Crack Cake is a delicious vanilla pudding cake that gets covered in a sweet and buttery white wine glaze – it’s addictive to say the least.
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I decided to put this delicious cake that’s known around the internet for how addictive it is to the test. Well, guys, the verdict is that the internet, for all its many flaws, didn’t fail us on this one.
The cake basically speaks for itself since it’s made with not just pudding added into the mix, but also gets white wine, brown sugar, and then a white wine glaze poured all over the finished cake.
Obviously, something that’s baked with the moisture of pudding and then glazed with a stick of butter and the sweetness of white wine is just going to be off the charts.
I have never heard of using wine to glaze a cake until now, but adding liqueur or any alcohol to a cake is not a new thing – rum cake, stout cake, and tiramisu all prove its success.
Aside from being an addictive cake with terrific flavor, it’s also one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. The steps are just a few simple ones, see the overview below.
CRACK CAKE RECIPE
The flavor of this cake screams with butter, sweetness, molasses, and something you can’t quite put your finger on (it’s the wine). The texture is gooey and sticky in the best ways, with the crumb extremely moist from the pudding, and yet the crust around the edges of the cake get a little crisp, giving it a little more texture.
The next day after you bake it, it becomes somehow even more saturated. And even days later, it’s just as delicious as the first, but it didn’t even last a week in our house. Actually, I don’t even know if it made it 5 days.
Though it looks like a really basic cake, you can dress it up with things like cut-up fruit, whipped cream, or frosting. Although, I didn’t make it for anything special and really did enjoy just having this cake hanging around for the week.
Baking this cake in a bundt pan is a popular way to make it, but I wanted to test making it in a shallow baking dish so that the cake wasn’t so thick. The point of that is really so that there’s more surface area with glaze on it! Man oh man, it was a worthwhile experiment.
Ingredients
Ingredients you’ll need to make this cake:
Vanilla Cake Mix – Any box of yellow cake mix brand will work in this recipe
Instant vanilla pudding – The wine might do the heavy lifting for the flavor, but the pudding mix does the trick for the moisture! Once you try this, you’ll never go without it.
White & Brown Sugar – Sweetens the cake mix just a bit more, while the brown sugar adds some molasses flavor.
Cake Ingredients – Standard things like vegetable oil, water, vanilla extract, and salt.
White Wine – You can use pinot grigio, chardonnay, or sauvignon blanc.
Cake glaze – Made with melted butter, brown sugar, and more white wine and gets poured all over the top of the cake once it’s finished.
Instructions
Here’s the overview of how you’ll make this deliciously addicting cake. Refer to the recipe card below for full directions:
STEP 1: In a large bowl, pour in the vanilla cake mix, the white sugar, brown sugar, instant pudding, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk it all together.
STEP 2: Right into the same bowl with the dry ingredients, crack in the eggs and pour in the water, vegetable oil, wine, and vanilla extract. Mix all the wet ingredients into the cake batter with a whisk by hand or with a hand mixer if not using a stand-mixer.
STEP 3: Prepare your baking dish by lining it with parchment paper that goes over the sides. Preheat the oven to 350.
STEP 4: Pour the prepared batter into the prepared baking dish and spread around evenly.
STEP 5: Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes. The cake is done when a toothpick comes out of the center of the cake with few or no crumbs and the top is golden.
STEP 6: Let the cake cool completely. While the cake cools, make the wine glaze in a small saucepan on the stove using the butter, white wine, brown sugar, and salt.
STEP 7: With a toothpick or something pointy, poke holes all over the top of the cake (you can’t have too many). Then, pour the glaze all over the entire cake. If you would like to take the cake out of the pan, you can do so by lifting both sides of parchment paper up and out of the pan. You can then display your cake on a serving plate!
How do I serve this cake?
If you’re making this cake for an extra special occasion and want to dress it up a bit, you can take it out of the baking dish and place your cake on a serving plate. Fresh cut-up fruit goes really well with the flavors of the cake, like strawberries, bananas, and mandarins. You can top it all off with some fresh whipped cream.
Alternatively, you can also frost the whole cake, even though it has a glaze on it. The flavor will still remain intact. Some frosting ideas are listed below.
Another way to make this cake more presentable for serving is by baking it into a bundt cake pan!
Some Variations
No Alcohol – Although the alcohol cooks out while it’s baking, you might have strict dietary or other restrictions for avoiding alcohol. Instead, just replace it 1:1 with white grape juice. Omitting it entirely will have you missing some of the sweetness the wine leaves behind. The white grape juice will be just as good!
Red wine – In the complete opposite corner, if you’re looking for MORE wine variations, try making a chocolate version with red wine…oh yeah.
Frosting – Some frosting ideas if you’re looking to take it to another level:
- Whipped Cream Frosting: The cake is already light and delicate so this kind of frosting would work so perfectly. You can simply make your own whipped cream or use cool whip.
- Cream Cheese Frosting: For something a little denser, and totally delicious.
- Buttercream: The standard classic. Might be a little too sweet for some.
Other Easy Cake Recipes:
How do I store this cake?
Any cake you don’t just devour right away you can keep wrapped with plastic wrap or foil on either a dish or in your baking dish on your countertop. If you live in a very humid area or if your home is warmer than about 75 degrees, or if the cake is in direct sunlight, I would instead keep it in the refrigerator.
Otherwise, you can store leftovers right on your counter. If you want to freeze cake slices, make sure to wrap them first, and then put it into an airtight container.
Nutrition
A slice of this cake has 294 calories, 38 grams carbs, 14.4 grams fat, and 2.4 grams of protein.
AS ALWAYS, IF YOU MAKE THIS – PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!
Crack Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 box vanilla cake mix
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 3.5 oz packet instant vanilla pudding
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- ¾ cup water
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup white wine
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
WINE GLAZE
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1 ½ tbsp brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
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In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, pour in the vanilla cake mix, the white sugar, brown sugar, instant pudding, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk it all together.
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Right into the same bowl with the dry ingredients, crack in 4 eggs and pour in the water, vegetable oil, wine, and vanilla extract. Mix this all together well either with a whisk by hand or with an electric mixer if not using a stand-mixer.
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Prepare your baking dish by lining it with parchment paper that goes over the sides. Preheat the oven to 350.
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Pour the prepared batter into the prepared baking dish and spread around evenly.
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Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes. Start to check around 40 minutes by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. It’s finished when the toothpick comes out with few or no crumbs and the top is golden.
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Let the cake cool completely. While the cake cools, make the wine glaze. In a small saucepan on low heat, melt 1 stick of unsalted butter. After the froth subsides, add in the white wine, brown sugar, and salt. The alcohol will cook out and the brown sugar will melt into the glaze. Whisk frequently so that everything incorporates.
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With a toothpick or something pointy, poke holes all over the top of the cake (you can’t have too many). Then, pour the glaze all over the cake, covering it entirely. If you would like to take the cake out of the pan, you can do so by lifting both sides of parchment paper up and out of the pan.
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?
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Yum
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