This white chocolate raspberry Bundt cake is filled with layers of vanilla and raspberry ripple batter, then topped with a rich white chocolate sauce for a deliciously elegant finish. With a white velvet cake base and the fresh flavor of a whole pint of raspberries, this easy mix cake has a perfect flavor balance that'll keep you coming back for more!
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Is this cake a Nothing Bundt Cake copycat?
Now I'm sure many of you that have found this recipe have 1 question at the top of your mind. So I figure we should just start there...
Is this Bundt a copycat of the famous Nothing Bundt Cake White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt?
Well yes...and no (lol)...is the short answer.
This delicious cake has all the same flavors as the beloved bakery favorite - fresh raspberries, rich white chocolate, a moist white velvet cake base. But I chose to make a raspberry batter layer as opposed to just adding whole raspberries into the cake.
When I used just individual raspberries, I found I was wanting more raspberry flavor (I mean...who wouldn't?).
The best way to do that was to make a raspberry batter, as just adding more individual raspberries was going to weigh down the cake and make it difficult to find success with this recipe because of all the water released by the raspberries during the bake.
By making a raspberry batter, we're able to offset that raspberry juice with some extra flour. And we also get a really pretty dark red layer throughout our cake that makes this Bundt a real beauty.
So while I'm sure if you love Nothing Bundt Cake's recipe, you'll love this cake, it is a slightly different take on the white chocolate and raspberry Bundt, that in my opinion is not only a little snazzier, but also much more reliable too!
Ingredient Tips for Better Baking
(Pssst…if you're ready to just get baking, get all the details in the recipe card below!)
- Freeze dried raspberries: while you probably don't have freeze dried raspberries at home, you can find them in most standard and health food grocery stores, as well as some pharmacy snack aisles, and of course, on Amazon. They really are worth searching out because they not only make for a pretty finish, and easy release, but they also add extra raspberry flavor to our raspberry batter layer. And they make a great garnish on top of your cake! (But if you don't have any, the recipe card below offers alternitive options!)
- Baking soda + vinegar: for my cake aficionados out there, you might recognize the baking soda and vinegar combo from classic Red Velvet Cake. This batter is actually pretty similar to red velvet, hence why I consider it a "white velvet" batter. Essentially I started with a red velvet recipe, then removed the cocoa and red coloring. But the remaining ingredients still give you that rich, just slightly acidic, moist cake base that's perfect for this white chocolate covered Bundt.
- Fresh raspberries: because of the water released by frozen raspberries as they thaw, I do recommend using fresh raspberries for this recipe for more consistent results. That said you can use frozen raspberries in a pinch, but just know you might have a slightly denser, wetter batter and very compact final product depending on your particular berries water content.
- White chocolate sauce: this white chocolate sauce (which is really a super easy, 2-ingredient white chocolate ganache), was sooooo good I actually had to give it its own post. So for all the info on how to mix it up and tips to make a perfectly delicious white chocolate glaze, head over to its full post for all the details!
(p.s. for all the basic tips that no one ever taught you, that are super important to help you bake your best, check out my Baking 101 series!)
Special Tools You'll Need
The only special tools you need here are a mixer (either hand or stand) and of course a Bundt pan! A pastry brush is really helpful for prepping the pan too if you have one, but it's not required.
With the baking dynamics of this particular recipe, I found I had the best results with a classic, not super complicated or detailed Bundt pan (get my go-to classic bundt pan here!). A simpler pan allows the batters to stay in their proper layers, and leave you with a pretty, layered look once baked.
How to Make This Bundt from Scratch
(Pssst…if you're ready to just get baking, get all the details in the recipe card below!)
TO MAKE THE GLAZE:
- Mix up the White Chocolate Sauce (check out all the details on the sauce's full post!)
TO MAKE THE VANILLA BATTER:
- Preheat your oven and place your baking rack one rung below the middle.
- Make the raspberry flour by blending the crushed freeze dried raspberries and ¼ cup of flour.
- Grease and dust a 10-cup Bundt pan with the raspberry flour.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.
- Whisk together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and vinegar and set aside.
