Over the years, I’ve refined my baking repertoire. And while I love trying out new recipes, there’s a handful of core favourites that I routinely revert to.
Our chocolate slab cake – one of the most popular recipes on our blog – is baked at least once a month. It’s a very large cake, and the neighbours all respond to the clarion call with plates to ferry their portions home (it’s that kind of cake).
The butterscotch bars are almost embarrassingly easy to make, and they’ve become our regular standby for school orchestra rehearsals, last minute morning teas, and birthday and Christmas gifts.
Now that we have fresh eggs, the cookie jars are constantly filled with chocolate meringues, and the fudge brownies have become our newest house fave – baked frequently as Pete finds them irresistible. (We had dinner with Alex last week, who said “once you’ve tried the fudge brownies, there’s no going back”. Bless her, that made my night…)
The white chocolate bundt cake in the photo above is Big Boy’s all time favourite cake. It’s a bit more work to make and probably only gets an airing three or four times a year, but this is the cake I turn to whenever I need a showstopper. And even though I’m not a white chocolate fan, in this cake, it’s sublime. I posted the recipe over a year ago, but have just updated it with metric measurements, since I make it by weight rather than cup measures these days.
I always top the cake with tempered chocolate (in this case, milk and dark), but it’s almost as good simply dusted with icing sugar. Please note that it’s a large cake – the standard 10 cup bundt tins by Wilton and Nordicware will take most, but not all of the mix, so do have some muffin pans or mini tins on standby for the excess batter. The methodology, with updated measurements and a printable version, is available here. I’ve also made a caramelised white chocolate version, which was particularly wicked!
White Chocolate Bundt Cake
- 450g plain (AP) flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- ½ tsp salt
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 440g white sugar
- 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- 5 large (59g) eggs, at room temperature
- 115g white chocolate, melted and still warm
- 250g thick Greek yoghurt
- 115g white chocolate chunks or chips
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
I’d love to know your baking standbys – do you have a recipe which you turn to time after time?
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
How do you cut into something that beautiful? I’ve just realized why nothing I bake is too attractive.
Simply gorgeous!
Doc, thank you! We get to look at it for about five minutes after the chocolate sets…and then Big Boy demolishes it.. ;-)
I absolutely ADORE white chocolate… I know, it gets bad reputation with “real” chocolate lovers, but what can I say?
I don’t think I’m ready for a bundt cake like this, pretty involved, but I would love a slice… ;-)
Sal, the bundt cake itself isn’t too hard, but tempering the chocolate to ice it can be fiddly. It really is quite delicious plain though!
That really looks spectacular!
My “go to” recipe would be peanut butter fingers- a bar with an oatmeal cookie base and coated with chocolate then drizzled with peanut butter mixed with confectioner’s sugar and cream.
Or chocolate crazy cake- a dense fudgey cake that doesn’t have any eggs in it.
I have a lot of “go to” recipes- they help keep me centered- recipes handed down from my mother and grandmothers.
:)
Heidi, that’s a very great way to put it – they keep us centered. I like routine and repetition and familiarity. :)
I agree with Heidi on that one. Because I haven’t really had much of a kitchen to cook in over the last month or so with a reno going on I’ve turned to making recipes I’ve made loads of times before to keep things easy. It has been a real pleasure and relaxation to make food that I know really well – something lovely about making a favourite even better through repeated effort.
I have a custard apple tart that is my favorite that is out of a French Bistro cookbook. Also gougère when guests come to dinner.
Now, I’m hungry. :-)
Gougere! I love those too – I use a Dorie Greenspan recipe which is almost foolproof!
Waw!! Your white chocolate Bundt cake with the diffrent drippings of chocolate over the top looks amazing & just STUNNINg, Celia!
Waw!!! MMMMM,..too!
I just love baking bundt cake on the rainy day. I love your white chocolate bundt cake recipe. It seems like something I could use during the holidays :)
I was just thinking actually that’s not a crazy amount of chocolate, only 115gms…ahh, miss read it…230gms, that’s more like it. It must be lovely and moist with that yoghurt in it too.
Standby recipes, I’m not sure I have any….always have to have some sort of biscuit at hand, but there generally isn’t a recipe its what I have available. Maybe this cake will be my new family standby.
That’s a serious cake! My go-to cake is a chocolate zucchini cake. I love seeing people’s faces (especially kids) when I tell them what’s in it!
Sophie, Tes, thank you!
Brydie, the original recipe uses sour cream, but I find the greek yoghurt works perfectly well and is less evil. Would you get white chocolate past Mr Chocolate? ;-)
Sue, thank you – I’ve never tried a chocolate and zucchini cake before (although I know there’s one on the Chocolate and Zucchini blog!).
Psst… I have a new bundt tin, the one with the swirly top… I haven’t used it yet… got to make a cake in it soon. Do you have any 10 cup recipes written in grams, oh Queen of the conversions? I just want a plain sponge base and then I can decide what to do with it. Maybe I need to buy a bundt book?
