Crack Cake Recipes:

Wine, butter glaze, boxed yellow cake mix, and instant vanilla pudding come together to make this extremely decadent Crack Cake recipe. This cake ought to have a warning on it that you can’t put your fork down!

Why This Crack Cake Is Perfect for You:

Now, allow me to be completely honest with you about this Crack Cake Recipe. Without a doubt, this cake is the best I’ve ever had. This cake is extremely addictive, just like its name suggests. It’s blatantly sweet, rich, and decadent; there’s nothing redeeming about it. Did I also mention that it steeps in wine while baking?

This cake is extremely fluffy, light-textured, and moist. The cake tastes amazing and is just the right amount of sugary. All of the richness is tempered and balanced by the added salt, the wine’s dryness, and the warmth of the cinnamon. This cake is fantastic made ahead and is very easy to slice, making it a great choice for a potluck or special occasion!

What’s in this crack cake recipe?

A crack cake slice topped with strawberries.
In essence, Crack Cake is an extravagant white wine bundt cake.
The ingredients are very basic: one box of vanilla instant pudding, one box of yellow cake mix, cinnamon, brown and white sugar and of course, white wine!
All the cake ingredients are combined and baked in a bundt pan.
After the cake is taken out of the oven, it is covered with a sweet, buttery wine syrup and let test for an hour.
Your heart will melt as the syrup seeps into the cake and glazes the outside.
This cake is really moist, pleasantly light fluffy, and quite irresistible due to all the additives to the cake mix.
That’s probably the reason this recipe is called Crack Cake! It tastes amazing and is absolutely one of the easiest cakes to prepare!

Cake ingredients:

One package (15.25 oz) of yellow cake mix
One box (3.4 oz) of instant vanilla custard
A quarter cup of sugar crystals
Half a cup of dense brown sugar
Two tsp finely ground cinnamon
A quarter-tsp kosher salt
Four big eggs, at room temperature
Half a cup of water
One-half cup vegetable oil
A half-cup of white wine
two tsp of essence from vanilla
What you need to make the wine butter glaze:
Half a cup, or one stick, of unsalted butter
One cup of sugar
A quarter cup of white wine
One tsp vanilla essence
a little pinch of salt

Guidelines:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Apply plenty of “Pam Baking Spray” or cook spray/butter and flour to a bundt pan (see the section below for bundt pan preparation).
In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, vanilla custard mix, sugars, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine.
In a large mixing cup or separate basin, thoroughly blend the eggs, water, oil, wine, and vanilla.
Pour the wet components into the dry ingredients.
Using a hand mixer, beat the mixture on medium speed for about two minutes, or until all the ingredients are well combined and the liquid has thickened significantly.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Set oven temperature to 350º. When a toothpick or skewer is inserted in the center of the cake, it should come out clean after 45 to 50 minutes of baking.
Make the wine butter glaze as soon as the cake is taken out of the oven.
Pour the wine into the saucepan to create the glaze.
In a small pot, combine the butter, sugar, wine, vanilla, and salt. Heat thoroughly and melt.
After lowering the heat to avoid a boil, simmer the mixture for two to three minutes, or until the sugar has dissolved and the alcohol has evaporated.
Using a long toothpick or skewer, make holes all over the top of the cake.
Pouring syrup over the whole bundt cake.
Because the butter wine glaze is hot, it should be poured over the top of the cake very slowly and gently.
The cake will soak up all of the syrup, even though it will look like there is too much. Thus, make sure to use a lot of syrup!
Give the cake an hour to absorb the glaze in the pan.

Which cake mix works best for this Crack Cake Recipe?

Using a classic yellow cake mix is a guaranteed success. I found that, after making several attempts at this Crack Cake recipe, I really liked the Betty Crocker “Super Moist” mixes. The “Vanilla” and “Yellow” standard varieties both did remarkably well.

I tried the “Butter Yellow” cake mix, but for this recipe, I wasn’t too impressed. It did not rise or become as puffy. I’ve also read that other recipes utilize Duncan Hines mixes rather nicely! So go ahead and try those if you can’t find the Betty Crocker ones I suggested earlier.

Which Wine I Should Pour?

For this recipe, I used a Sauvignon Blanc. But feel free to use any white wine you choose. These would also be really good options. Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio have been used in numerous recipes. My preference is for a dry wine—not too sweet—because this cake is already rather sugary.

Moreover, you shouldn’t worry if you don’t drink wine. The wine eventually loses all of its flavor and the alcohol evaporates altogether. But you should never use any product that claims to be “cooking wine.” That’s a life lesson as well as a cooking idea. Because cooking wine is salted or seasoned, it is flavorless.

Crack Cake Recipes, Boxed Yellow Cake And Instant Vanilla