- Roughly crush the fresh raspberries in a medium-sized mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.
- Combine creamed butter, dry, and wet mixtures until batter is smooth.
TO MAKE THE RASPBERRY BATTER:
- Add about ¼ of the vanilla batter, and a ¼ of flour or raspberry flour blend to the bowl with the crushed raspberries. Stir together with a fork until well combined.
- Layer up your pan with half the vanilla batter, then all the raspberry batter, then the rest of the vanilla batter. For each layer, drop the batter around hte pan in small spoonfuls then use a spatual or knife to spread into an even layer.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes until the cracked ring around the center of the cake is dry, feels fully set, and springs back when gently pressed.
- Cool for 10 minutes, then un-pan and cool fully on a wire rack.
TO GLAZE THE CAKE:
- Once the cake is fully cooled, grab your white chocolate sauce from the fridge. Briefly stir to smooth it out, then glaze your bundt and garish to your liking. Slice, serve, and enjoy!
Check out the full RECIPE WEB STORY for a click-through tutorial!
Make This Recipe Your Own
- Add some citrus: for a flavor twist that's lovely for spring or summer, you can add the zest of two oranges or two lemons to your batter for a bright and citrusy take on this delicious cake.
- Decorate the top: with its red and white color profile, this cake is perfect for so many occassions. Dress it up for Valentine's Day with some extra freeze-dried or fresh raspberries on top, or even dried rose petals. You can also always dress it up with some cute and festive holiday sprinkles for a delicious winter treat that is worthy of your holiday table!
Test Kitchen Tips for Sweet Success
- Prep your pan correctly: there is nothing more important in Bundt recipes than correct pan prep. Here, we're using melted butter and either raspberry flour or just plain all purpose flour to make sure our cake releases well. There is truly nothing worse than doing all of this work, and having half of your cake get stuck in a pan. You can follow the instructions in the recipe card below for exactly how to prep your pan, and also check out my Lemon Sour Cream Bundt Cake post for an even more detailed tutorial.
- Leave the berries a little chunky: I found the raspberry batter worked best when the berries were still a little chunky. So, you want to only do a rough crush on those fresh berries. No worries though if you super pulverized them, you'll still get a delicious batter. You just may have a slightly more dense raspberry layer.
- Take time with the layering: the mixing steps in this cake are pretty easy, so the only slightly tricky thing is the layering of the batters. First and foremost, know that the layering will not make or break this cake. If your white batter gets into your red, or your red into your white, you'll still have a super delicious cake in the end. But my best advice is just to take your time with the layering. Add the batter to the pan in lots of little spoonfuls as opposed to two big plops that you have to spread a lot further to even out. You can check out the process shots above to see just what I mean!
- Make sure your glaze and cake are fully cooled: temperature is really important when we go to glaze our cake. So make sure that your white chocolate ganache has fully set up in the fridge so it's nice and thick, and that your Bundt cake is fully cooled. If the cake is still warm, it will instantly make that sauce super runny, which while still delicious, won't be the prettiest look for your cake.
More Tips + FAQs
Can you make this bundt cake ahead of time?
Yes! Especially before slicing, this cake will keep well. So you can make it up to 2 days ahead of service if you like. In that case, just make sure to wrap it well, air-tight at room temperature for storage, and then glaze it right before serving.
How do you store leftover cake? Can you freeze bundt cake?
To keep this cake fresh, wrap a small piece of plastic wrap over the cut ends, then keep the whole bundt fully wrapped, air-tight for up to 4 days at room temperature. That may seem like a short shelf life, but because we have A LOT of moisture in this cake, it does mean it will keep for a shorter amount of time than your average Bundt.
While you can freeze this cake, I find its moist and rich crumb doesn't fully return after thawing, so I wouldn't recommend freezing this cake before serving for the best results.
Can I add chocolate chips to the batter?
I actually tried this in my early versions of the cake.
What I found was the white chocolate caramelized because of the super long bake time Bundts require. Thus, the chips left a lot of brown spots in my cake. It tasted totally fine, but aesthetically, just wasn't super pleasing to me.