That’s such a glamorous rendition of the white choc bundt. I love those drizzles. They look spectacular!! :)
I don’t have a standby anything, apart from white milk toast bread, the only bread I can do without looking it up first as it’s the one that gets made most often.
Jo, don’t buy the bundt book – I think a lot of them have recipes that use packaged cake mixes as the base. I’ll try and think if there’s a recipe for 10 cups – it’s an odd measurement, and almost all my pans are that size, which means I end up making either smaller cakes, or have an excess of batter.
This one looks wicked enough without the caramelised bit ….. urrh, but how do you do the caramelised bit?
Before I started this blog, I had three chocolate standbys – all really good, but now I’ve discovered quite how many chocolate things there are to make, I can hardly bring myself to bake the same thing twice. They were Gina’s Fudge Brownies, Nigella’s damp chocolate cake (which I still haven’t made since starting the blog) and a lovely rich chocolate polenta cake which I also haven’t made since starting my blog.
Now, I have another one to try.
Choc, David Lebovitz posted about caramelising white chocolate in the oven – I wrote a post about it here. It’s very moreish, but fiddly to make, although it was fun to play around with. You always astound me with new chocolate recipes on your blog – I feel like I’ve run out of ideas already. :)
this cake looks so beautiful!……..i love it. thanks for sharing this.
The cake I have been making for more than 25 years is a chestnut chocolate torte from a very early Womens’ Weekly cookbook – the second one ever I think. It is fabulous and never fails to impress, especially when I double the size.
Ah that looks like a good use for white chocolate ;-)
I’m cooking the NYT Cookies a lot these days and they are going down rather well. They are a nice chocolate chip but sprinkled ever so lightly with fleur du sel.
Oh My. What a showstopper it is too Celia, I’m not a huge white chocolate fan, but this one looks awesome. Must have … :)
Black Book, Anna, thank you!
Deb, chestnut torte! That’s an unusual recipe for the AWW, since chestnuts aren’t all that common here. Does it used tinned chestnuts or fresh?
Gill, I must try the salt + cookie thing again – we’re not huge fans of the US trend to add salt to sweet things, like salted caramels. Maybe I’m missing something there…
Cake looks GORGEOUS Celia!
Now that i make the effort to only ever buy top quality white chocolate, I’ve discovered that I quite enjoy cooking with it.
I think it was those horrible “Milky Bars” that I ate as a kid that put me off!
A, thanks for the link to the Callebaut free trade choc – exciting news! I wasn’t a milky bar kid either, but good white chocolate in cakes was an eye-opener!
Celia, you never fail to impress and inspire with your Bundt cake recipes! I have to share credit with you for coming 3rd in a bake-off at a local festival a few months back :) it was my first go at a Bundt and I have started a collection of tins since then!
Can’t wait to try this white chocolate one…
Leah, congratulations! That’s very exciting! It’s probably too late to warn you that bundt tins are addictive..hehe..
This sure is an impressive looking cake! I imagine it’s dense and delicious.
Thanks Claire! It’s very delicious, and now, two days later, it’s all gone. ;-)
What a magnificent beautyCelia! I would hesitate in cutting it but then hunger and lust would no doubt take over :P
Lovely cake Celia! You sure do have a great repertory of recipes. I’ve got a couple of bundt tins but usually only make bread in them. My stand-by special dessert is lemon meringue pie–based on the old Common Sense cookbook–but with a flaky crust. My husband always wants it for his birthday ‘cake’.
Wonderful! I’ll have to bookmark this to bake for my housemate’s birthday. I guess I’m known for bring red velvet cupcakes with creamcheese frosting wherever I go.
Ok Celia you really have to tell me your secret for getting cakes to come out of those darn bundt tins looking like yours do! I have the same one as you well know, but have never produced anything that looks even half decent out of it. It either burns, and/or gets half stuck in there. I have tried buttering and flouring – comes out with unattractive white splodges from the flour. Tried spray oil – comes out with wierd burst bubble sort of patterns. Sigh. They are nearly getting to the point of not being able to justify the (large) space they take up in my baking drawer. Help!!
Woman, why didn’t you ring me? ;-) Just spray it with a little canola oil (NOT olive oil), don’t flour it, and drop the oven temp by 20C as the cast aluminium gets very hot. If you use olive oil, it will burn onto the pan and spoil the non-stick coating. You could also brush melted butter into the inside, making sure to get into all the cracks, but just rubbing butter on with a bit of kitchen paper won’t do the trick.
I wrote a bit about baking with the bundt pans here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/10/21/cool-thing-10-bundt-pans/
Thanks for the pointer to your earlier tips Celia! I never knew anything about bundt before. I can see how it would be handy to have at least one lovely looking one so that I could produce a special looking cake without knowing how to decorate with icing/frosting.
