My easy Cinnamon Bundt Cake with a thick and gooey cinnamon swirl is the ultimate cinnamon pound cake for your repertoire! Moist cinnamon pound cake made with buttermilk, with a ripple of brown sugar and cinnamon running through the centre. Topped off with an indulgent and creamy cinnamon glaze.
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Why you'll love this cake
- Moist cinnamon pound cake - the base of this bundt cake is a rich buttermilk cinnamon pound cake, packed with spice.
- Gooey cinnamon swirl - if the cinnamon pound cake itself isn't packed full of cinnamon enough, an easy cinnamon and brown sugar swirl rippling through the centre of this moist bake, oozes with cinnamon spice.
- Easy recipe - the base cinnamon pound cake is essentially a one bowl recipe. You'll need a small separate bowl for the cinnamon sugar swirl, but overall the processes here are incredibly straightforward with minimal tools required.
Ingredient Notes
This cinnamon swirl pound cake recipe is divided into two parts: the cake batter and the cinnamon sugar swirl.
For the Cake
To make the cinnamon pound cake batter, you'll need:
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened to room temperature for a couple of hours. You can substitute with salted butter, but do be aware that this will add saltiness to the overall bake.
- Sugar - granulated sugar or caster sugar work best here.
- Eggs - large eggs, ideally also at room temperature for baking.
- Vanilla extract
- Flour - either all-purpose flour or plain flour will work in this recipe.
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Ground cinnamon
- Buttermilk - you can either use store bought buttermilk or my simple homemade buttermilk substitute, soured milk.
For the Swirl
You only need two ingredients for this rich cinnamon sugar swirl:
- Brown sugar - I like to use light brown sugar, firmly packed, for the best flavour and texture to the finished cake. You can use dark brown sugar, which will make for a deeper molasses flavoured swirl. Or, you can also use granulated sugar here.
- Cinnamon - plenty of ground cinnamon is key to the swirl!
How to Make Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake
Just like my other pound cake style bakes, like my classic Lemon Vanilla Pound Cake, the cake batter here is an easy one-bowl recipe.
- Start with preparing your cake pan. For a bundt cake, you'll want to ensure that this is well greased and floured in every nook and cranny to avoid the cake sticking once baked. Set the pan aside and preheat the oven.
- In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the swirl - the brown sugar and cinnamon. Set this aside.
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Then add the vanilla and beat to combine.
- Next add the buttermilk and beat lightly to incorporate.
- Now, sift your dry ingredients into the batter. With the mixer on a low setting beat until just combined (image 1 below).
- Spoon about half of batter into the prepared bundt pan and spread in an even layer (image 2 below). Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the batter and then spoon the remaining batter over top, carefully and gently spreading evenly to ensure the cinnamon sugar is fully covered (images 3 and 4 below).
- Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for about an hour, until a toothpick inserted in the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan before turning this out gently onto a wire rack to cool completely (image 5 below).
Expert Tips and Tricks
- To avoid overbeating my batter, I like to finish off the mixing with a spatula. This helps to ensure you're not overmixing while also making it easier to avoid leaving any unmixed batter at the bottom of the bowl.
- This recipe uses a thick layer of cinnamon sugar which creates a gooey layer in the middle of your cake. It does also, unfortunately often catch on the sides of the bundt pan when you turn the cake out, meaning that some of the molten and oozing cinnamon sugar might come off in the pan. Don't worry if this happens - covering up blemishes is what a glaze is for!
- For testing a bundt cake, you'll want to insert the toothpick in the thickest part of the cake. Since there is a hole in the centre - the thickest part is the centre of the bundt ring.
Cinnamon Cream Glaze
What better way to top off your Cinnamon Bundt Cake than with a creamy cinnamon glaze!
You'll need:
- Powdered sugar - or icing sugar. This doesn't normally need to be sifted for making a glaze. If your powdered sugar has any particularly bad lumps, you may wish to sift this in preparation to make the process of stirring the icing smooth quicker and easier.
- Vanilla extract
- Ground cinnamon
- Heavy cream - sometimes called double cream. This ingredient has many different names depending on your location, but you're looking for the cream you would typically use for homemade whipping cream, like my Vanilla Stabilized Whipped Cream or my Homemade Chocolate Whipped Cream.
My top tip for this glaze is to start off with your powdered sugar, add the cinnamon and vanilla and 4 tablespoons of the heavy cream. Stir this together and then add additional cream a tablespoon at a time stirring after each addition. This will allow you to best gauge the consistency of your frosting and judge if you need more.
Once you have a smooth glaze at a thick, but pourable consistency (image 6 below), add this to the cake and spread to coat (image 7 below).
Variations and Substitutions
This is an extremely versatile cake, with many options for substitutions, alterations of additions in order to make it your own.
Different Cake Sizes or Baking Pans
This recipe can be made in all manner of shapes and sizes! At it's heart this is just a simple pound cake loaded with cinnamon. You can bake it in whatever ways you might typically bake a pound cake.