Also because white chocolate is naturally so sweet, and we have all of that white chocolate glaze on top, I figured we could do without it in the batter, hence why there's no white chocolate in this cake base.
Of course though, if you'd like to experiment, you're welcome to try adding a ½ cup of white chocolate chips after you've pulled out the batter that you need for the raspberry portion. If you give it a try, I'd love to hear what you think in the comments below!
Do I have to make the raspberry layer, or can I just add in raspberry to all the batter on their own?
Believe it or not, I actually had to do 10 versions of this recipe before I found one that I was confident would work well for you guys. A huge part of that was battling the fact that the raspberries released a lot of water during the bake. But I still wanted to still use those fresh berries for their amazing flavor.
The solution to make sure you had a stable batter, that would produce great results and not get stuck in the pan, was to make a raspberry batter where we could offset the raspberries juices with that extra ¼ cup of flour.
Because of that dynamic, I don't recommend reverting to just adding raspberries to an all vanilla batter. I think you'll find, that'll result in a really dense, even rubbery underbaked cake.
Is there something other than white chocolate sauce I can use for a glaze?
Absolutely! If you feel the white chocolate is going to be too rich for your taste, and you'd like a different glaze to go with your raspberry Bundt, you can use the lemon glaze from my Lemon Bundt Cake recipe or the cream cheese glaze from my Red Velvet Bundt Cake recipe.
Other Recipes You'll Love
If you're a Bundt lover, be sure to check out my two other Bundt cakes: a Lemon Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze and a Red Velvet Bundt with Cream Cheese Glaze. For other raspberry treats, be sure not to miss out on my Homemade Jammy Dodgers Cookie Sandwiches, and my Mini Victoria Sponge Cakes!
⭐ If you bake up this tasty recipe please give it a ⭐ rating in the recipe card or leave a comment and feel free to ask any questions at the bottom of the page to help others find their way to this sweet recipe too! ⭐
~The Sweet Recipe Card~
White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake
Ingredients
FOR THE GLAZE:
- ⅔ cup high-quality white chocolate chips or chopped bars
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
FOR THE PAN:
- ½ cup whole freeze-dried raspberries (*1)
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted)
FOR THE CAKE:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk (or regular milk)
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
FOR THE RASPBERRY BATTER:
- 1 ½ cups 1 pint fresh raspberries
- ¼ cup all-purpose or raspberry flour blend (*2)
Instructions
TO MAKE THE GLAZE:
- Mix up the White Chocolate Sauce: mix up some easy, rich white chocolate sauce (head over to my full post on this delicious sauce for instructions!). Once ready, loosely cover the sauce bowl with plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge to set up and thicken until you’re ready to glaze your cake in a few hours.
TO MAKE THE VANILLA BATTER:
- Preheat and prep oven: preheat your oven to 350°F, and place a baking rack one rung below the middle, with the remaining racks below.
- Make the raspberry flour: place freeze-dried raspberries in a zip-top bag and crush by hand or with a rolling pin. Combine crushed raspberries in the bag or a small bowl with the ¼ cup flour until well blended and set aside (see notes if you don’t have freeze-dried raspberries*1).
- Grease and dust a 10-cup Bundt pan: brush your pan with melted butter thoroughly throughout the inside of the pan using a pastry brush,*3 then sprinkle the raspberry flour blend (or just all-purpose flour*1) into the pan to cover the center ring. Rotate and knock the pan around over a sink or trashcan to fully cover the rest of the butter in flour. Knock all excess raspberry flour out onto a paper towel for use later in the raspberry batter.
- Prepare dry ingredients: combine the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a small bowl until well-blended and set aside.
- Prepare wet ingredients: in another small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and vinegar, and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar: in a large bowl cream together butter and sugar using a hand or stand mixer for 3-4 minutes on medium-high speed until very light and fluffy.
- Combine butter, dry, and wet mixtures: add the wet and dry ingredient mixtures to the creamed butter. Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, then medium-high for another 30 seconds until batter is smooth.
