Wine Cake

A retro Bundt cake that leans on a couple of shortcut ingredients for a result that tastes anything but boxed. Yellow cake mix and French vanilla pudding mix get spiked with a full cup of sherry wine and a hit of nutmeg, then baked into a dense, moist cake with chopped walnuts folded through.

Five eggs and a cup of oil give this cake its incredibly rich, almost pound cake-like texture. The pudding mix adds a custard-like density and extra moisture that keeps it from drying out, even days after baking. The sherry permeates every crumb with a warm, nutty sweetness that you can smell the second you crack the oven door.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat on medium between each addition. This builds structure in the batter gradually. Dumping them all in at once means the cake won’t rise properly and you’ll end up with a dense, gummy center instead of a tender crumb.

Remove the cake from the Bundt pan immediately after baking. This is not the time to let it cool in the pan. Sherry and oil in the batter make it stick fast once it cools, and you’ll lose half the cake trying to pry it out.

Pro Tips

• Grease and flour the Bundt pan generously, including every ridge and groove. Bundt pans are notorious for sticking.
• Use a good-quality dry sherry, not cooking sherry. Cooking sherry is salty and harsh. The sherry flavor is front and center in this cake.
• The cake is done when a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Start checking at 45 minutes.
• This cake actually improves overnight as the sherry flavor mellows and deepens.

Variations

• Dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with a sherry glaze (powdered sugar + sherry) once cooled.
• Swap walnuts for pecans or leave them out entirely for a nut-free version.
• Use Marsala wine or port instead of sherry for a different boozy character.