The Best Crack Cake Recipe

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This old fashioned white wine Bundt cake starts with a box of yellow cake mix and instant vanilla pudding and finishes with a buttery glaze. It’s affectionately known as “Crack Cake,” and after one bite, you’ll see why. It’s hard to put your fork down!

Crack cake is an over-the-top white wine Bundt cake that starts with yellow cake mix, instant vanilla pudding, and a little cinnamon. It’s simple to mix together, but the buttery wine glaze is what makes it worth coming back for another slice.

After baking, you pour the warm glaze over the cake and let it soak in for an hour. It seeps into the soft, fluffy cake and leaves a sweet, buttery coating on the outside without making the cake soggy or needing icing.

I’ve tested this crack cake with both regular white wine and nonalcoholic white wine, so you have a tested alternative if you’re skipping the regular wine. The nonalcoholic wine works as a 1:1 swap in both the cake and glaze, with the same moist texture and buttery finish. It also lets you keep the wine flavor without substituting grape juice or apple cider, which can make an already very sweet cake even sweeter.

Why Is It Called Crack Cake

Nobody knows who first made this cake or named it, and there’s no official origin story. But it’s just a white wine bundt cake. The name is slang for “addictive,” the same way people say crack chicken or Christmas crack. One bite and the name makes sense. The butter wine glaze soaks into the cake and coats the outside of the cake, so every slice is rich, sticky, and hard to stop eating. Some people call it wine cake or white wine cake instead.

Ingredients You’ll Need

• Yellow cake mix. The base for all the good stuff we’re adding. Yellow cake has a buttery flavor and holds up well to the extra ingredients. Use a 15.25-ounce box.
• Instant vanilla pudding. Adds extra vanilla flavor and helps keep the cake moist. You’ll need a 3.4-ounce box.
• Granulated and brown sugar. Sweeten the cake and round out the flavors of the wine and cake mix. Brown sugar adds richness, especially since we’re skipping the frosting.
• Ground cinnamon. A traditional ingredient in crack cake that adds warmth to the vanilla and butter flavors.
• Kosher salt. Balances the sweetness and brings out the other flavors.
• Eggs. Give the cake structure so it can support all the additions. Room-temperature eggs blend into the batter more easily.
• Water. Thins the batter so everything mixes evenly.
• Vegetable oil. Keeps the cake moist and gives it a soft, tender crumb.
• White wine. A traditional ingredient that adds subtle flavor without making the cake taste too boozy. I use a dry white wine, like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. I’ve also used wine with the alcohol removed, which works as a 1:1 swap.
• Vanilla extract. Builds on the vanilla in the pudding and rounds out the cake’s flavor.

For The Wine Butter Glaze:

• Salted butter. Adds buttery richness and helps keep the sugar coating from setting into a hard crust.
• Granulated sugar. Sweetens the glaze and gives the cake its sweet outer coating.
• White wine. Carries the wine flavor into the glaze. Use the same wine you used in the batter, including wine with the alcohol removed.
• Vanilla extract. Adds a little warmth and ties the glaze’s flavor to the cake.
• Salt. A small pinch balances the sweetness of the glaze.

How To Make Crack Cake

Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Generously grease a Bundt pan with “Pam Baking Spray”. 

Step 2:

In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine.

Step 3:

In a separate bowl or large mixing cup, combine the eggs, water, oil, wine, and vanilla and mix until well blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Using a hand mixer or whisk, beat the mixture for about two minutes, until all ingredients are well combined and the mixture has thickened slightly.

Step 4:

Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake in a 350ºF oven for about 45-50 minutes, until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Step 5:

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, wine, and salt. Melt and bring to a boil.

Turn the heat down so the mixture doesn’t boil over and simmer for 2-3 minutes until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla.

Step 6:

With a skewer or a long toothpick, poke holes all over the top of the cake. 

Slowly and carefully (because it’s hot) pour the butter wine glaze over the top of the hot cake. It’ll look like too much syrup, but that cake will absorb all of it. So don’t skimp on the syrup!

Allow the cake to sit for an hour in the pan, soaking up the glaze.

Step 7:

After the cake has soaked up the glaze and is still warm, put your serving plate over the top of the bundt pan. Flip the whole cake and plate over, inverting the pan. The cake should slide out, if not, knock on the pan a little to shake the cake loose.

Allow the cake to sit on the serving plate until fully cooled. Slice and serve with whipped cream, fresh fruit, or homemade strawberry compote!

What Is The Best Cake Mix For This Crack Cake Recipe?

I’ve made this crack cake several times using Duncan Hines yellow cake mix and Betty Crocker Super Moist cake mixes (both yellow and vanilla versions). They all gave me the light, fluffy texture I wanted, even with the pudding and other additions.

I also tested the “Butter Yellow” version, but the cake didn’t rise as well or turn out as fluffy. Based on those results, I recommend sticking with the Yellow or Vanilla mix.

Use 15.25 ounces of dry cake mix. The amounts of pudding, eggs, water, oil, and wine in this recipe are balanced for that quantity. Using less cake mix changes that balance and can leave the cake overly wet or dense instead of moist and fluffy. Check the package weight before baking.

What Wine Should I use?

I use Sauvignon Blanc, but any dry white wine works. Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay are the other common picks. I prefer a dry wine over a sweet one, since the cake and glaze already have plenty of sugar. That said, readers have made this with Moscato and peach wine and loved it, so if you have a sweeter bottle open, now’s the time to use it!

Crack Cake Recipe Without Wine

If you don’t want to use wine for this recipe, you can use any non alcoholic white wine, which is still a fermented grape, but goes through a process to remove the alcohol.

I’ve used a non alcoholic savignon blanc in this recipe, and it works great. You can find other varities of alcohol removed white wines at the grocery store, so if Savignon Blanc is unavailable, any white will be a good sub.

You can use sparkling grape juice or apple cider to remove the wine entirely, it will just make the cake sweeter.

How to Keep Your Bundt Cake from Sticking

Grease every groove of your Bundt pan well. I’ve had cakes leave their tops behind, and there’s no frosting to hide the damage!

• My first choice: baking spray with flour. I used Pam Baking Spray, and my cake slipped right out without flour clumps on the surface.
• Grease and flour. This worked well on my first cake, but left visible flour patches that couldn’t be brushed off after adding the glaze. Coat thoroughly, then tap out the excess flour.
• Grease and almond flour. My friend Liz successfully used this method for her Gingerbread Bundt Cake.
• Grease and chopped nuts. Grease with butter or cooking spray, then sprinkle chopped nuts into the bottom. They’ll become the topping once you flip the cake.

Important Tip: Turn the cake out while it’s still warm, after the glaze has soaked in. If it cools completely, the glaze can harden and stick to the pan.

Storage

I leave my cake out on the countertop with just the cut ends covered in plastic wrap. It’ll stay soft and moist for about 4-5 days at room temperature. This Crack Cake has a lot of moisture, so if you live in a particularly humid climate, you may need to store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge.

Freezing Leftover Cake:

Slice up the cake and wrap individually in plastic wrap. These will freeze well for up to 2 months. Allow to thaw at room temperature before serving.

FAQs

Looking for more decadent recipes like Crack Cake? Check these out below:

• Sea Creature Birthday Cake
• Rich and Creamy Chocolate Cream Pie
• Cookies and Cream Cheesecake

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