A delicious and moist cake with a walnut and cinnamon center and topping. No frosting or fancy cake decorating skills needed! Serve with vanilla ice cream for a great dessert, or enjoy a slice just as it is with a hot coffee as an afternoon treat.
WALNUT CINNAMON CAKE
Can I share something with you, Dear Reader? I’m addicted to baking bundt cakes. It’s my favourite style of cake, because I find them much more appealing to bake and I don’t have to decorate them! I cannot decorate a cake well enough to save my life! So, I bake a lot of cakes like this Walnut Cinnamon Cake. I don’t need any cake decorating skills to make a beautiful cake like this!
BUNDT CAKES
Bundt cakes are also very rustic and homey. They’re not pretentious at all – there’s no need for any special techniques, just get the batter into the pan and wait for the magic to happen.
Because a bundt pan comes in many shapes and sizes, the pan pretty much does all of the decorating work for you. My favourite bundt pan is the old-fashioned shape. The ridges are not too deep and the lines created on the baked bundt give me the flexibility to slice the pieces thinly or very large – and large is always the way to go with this Walnut Cinnamon Cake!
In terms of shapes, the most common shape for a bundt pan is round, but you can also find square bundt pans that are very cute, but I have not found the need to buy one of those just yet. Most of the bundt pans that I own, have not been purchased by me at all, actually, but by John.e.
WHO WOULD SAY NO TO THIS?
John.e often states – rather proudly, I might add! – that he’s the first assistant here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen. And, truth be told, he has purchased all of the bundt pans that I own. In fact, most of the plates, bowls, utensils, drinking glasses, etc., that you see in the various blog posts, have been sought for and purchased by him.
At least twice a week, he will arrive home from work with something. Sometimes, it’s something small like a ramekin, but other times, he’ll find something substantial during his lunch-break travels, and he’ll end up bringing home a Le Creuset pot or, like last week, an All Clad roasting pan. Who wouldn’t want a man like that? Ahem, I mean, first assistant!
OTHER BUNDT CAKE PAN OPTIONS
So, back to bundt pan shapes. In addition to round and square, you can also find theme-shaped pans, like a pine forest, a sand castle, or even a gingerbread house and a wreath. I have those last two and they’re lovely for a Christmas gingerbread bundt with a simple dusting of confectioner’s sugar which resembles snow-capped peaks.
USE GREEK YOGURT TO KEEP THIS CAKE MOIST
Let’s get back to this cake. The cake itself is a basic cake that’s very moist – mostly due to the Greek yogurt, and even though the cake is delicious on its own, it’s that cinnamon sugar walnut center and topping that kick this cake into high gear. The cinnamon flavour seeps into the cake and is very soft and moist on the inside. The topping is sweet, savoury, and crunchy, which adds another dimension of texture.
This Walnut Cinnamon Cake is a perfect cake to serve with tea or coffee. It really needs nothing to be served with it. You don’t need any whipped cream or frosting. You don’t need any berries or fruit either. All you need is a hot beverage, a good friend, and some good conversation.
Or, if you’re much like me, a hot beverage, two lazy cats, and a stream of YouTube videos loaded up and ready to go. There’s nothing I love more than an afternoon treat with my coffee and a peek into the lives of my favourite YouTube chefs and at-home cooks!
What’s your favourite way to spend a quiet afternoon at home? Do you like to share your cake with family and friends? Or do you curl up on the couch with a good book and a big slice?
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Walnut Cinnamon Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups plain Greek yogurt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the Center and the Topping:
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
For the Center and the Topping:
- Add the sugar, cinnamon, and walnuts to a small mixing bowl and stir to mix together. Set aside.
For the Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally coat the inside of a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy.
- Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture well after each addition.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Add the vanilla extract and yogurt. Stir into the butter mixture with a spatula until well incorporated.
- Place the bowl back into the mixer base and add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, beat the flour into the butter and yogurt mixture. Do not over mix – just until the flour is incorporated.
