Fuzzy Navel Cake

Fuzzy navel cake takes the bar’s most popular peach-and-orange cocktail and bakes it into a bundt cake that hits the same flavor notes. Peach schnapps and orange juice replace the water in a doctored cake mix recipe, then a boozy glaze gets poured into holes poked in the still-hot cake.

The doctored-cake-mix technique is what makes this work. Adding pudding mix and substituting fruit juices for water produces a denser, moister, more flavorful cake than the box mix alone. Box-mix purists shouldn’t sneer; this trick has been gracing church potlucks and southern dinner tables for fifty years for a reason.

The poke-and-pour finish is the crucial step. Hot cake fresh out of the oven absorbs liquid like a sponge, and the glaze of schnapps, orange juice, and powdered sugar soaks deep into the crumb. Cold cake just sits with the glaze pooling on top.

Do not skip the two-hour cool-down in the pan. The cake sets and the glaze migrates evenly through the crumb during this time. Try to flip earlier and the cake tears, sticks, or worse, breaks apart.

Pro Tips

• Grease and flour the bundt pan heavily, getting into every groove. Bundt cakes love to stick to decorative pans, and the boozy glaze makes things even more delicate.
• Use a wooden skewer or chopstick to poke deep holes, not a toothpick. Bigger holes let the glaze reach the cake’s interior.
• The alcohol mostly bakes off but the glaze adds raw schnapps. If serving to non-drinkers or kids, swap the glaze schnapps for more orange juice.

Variations

• Use Grand Marnier or triple sec instead of peach schnapps for a more orange-forward cake.
• Top with fresh peach slices and whipped cream for serving.
• Add 1 teaspoon almond extract along with the orange for a deeper flavor profile.