TO MAKE THE RASPBERRY BATTER:
- Prepare fresh raspberries: place the fresh raspberries in a medium-sized mixing bowl and crush with a fork until there are some big and some small pieces (you don’t need to pulverize them, just break them up a bit).
- Mix some vanilla batter with raspberries and flour: add about ¼ of the vanilla batter (around 350g) to the bowl with the crushed fresh raspberries. Add the additional ¼ cup all-purpose flour to the bowl as well (or a blend using your remaining raspberry flour*2). Stir together with a fork until well combined.
- Layer up your batters - half the vanilla, all the raspberry, the rest of the vanilla: fill your pan with half the vanilla batter and gently spread it to the outer and inner edges in a smooth layer (a small offset spatula works great here!). Add the raspberry batter on top in 10-12 spoonfuls spread around the pan, and gently spread it into a layer on top of the vanilla batter (it’s okay if the layers blend a little) Add the second half of the vanilla batter on top in 10-12 spoonfuls again, and spread it into an even layer one more time.
- Bake up your bundt: bake for 45-55 minutes until the cracked ring around the center of the cake is dry, feels fully set, and springs back when gently pressed.*4
- Cool and then un-pan: cool cake for 10 minutes in the pan, then flip the pan over onto a wire rack and remove the pan to allow the cake to finish cooling completely. If the cake is sticking to the pan, gently use a small offset spatula or dinner knife to loosen the edges where possible, then knock the pan on the wire rack a couple of times until it releases.
TO GLAZE THE CAKE:
- Drip, slice and enjoy! Once the cake is fully cooled, grab your white chocolate sauce from the fridge. Briefly stir it with a whisk or fork to smooth it out. Slowly pour and spread glaze in a ring around the top of the cake, in the center of the arch, and allow it to slowly drip down the sides.*5 Allow the glaze to set for at least 15-20 minutes, then cut off a slice (and maybe one for a friend too!) and enjoy this delicious and colorful treat!
Test Kitchen Tips
- *1 Don’t know where to buy dried raspberries? They’re actually not too hard to find in most standard and health food grocery stores, pharmacy snack aisles, and on Amazon. But if you’d like to make this recipe without them, no problem. You can use straight flour to dust the pan, just know it will produce a lighter white finish on the outside of your bundt. For the raspberry batter, you’ll just use a full ¼ cup all-purpose flour as well.
- *2 Flour for the raspberry batter: if you have leftover raspberry flour blend from the pan prep, instead of adding just ¼ cup of all-purpose flour to the raspberry batter, you can add anywhere from a teaspoon to 2 tablespoons of raspberry flour into your ¼ cup measuring cup (feel free to use however much you have left), and then top the rest of the cup off with all-purpose flour for a little extra raspberry flavor.
- *3 Pan prep: Make sure you take the time to grease and dust your pan well as it's the most important step in a Bundt recipe! I prefer to use melted butter, brushed on thoroughly with a pastry brush to make sure you cover the whole inside of the pan. You can also use a paper towel dipped in the melted butter to coat your pan thoroughly if you don't have a pastry brush, you may just need to melt a second tablespoon of butter for the paper towel method.
- *4 Roasting flour: early on in the bake time, you’ll probably smell that raspberry flour inside the top of the pan roasting. Don’t worry about that at all, as it’s totally normal and the flour isn’t relevant to your cake since it’ll stay behind on the pan in the end anyways.
- *5 Have leftover sauce? Check out my White Chocolate Sauce post for ideas on all the other tasty treats you can dress up with any extra sauce.
- Can I use frozen raspberries? Because frozen raspberries release more water than fresh in many cases, I found fresh raspberries worked best in this recipe for both flavor and texture.
- Add an Orange or Lemon Twist: for a citrusy twist, add the zest of two large lemons or oranges (about 2 tablespoons of zest) in with the butter and sugar during the first batter mixing step.
Nutrition
I hope you and your loved ones enjoy this recipe and when you give these a try, please share (literally and electronically!) and tag me on Instagram or Facebook @mint.and.mallow.kitchen so I can see all your amazing sweets and help you with any baking conundrums that come up!
Love, light and sweets always,
Jocelyn
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