Neapolitan Bundt Cake

Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla batter all spooned into one pan that turns into a great looking and even better tasting dessert.

This recipe from The America's Test Kitchen's Family Baking Book is one of my favorite cake recipes. A jam syrup underneath a chocolate glaze keeps this cake moist for days. I made it into single-serving sized Bundt and mini loaf cakes but feel free to make one large one in a 12-cup Bundt pan.

This recipe might seem complicated, but if you stay organized it's very easy, give it a try!

You'll need:

3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups (14 ounces) granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
1/3 cup chocolate syrup, such as Hershey's
2 Tbsp. Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 cup strawberry jam
3 drops red food coloring
1 recipe chocolate glaze

For my mini cakes I used one 6-portion mini Bundt pan, and one 8-portion mini loaf pan (batter only filled half, or 4, mini loaves), you can also use one 12-cup Bundt pan. Grease and flour pan thoroughly, I used a baking spray that contains flour.

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon juice together.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer (I used my stand mixer) on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs and the egg yolk, one at a time, until combined, about 1 minute.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the remaining buttermilk mixture. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated, scraping down the bowl as necessary during mixing.

Divide the batter evenly among three bowls (as you can see, my batter weighed just over 3 lbs. 3 oz. so I put 1 lb. each into the other 2 bowls to account for any batter bits stuck in the bowl or on the scraper).

Whisk the chocolate syrup and cocoa together, then stir into one of the bowls of batter unti combined.

Stir 1/4 cup of the strawberry jam (I used homemade for this) and the red food coloring into another bowl of batter until combined.

Scrape the plain batter into the prepared pan(s), followed by the strawberry batter, then the chocolate batter (in that order).

Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan(s) and gently tap the pan(s) on the counter to settle the batter. Bake the cake(s) until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating the pan(s) halfway through baking.

My mini cakes baked in 35-40 minutes. (I filled my mini Bundt pan slighty fuller than I should have, you want them about 2/3 full. If you end up with larger bottoms like I did, just trim the edges when you take them out of the pan--the scraps are the chef's treat!)

Let the cake(s) cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a wire rack to cool completely, about 2 hours.

Once cooled, set the cakes on a couple sheets of wax paper. If you are making one large cake, move cake to cake stand or storage container, slide strips of wax or parchment paper a couple inches underneath cake to catch any excess glaze, remove before serving.

You'll need:

remaining 1/4 cup strawberry jam (instead of my chunky homemade jam, I used Smucker's seedless strawberry jam to get a smooth consistency)

Warm the jam in a saucepan over medium heat until pourable, about 1 minute (I microwaved jam in a microwave-safe dish, about 30 seconds on medium). Brush it over the top and sides of the cake(s).

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted (I melted my chocolate in about 3, 30-second increments on medium heat in my microwave, stirring after every 30 seconds, be careful not to let it burn)
1/3 cup heavy cream, hot
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch salt

Whisk all of the glaze ingredients together in a medium bowl until smooth and let sit until thickened, about 25 minutes. Pour the glaze over the top of the cake, letting the glaze drip down the sides. Let the glaze set before serving, about 25 minutes.

(For my mini cakes I halved the glaze recipe, I also used milk chocolate, which I prefer.)

Glazed cakes can be stored in an airtight container up to 3 days at room temperature.

I hope you enjoy my Neapolitan Bundt Cake!