A friend recently gave us some mini-bundt cakes from Nothing But Bundts in Northland-Kansas City. They were fantastic – so beautiful and so delicious! I was inspired to order a mini-bundt cake pan and make some…mine certainly are not equal to theirs, but it was a fun experiment.
If you want to get inspired – or taste one of the best bundt cakes ever, I would recommend you stop by their bakery. Information, photos and directions are available in the link below:
https://www.nothingbundtcakes.com/
Doing a search for mini-bundt cakes on Pinterest will result in many more ideas!
I used a pumpkin bundt cake recipe that I had used in the past. Whisk your flour, soda, spices and salt together. Combine sugars and oil and mix until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each one. Add in the vanilla and mix.
Add flour mixture to egg mixture, alternately with the pumpkin, mixing just until combined after each addition.
For ease of filling, place batter in a zip lock bag, cut off the corner and pipe it into the prepared mini-bundt pan. Bake 18-22 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from the oven, place on cooling rack. Cool for 5-10 minutes before removing the mini-bundts from the baking pan. Gently twist cakes to remove them from the pan, you may need to use a knife to gently lift cake out, if stuck.
While the cake is cooling, make the frosting. The Cream Cheese Frosting, below, tastes great with the pumpkin. To make the piping easy, place the frosting in a quart-sized zip lock bag, cut off the corner and be creative. You can add nuts, sprinkles or other decorations. Another option is to lightly dust the cakes with powdered sugar, once they are completely cooled.
Sprinkles add a fun pop of color to the cakes, you could use holiday decorations for any season, or put a decoration in the center of each cake.
Most regular bundt cake recipes could be used for these, those recipes will make about 18 mini-bundt cakes. Usually both are baked at 350 degrees, but a regular bundt cake will need to be baked for about 60 minutes, and these only take 18-22 minutes. Don’t these look fun?
Pumpkin Mini-Bundt Cakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Mini-Bundts
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon*
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated or ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 15 oz can pure pumpkin, not pie filling
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 2 tablespoons browned butter cooled (or 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature)
- 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- 1 pinch salt
- Optional – sprinkles, nuts, decorations
Instructions
Mini-Bundts°
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray mini-bundt cake pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside.
- Combine sugars and oil and combine with mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each additional. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
- Add the flour mixture to egg mixture alternately with the pumpkin (beginning and ending with the dry ingredients), stirring just enough to combine each time. To fill the mini-bundt pans easily, place the batter in a large ziplock bag, cut off a corner and pipe the cake dough into the pans. You can also spoon it in.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place on cooling rack. Cool for about 5-10 minutes before removing. Gently twist each cake to remove, you may need to use a knife to loosed some of the cakes if they are sticking. Cook completely on rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
- While the cakes are cooling, make the frosting. With mixture, beat the cream cheese until it is smooth. Add in cooled browned butter (or softened butter), mix well. Gradually add in powdered sugar and mix until combined. Mix in vanilla, salt and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat until smooth. Test consistency.
- An easy way to pipe the icing on these cakes, is to put the frosting in a quart sized ziplock bag, cut off a corner and gently squeeze to decorate. If you prefer to drizzle the icing, add about 1 more tablespoon of milk and drizzle over top and sides of cake.
- Add sprinkles, nuts or other decorations. Have fun!
How to Brown Butter
- Place 2 tablespoons of butter in a small light colored pan, not nonstick. Place on medium heat, when it starts to melt, start stirring and watch carefully. As it melts, it will pop and fizzle. It usually takes about 5 minutes for butter to brown, once you notice little brown specks in the bottom of the pan, remove from the stove immediately and pour butter in a heat proof bowl to cool. What a depth of flavor this adds!