The full batter will make a pair of cinnamon pound cake loaves, a single larger 9" or 10" round cake, or a multi layer cake if using smaller pan sizes.
One of my favourite options is a three layer cinnamon pound cake, which can be made using this recipe.
You could even make cupcakes - the full batter will typically make about two a dozen large cupcakes.
Be aware that baking times will vary dependent on the size and shape of your pan, so just keep an eye on it!
Frostings and Glazes
You can opt to leave the glaze off this cake entirely and it will still be absolutely delicious. Alternatively, try some other flavour options! My orange glaze from my Gingerbread Bundt Cake goes well with the cinnamon swirl here. Alternatively a plain vanilla glaze pairs well too.
Glazes typically work best with bundt cakes, allowing for the dramatic look of flowing frosting over the sides of the intricate cake. If you're making this as a different shape or perhaps want a fuller coverage, try a thicker icing. My Dulce de Leche Icing or Cinnamon Buttercream both go brilliantly with this cinnamon pound cake.
Additional Toppings and Decorations
Want to add a bit more style to your bake? Try a dusting of cinnamon or some chopped nuts. One of my favorite options here is to use a quick candied nut, like my Maple Candied Walnuts.
Making this Cake Dairy Free
You can make this cinnamon pound cake dairy free quite easily with a couple of quick substitutions.
Using a dairy free butter and one of my dairy free Buttermilk Substitutes should result in a perfectly tasty cake. I have not tried all substitutions for this recipe personally - let me know how it goes if you give them a go!
Storage Tips
The Cinnamon Bundt Cake on its own can be stored at room temperature, ideally well wrapped or covered in a cake tray. This will stay pretty fresh for about 3-4 days.
If you've glazed this with my Cinnamon Cream Glaze, you'll need to store the cake in the refrigerator. It is best practice to keep heavy cream based frostings chilled and not to leave these out for several hours/overnight. Refrigeration can lead cakes to stale more quickly, but if you wrap the cake well or place in an airtight container, you'll be able to preserve this cake for several days.
When wrapping a cake with a glaze, let the glaze set first - leaving it to solidify a bit will prevent plastic wrap sticking to it excessively.
FAQs
Cinnamon pound cake will keep for several days if stored in an air tight container. If you are using the cream based frosting, leftover cake should be stored in the refrigerator, however, this can decrease the shelf-life if the cake is not well covered as refrigerators dry out cakes.
If making in advance, store the cake wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature. It is best to assemble with the frosting on the day of serving for the freshest product.
Yes, this cake is very freezer friendly. Once the cake is cooled, wrap well in plastic wrap and a layer of aluminium foil. This will help protect it in the freezer. Freeze for up to three months and defrost prior to serving.
For best results, freeze the cake unfrosted and add any glaze or toppings once defrosted and ready to serve.
You can also freeze leftovers, which I recommend doing by the slice, for ease of defrosting on demand pieces of cake. Assuming this has been glazed, success will depend on the frosting used. You may find that a cream based icing becomes a bit sticky and runny upon defrosting.
Absolutely! The brown sugar and cinnamon swirl in this Cinnamon Bundt Cake is delicious, but it isn't essential to making a super tasty cinnamon bundt. If you'd rather leave it out for any reason, just omit it - make the rest of the cake batter is normal and bake as directed. You'll have a perfect cinnamon pound cake without a swirl!
Looking for more spice in your life? Try some other cinnamon packed recipes:
Or if you're after pound cakes, try:
Cinnamon Bundt Cake with Cinnamon Swirl
Ingredients
Ingredients for Cinnamon Pound Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar or caster sugar
- 4 large eggs ideally at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cup buttermilk or a Buttermilk Substitute
- 3 cups all purpose flour or plain flour
- 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Ingredients for the Swirl
- ¾ cup light brown muscovado sugar
- 2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Ingredients for Cinnamon Glaze
- 1¼ cup powdered sugar or icing sugar, this doesn't normally need sifted for this recipe
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 7 tablespoon heavy cream or double cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175C/155C Fan) and grease and flour a standard sized bundt cake pan.
- In a small bowl mix together the swirl ingredients - the brown sugar and cinnamon. Set this aside for now.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until well creamed, light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Then add the vanilla, beating to combine.
- Add the buttermilk and gently beat to incorporate. (see note)
- Sift the dry ingredients - the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon - into the mixing bowl and beat together until just combined. Try to avoid overmixing.
- Spoon about half of the batter into your prepared bundt pan and spread in an even layer. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over this and then spoon the remaining batter on top. Carefully nudge the batter into a smooth layer, ensuring that the cinnamon sugar is covered and sealed into the cake.
- Place the cake in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning out to cool completely on a wire rack.
Instructions for the Cinnamon Cream Glaze
- Stir together the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon and 4 tablespoons of the heavy cream.
- Continue adding heavy cream 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition, until you reach your desired consistency. The measurements given here should give a nice thick glaze, that drips a little, but is not super runny. You can make a looser glaze if preferred.
- Pour the glaze over the cake and use a spatula to help nudge it where you'd like it to cover.
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