- This batter is really thick! To make adding the batter to the bundt pan a little easier, I used a spring ice cream scoop. You can use a tablespoon as well. Add half of the batter in large dollops to the bundt pan.
- Top the batter with half the amount of the walnut and cinnamon mixture.
- Add the rest of the batter to the bundt pan – again, adding large dollops. You’ll want to avoid dumping the batter in and trying to smooth out the surface, because of the batter being so thick, it will disturb the clean center we are trying to achieve.
- Next, add the rest of the cinnamon and walnut mixture to the top of the batter.
- At this point, I like to tap the pan very aggressively onto a cutting board. This will help the thick batter to settle well into the bundt pan and help to level out the batter as well.
- Bake for 55 minutes. Check to see if the cake is done by inserting a wooden toothpick into the center of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If there’s wet cake batter on the toothpick, leave the cake in the oven for another 5 minutes and perform the toothpick test again.
- Once the cake is done, remove from oven and place the pan onto a wire cooling rack and leave it there for 15 minutes. Once the 15 minutes has passed, turn the cake out onto the wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
Nutrition
Sonal says
I am in love with this beautiful Cake. That walnut layer is so tempting. I am also a huge fan of bundt cakes. Bookmarking it to try soon.
Michelle says
That swirl in the center looks so good! Mine never come out like this, I’ll have to try your recipe and hope it comes out just as good!
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Thank you, Michelle.
Natalie says
Wow… this cake looks wonderful. Filling sounds heavenly delicious… I love the cinnamon and walnut combo. This cake is perfect Sunday after dinner dessert. A slice with a cup of tea…. oh, my.. I can’t wait to give this a try.
April says
Walnut and cinnamon go so well together! I have just started to experiment with this combo and it has never let me down. Love the idea to have this cake with a cup of coffee and a few good friends – sounds amazing AND delicious!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
This is absolutely my kind of cake! I especially love the walnut center as it would add so much flavor and crunch to the cake. I can’t wait to bake this one!
Swathi says
I like the streusel top on the bundt cake. Cinnamon walnut sounds like great combination I haven’t tried that in bundt cake but in bread I did it. I like that you added the filling in the middle too. that gives whole crunchy bite.
Jeannette (Jay Joy) says
I literally just got a huge bag of walnuts on sale for $5 dollars (it expires next month). I HAVE to try this.
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Luck you! I’d love to find a huge bag of walnuts for $5. 🙂
Shay says
This looks delicious! I have a question though! The pictures look like the walnut/cinnamon sugar topping is on the top of the cake after it’s been turned out, but the directions make it sound like it will actually be the bottom when it’s turned out? I want to be sure before I try this! Thank you!
byronethomas@gmail.com says
When you turn out the cake, it will be on the bottom. But, whenever I make a bundt with a topping, I flip it back over so that what is normally the bottom of the cake, becomes the top. Does that make any sense? 🙂
Germaine says
I just seen your recipe I can’t wait to try them
Ann S says
Like bundt cake recipes too. Thanks for sharing. Would you have a cake mix for this kind of cake? I usually like those recipes, the easier and more convenient to prepare, the better, then just add the filling or swirl. I already know it’s yummy. Looking forward to your response. Thanks!
byronethomas@gmail.com says
Sorry, Ann. I never use store-bought cake mixes for my cakes.
Sylvia says
Made this twice, lovely texture…2nd time I omitted cinnamon and nuts upon husband’s request, he enjoyed…didn’t have yoghurt so used milk instead.
nono says
I give up lookng for the recipe for Mrs. Bridges (Upstairs Downstairs cook) Walnut Cake. This will have to do, and from the looks of the ingredents I think Mrs. Bridges would approve. I like cakes one eats in hand. So sensible.
Susan Wiggins says
I made this Bundt cake and my family absolutely loved it! Delicious!