You may have noticed that, in recent months, I’ve gone from doing two posts a week to one. It’s not because I am not enjoying baking or blogging or anything like that. I’m just generally burnt out. I started to feel it around the holidays (every baker’s busy season), but tried to keep going until I realized that it’s okay to slow down a little bit, especially if the alternative is having a meltdown. I’m working more than ever and getting back to a more pre-pandemic level of socializing, and combining that with my natural introversion and some classic depression and anxiety led me to a bit of a breaking point.
Rather than disappearing completely (which I didn’t want to do), I’ve been taking it easy on myself for the time being. It’s been good for my brain and put some joy back in this place. Though I still feel some unnecessary shame for cutting back on posting, I will say that lightening my load has resulted in what I feel is a higher quality of baked goods on here. I really want every one to be a showstopper. Today’s Cookies & Cream Bundt Cake definitely fits that bill!
I mean, if the icing and decorative pieces of Oreo don’t immediately grab your attention, the chunks of cookie throughout the cake just might do it. There are 30 Oreos in the cake batter alone—we are not skimping on the cookies in this cookies & cream!
The batter for this bundt is just another variation on my favorite recipe. Why is it my favorite? Because it’s so easy to make! Simply throw all the ingredients in a bowl and mix the living daylights out of them for 3 1/2 minutes, then fold in the Oreos before baking. Here, I’ve added a little sour cream for flavor, texture and to keep all the Oreo pieces from sinking to the bottom. That means you get a little Oreo in every bite!
Isn’t she gorgeous? I mean, I’ve never seen an ugly bundt cake, but one with this many Oreos?! That’s showstopper material.
Cookies & Cream Bundt Cake
makes one 10-cup capacity bundt
Cake:
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 16 pieces
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
3/4 cup milk (preferably whole), room temperature
1/4 cup full-fat sour cream, room temperature
30 Oreos (regular or Double Stuf), cut into quarters
Icing & Garnish:
1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
2-3 tablespoons whole milk
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
4-6 Oreos, cut/broken into chunks
Place an oven rack in the center position. Preheat oven to 325F. Heavily grease a bundt pan with softened butter (or shortening) and dust with flour. Set aside.
Make the cake. Combine all ingredients except Oreos in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to mix on low for 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes. Batter will be thick. Fold in Oreos.
Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth the top with a silicone spatula or wooden spoon. Tap full pan on the counter five times to release any large air bubbles. Bake 65-75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in several places comes out clean.
Let cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Run a thin, flexible knife around all exposed edges. Invert cake onto a cooling rack and let cake cool completely. Cake may be made up to a day in advance; it will keep double-wrapped in plastic wrap.
Ice and garnish the cake. Place a cooling rack over a sheet of parchment. Place cake on the cooling rack.
Make the icing. In a small bowl, use a fork to whisk together confectioners sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and salt. Mixture should be very thick, but pourable. If it’s too thick, add more milk by the teaspoon; if it’s too thin, add more confectioners sugar in 2 tablespoon increments. Pour over cake. Immediately scatter chopped Oreos over the top. Let sit for 20 minutes to set. Move cake to a serving plate before slicing and serving.
Leftover cake will keep covered at room temperature for up to three days or in the refrigerator for up to five. Oreo garnish will soften over time.
Funfetti, confetti, whatever you want to call it, white cake dotted with rainbow sprinkles is one of my 
I haven’t made many layer cakes in the last year—it’s hard to believe I used to make 10-20 a month!—but that doesn’t mean I haven’t fed my craving for 
Like the traditional 
I know that restrictions are starting to loosen as vaccines becomes more available, but if you’re not attending gatherings that require a cake of this size, don’t worry, I’m not either. What that means is that I happen to know that this recipe halves well and can be baked in a loaf pan for your immediate pod or just yourself. I don’t know about you, but dipping into my own personal Funfetti cake over the course of a week sounds a lot like happiness to me.
There is just something about bundt cakes. They’re one of my absolute favorite things to bake—they’re low-maintenance crowd pleasers *and* I get to feel like the queen of the universe every time I get one to release cleanly from the pan. That kind of glory is hard to come by these days.
This Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake is utterly spectacular, if I do say so myself. Lemon-scented and studded with a bevy of blueberries, it’s the perfect summertime cake. Oh, and it’s gorgeous too.
The base is a sour cream spin on my favorite 
As for the lemon portion of this Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake, it’s as simple as rubbing zest into sugar to release those good lemony oils and finishing the cake with a simple lemon icing. Easy peasy.
Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cake is perfect for any summer occasion, including the Fourth of July. There’s no melting frosting or chocolate to worry about, and just about everyone loves the combination of blueberries and lemon.
I know a lot of us aren’t having or attending gatherings large enough to finish this cake in one go, so feel free to halve it and put it 
I try very hard to keep things simple around here. Recipes, techniques, flavors, everything. That doesn’t mean super easy or uncomplicated—just not over-complicated. No more steps or ingredients than absolutely necessary, you know?
That said, sometimes a simple recipe like this Vanilla Bean Bundt requires several tries, each with a different technique or ingredient, all resulting in…excellent cakes. Really.
Each one began with the same basic recipe that I’ve used for my 
The cake I love the most is #1, so it’s the one I’ve posted below. The seeds of one vanilla bean are whirled into the batter, and the leftover pod is used to make a syrup that is brushed onto the baked cake before icing is poured over the top. The syrup is the element that makes all the difference here—it keeps the cake from being even the slightest bit crumbly, gives it a subtle glossiness, and makes it so that you can smell its dreamy vanilla aroma within a 6 foot radius. Yes, really!
I also like that the pods in the recipe don’t go to waste. I’ve seen other bakers suggest using empty vanilla pods to make vanilla sugar, but how much vanilla sugar does anyone actually use? You could use them to make extract, I suppose, but that takes weeks or months. This way at least one of the pods is used directly in the cake. As for the second, let me know what you do with leftover vanilla pods. I’m interested!
For those of you wondering about the cost of this whole operation, I won’t lie to you: vanilla bean anything is pricey. I buy my vanilla beans at Costco and Sahadi’s, and they run about $6 apiece. You could use two tablespoons of vanilla bean paste (1 per pod) instead, but the paste is about $35 upfront. A single jar contains enough to make this cake four times though, so it’s worth the investment. Oh, and this is a warning that the dark color of the vanilla bean paste will affect the aesthetic outcome of the cake, but only slightly. It will still be absurdly delicious, as all vanilla bean things are.
Keep it simple, y’all.
e2 bakes brooklyn 