just completely running off.
5 – Frost and Decorate the Christmas Cake
When the cake is finally cooled, use the frosting you just made and pour it all over the top of the cake.
While the frosting is still soft, decorate the cake with your Christmas sprinkles! Sprinkle them all over the frosting in whatever design you want!
6 – slice and serve
Let the glaze set on the bundt cake for about 15 minutes or until the frosting has hardened.
Slice and serve your Christmas bundt cake immediately and make sure people see you slice into the cake because the surprise inside is one of the best parts, at least for me!
Tips & tricks
Cover and store any leftover Christmas bundt cake slices in the refrigerator (since the frosting uses coffee creamer) for up to five days.
I like using holly berry sprinkles to decorate but any festive sprinkles will work.
You can switch up the extract flavor you use if you don’t like almond or don’t want nuts. Just make sure to use a clear extract so it doesn’t change the color of the cake. Peppermint, orange, and clear vanilla will all work.
Use a different flavor of coffee creamer. I enjoy vanilla coffee creamer in my glaze but you can use whatever flavor you like. You can also substitute the coffee creamer for heavy cream or milk, I just like the flavor of the creamer in this.
Recipe FAQs
What is the trick to getting a cake out of a bundt pan?
The first step even before you bake the Christmas Bundt cake is to make sure your pan is well greased. Spray it with nonstick spray or shortening. Then, once it is out of the oven, allow it to cool for about 10-20 minutes. Do not attempt to remove it right away.
Once it has had a chance to cool and contract a bit, flip the pan onto a cooling rack, and the Christmas Bundt cake should slide out easily.
Can I leave a bundt cake in the pan overnight?
Nope. This will have the opposite effect and create difficulties trying to get it out.
Does this cake freeze well?
It sure does. I recommend freezing it without the glaze. Once it has completely cooled, wrap it in plastic wrap then a layer of aluminum foil to prevent freezer burn and to keep it nice and moist. Transfer it to a freezer bag and freeze it for up to two months.
Thaw it at room temperature and then add your glaze and allow that to set before serving.
What else can I use to decorate Christmas Bundt cakes?
The sky’s the limit to what you can use to decorate it! Try some crushed candy cane or peppermint candy. I like holly berry candies but you can use jimmies, Christmas sprinkles, white sprinkles, or gold and silver sprinkles if you like. White chocolate shavings, gumdrops, green and red M&M’s, or sugar-coated berries also make a stunning presentation. Or even just anything you might have leftover from your gingerbread house decorating night!
You can also swap the glaze for a cream cheese frosting or a white chocolate ganache.
More Christmas Desserts
Finish off your Christmas desserts table with one of these other Christmas treats!
- Christmas tree cake dip – everyone’s favorite Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes turned into a sweet dessert dip that’s delicious with fruit!
- Chocolate crinkle cookies – if you like rich and chocolately desserts, these are a must-try!
- Reindeer chow – part snack mix, part dessert – this is one of our most popular Christmas desserts because both kids and adults love it!
- Christmas bark – not your traditional Christmas bark (try this snowman melting bark if you want tradition) but so much better!
- Custard pie – this old-fashioned dessert is a Christmas tradition!
- Peanut butter snowballs – these white chocolate cookies are a must-try at Christmas time!
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Christmas bundt cake
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix
- water Box mix recommended amount
- vegetable oil Box mix recommended amount
- eggs Box mix recommended amount
- 1 Tbsp almond extract
- green food coloring
- red food coloring
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp vanilla coffee creamer
- Holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven the 350 degrees.
- Make the cake mix however your box mix recommends. Add the almond extract to the boxed cake ingredients and stir it in.1 box white cake mix, water, vegetable oil, eggs, 1 Tbsp almond extract
- Separate the prepared cake batter evenly into three separate bowls. Place a few drops of green food coloring into one bowl, a few drops of red in another, and leave the other alone. Stir in the food coloring then add more color as needed to get your desired color.red food coloring, green food coloring
- Prepare a bundt pan by greasing the bottoms and sides of the pan.
- Pour in all of the white cake batter so it covers the bottom of the bundt pan evenly. Then using a spoon drop small amounts of red and green batter over the white cake batter, alternating so you have red, green, red, green, and so on.
- Swirl the layers together evenly by using either a skewer or a knife and cut through the layers of batter.
- Place the bundt pan with the swirled batter into the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan then turn the pan upside down and gently place the cake onto a cooling rack. Let e the cake finish cooling on the cooling rack until it’s cooled completely.
- Make the frosting as directed below while the cake is cooling.
- When the cake is cool, drizzle the frosting over the top of the cake, covering the entire cake.
- While the frosting is still soft, decorate the cake with your Christmas sprinkles!Holiday sprinkles
Glaze
- Whisk together in a bowl the powder sugar and 2 tablespoons of coffee creamer. Then keep adding a little creamer at a time until your frosting is a thick consistency and you can easily drizzle it over the cake.2 cups powdered sugar, 2-3 Tbsp vanilla coffee creamer
- Let the glaze set on the bundt cake for about 15 minutes or until the frosting has hardened.
- Slice and serve immediately or store in the fridge until you’re ready to enjoy.
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