Lorraine, thank you! Big Boy has no such hesitation – I usually have to make him wait until it’s cool! :)
Liz, thank you – I’ve never actually baked bread in the bundt tins, except for a kugelhopf I tried once. How do the loaves turn out?
Emma, thank you – I’ve never made a red velvet cake – is there a recipe on your blog? I’ll go check it out now..
What a pretty cake! I have a lovely bundt tin that is still waiting patiently to be used. I also have some mini bundt tins, How handy that this recipe has leftover batter.
I make a gfree passionfruit coconut cake that is my go-to recipe. It looks pretty with the yellow and little black specks, and a little drizzle of passionfruit is all it needs to tart it up for presentation. Easy peasy.
It certainly does look the show stopper! The drizzled chocolate just tops the cake off perfectly.
Hmmm, a great use of eggs and yoghurt here – my sort of recipe. I also have a weak spot for the bundt tin. Just looking at the sugar – 440g, yikes!! But it is a HUGE recipe, so justified. You’ve reminded me about a white chocolate mud cake I haven’t made in absolutely aaages. My standby’s would be an old favourite brownie recipe from my daughter’s school cookbook, and a good old banana bread (cake) recipe I came across several years ago. Always comforting :)
Chef R, I should have known your go-to recipe would have been something interesting! :)
Susan, thank you! :)
Chris, yes, it’s a great recipe for us for the same reason – homegrown eggs and homemade yoghurt! You haven’t come across a clever way to refine sugar at home, have you? ;-)
My daughter #2 would LOVE this – she is a white chocolate addict. And I would too – looking for an excuse to use up my 5kg bag of my callebut white choc buttons. It looks stunning Celia and I’ll never forget that I ‘met’ you on David Lebovitz’s blog through the caramelised white chocolate. Yummy cake!!!!!!!!!
Oh and my go-to, standby bake is a yogurt cake which gets flavoured many ways depending on the demands. I have a couple of apple cake versions, a speculaas one, chocolate, citrus and plain ole vanilla!
Oz, that’s the chocolate we used – Callebaut white choc callets! They’re perfect in this recipe. And agree on the yoghurt cakes – they’re so versatile! I must make one again soon…
I am so envious of all the things that your bake. Your family is very lucky! I would love to be one of your kids!
Stunning photograph…I could just look at it all day…the cake is beautiful…I am sure it tastes heavenly too!
Oh – forgot to say that my go-to cake is banana of various kinds because I always have a bag of frozen over-ripe ones in the freezer and you can dress it up in lots of ways (nuts, chocolate bits, additional fruit, add icing etc).
Sarah, see, banana is one of the few things I don’t eat! But I do know so many people who just adore banana bread and cakes..
PS. How are the renovations going?
Celia – love this cake and have made it a few times now – but my drizzling of the chocolate on top looked no where near as good as yours. There must be a knack to attractive drizzling….
Can I put in a request to try this in Feb?! I,ll bring the cup of tea. My standards are banana cake with chunks of choc, fairy cakes (made in mixer – and I still have a 3year old!) brownies and the choc cake with a jar of jam in it. Finally tried chocolate beetroot cake – I thought truly delicious but beetroot is just a gimmick and P complained that the cake didn’t have enough chocolate!
Anna, of course! Look forward to seeing you then! :)
Alex, I actually use disposable piping bags – one for each type of tempered chocolate. And I pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to set up the chocolate before slicing. Thanks for making it, really REALLY appreciate you always trying out the recipes for me.. :)
Celia, I have an angel food cake tin, could i use it?
I also have a silicone bundt but the cakes always end up somewhat misshapen in that. I’m taking this in to work on Monday so…..
Oz, I think you could use the angel food pan, but I don’t have much luck with silicone. Angel food tins are usually very big (about 16 cups), so it should easily hold all the batter. Remember to grease it well! :)
I got a Bundt pan today……..will send you a photo of the completed masterpiece as soon as its baked!
That looks stunning!
Thanks Maria! :)
just thinking of you today – was browsing at Peter’s of Kensington and admiring their bundt tins but i have never been able to bake one successfully. this looks beautiful!
Thanks Anne! POK is such an addictive place – hope you found something exciting to buy! :)
Hi Celia this is actually how I found your blog years ago – a friend made your White Chocolate Bundt cake for a party and sent me here to get the recipe. I’ve been a fan of yours ever since.
My go-to recipe that never fails is Patricia Wells Pear Tarte Tatin from her Bistro cookbook. Never fails and looks fantastic, tastes even better. Tho I’ve made it so often now I know the quirks ;-).
A new go-to recipe is your fantastic almond and buttermilk cake with jam in it, so easy to make and so delicious!
Deb, thank you for your lovely comments – I’m so happy you’re enjoying the blog! :)
AND FINALLY…… it is in the oven! 15 minutes to go…. one Celia white chocolate bundt cake in metric. Bless you for that xxxx