Walnut Bundt Cake

12 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Cooling Time 20 minutes
Total Time 2 hours

Walnut Bundt Cake is a rich, moist coffee cake packed with buttery walnut flavor. Nutty fall cake made with walnut flour and chopped walnuts inside and out!

This rich, nutty Coffee Cake is the perfect cozy breakfast with a cup of coffee on cool fall mornings. Just like tasty Brown Sugar Pecan Bundt Cake, you can serve this sweet buttery cake for dessert too!

Walnut Bundt Cake cross-section on cake stand

WALNUT BUNDT CAKE

This amazing fall cake is the best coffee cake recipe for blustery cool mornings! It’s packed with walnut flavor, from the ground walnut flour and chopped walnuts mixed in the cake batter to the extra walnut topping. Despite the longer baking time, this cake is actually really easy to make and sure to be a go-to recipe for holiday breakfast or brunch.

Walnut Bundt Cake is a cross between a melt-in-your-mouth pound cake and a moist coffee cake. This cake recipe is made with pantry ingredients, made extra rich and moist with 4 eggs, walnuts, and a full cup of butter. You can make it even more indulgent by swapping milk for buttermilk! The streusel topping for this coffee cake is simply chopped walnuts but you could toss them in brown sugar and butter for a more traditional topping.

Our Walnut Bundt Cake is extra special with walnuts walnut flavor in every bite! There aren’t any competing flavors in this delicious nutty cake, just buttery, earthy goodness. The brown sugar and granulated sugar balance out the slightly savory walnuts for the perfect fall bite. If you are craving more flavors, check out our variations below!

This easy, buttery Walnut Bundt Cake is a rich and flavorful coffee cake that is delicious with a cup of coffee or hot tea. If you do want to make it sweeter for dessert, top Walnut Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting once it’s cooled. You can serve this cake warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and a drizzle of Salted Caramel Sauce for the best fall sundae.

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Tips for Making Walnut Bundt Cake

  • Walnut Bundt Cake is a dense pound cake recipe so be careful not to over-mix it. Keep your stand mixer on medium or medium-low speed and only mix-in dry ingredients until just combined.
  • Bring all the butter, eggs, and milk to room temperature. Creaming the butter and eggs adds air but you don’t want to cream too long or the opposite happens. Room temperature ingredients help them mix quickly.
  • Walnuts are creamy and cook faster than other nuts. You don’t need completely raw walnuts, just don’t toast them before using since this is a long baking time.
  • If you don’t have a bundt pan, or just prefer to use other cake pans, check out the baking times for different baking pans below.

Walnut Bundt Cake top-down view on cake stand

VARIATIONS ON WALNUT BUNDT CAKE

  • Apple: Make an Apple Walnut Bundt Cake by folding in 1-2 cups diced apples or adding an Apple Pie Filling layer in the middle.
  • Cinnamon: For an easy Cinnamon Walnut Bundt Cake, sift 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon to your dry ingredients. You can also use Pumpkin Pie Spice or nutmeg.
  • Streusel: Mix together 1 cup chopped walnuts with ½ cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon until a crumble forms. Sprinkle streusel in the bottom of bundt pan before baking.
  • Chocolate: Replace ½ cup all-purpose flour with ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 2 tablespoons instant espresso powder. You could also fold in ½ cup dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips to the cake batter.
  • Nuts: Instead of walnuts, try this bundt cake recipe with pecans, almonds, macadamia nuts, or hazelnuts. You can toast pecans and almonds before baking but use raw hazelnuts or macadamia nuts so they don’t burn.

Cook Times for Walnut Cake in Different Baking Pans

  • Loaf Pan: Cook for 55-60 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool for 20-30 minutes before removing from loaf pan.
  • 13×9 Baking Pan: Cook 50-55 minutes at 325 degrees, or 35-45 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and serve from baking pan.
  • Square Baking Pan: Bake for 50-55 minutes at 350 degrees and serve from baking pan after you cool.
  • Muffin Pan: Fill paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full with cake batter. Bake for 20-22 minute at 350 degrees.

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HOW TO STORE WALNUT BUNDT CAKE

  • Serve: This Walnut Bundt Cake is best served at room temperature or slightly cool. Since there are eggs, butter, and milk in this cake you want to store it in the refrigerator.
  • Store: Keep Walnut Bundt Cake refrigerated, wrapped in plastic wrap or in an airtight container, for up to 1 week. Leave at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.
  • Freeze: Cool Walnut Bundt Cake completely before wrapping in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Store in a sealed container or freezer safe bag and freeze for up to 4 months. Thaw Walnut Bundt Cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Walnut Bundt Cake on cake stand

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Walnut Bundt Cake

Walnut Bundt Cake is a rich, moist coffee cake packed with buttery walnut flavor. Nutty fall cake made with walnut flour and chopped walnuts inside and out!
Yield 12 servings
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar , packed
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup walnuts , ground
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup walnuts , chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 12 cup bundt pan with baking spray.
  • Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar in stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
  • Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined.
  • Add in vanilla extract.
  • Sift together flour, baking powder and salt then alternate adding with milk into your stand mixer until just combined.
  • Add ground walnuts and half the chopped walnuts until just combined.
  • Pour into bundt pan and top with remaining walnuts.
  • Bake for 65-75 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
  • Let cool for 20 minutes before removing from pan by inverting over cake plate Invert again to have walnuts back on top.

Nutrition

Calories: 478kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 97mg | Sodium: 133mg | Potassium: 234mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 585IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 93mg | Iron: 2mg
Keyword: Walnut Bundt Cake

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

    1. I used a 10 cup bundt pan and the cake overcooked at the minimum time. It was slightly burned and stuck to the pan.

      1. Oh no. That’s discouraging. Perhaps after oiling the pan, dust lightly with flour and then pour your batter into the pan. Every oven is different (sadly) so not sure what to say about time and temperature. It you decide to try the recipe again sometime, consider setting your timer 5 – 10 minutes early to do the “toothpick test” (in center of cake and if it comes out clean it is done) as well as check to see if the cake is starting to “pull away” from the edge of the cake pan. Better luck next time.

  1. this tastes like my mother made when I was a young child. I’m 71 now never found the recipe until now. Excellent

  2. My mother made a black walnut chip pound cake. It was similar to this recipe but didn’t include milk, brown sugar or ground walnuts; used black walnuts rather than regular walnuts; and included 6 ounces of chocolate chips ground into a fine dust. The cake was good, but super dry. Do you think I could use your recipe using ground regular walnuts but chopped black walnuts plus the ground chocolate? And could I use buttermilk rather than regular milk? Thanks.

  3. Hello! I just have one question… The recipe says pour the batter into the bundt cake pan then add remaining walnuts. Doesn’t that mean that the walnuts will be on the bottom of the bundt cake rather than the top?

    1. Hello Christina, great question. The goal for this cake is to have walnuts in every bite so adding the remaining walnuts will fall throughout the whole cake. Hope this makes sense.

  4. Just made this last night. Of the recipes I’ve been trying out from other sources, this recipe has great texture and low sweetness—exactly how I like it. The walnut is very aromatic. Great recipe! I’m will be making the variations in the future. Thank you for sharing!

  5. This was such a great way to start my day today; perfectly flavored and delicious! Excited to wake up with this again tomorrow, indeed!

  6. Truly a delight for walnut lovers! There’s so many walnuts in here! I love the flavor and the texture! So delicious!

  7. I don’t own a bundt pan so I divided the batter to two 8×4 loaf pans for 50 minutes and they came out great. Delicious afternoon snack with a cup of tea. Thank you for another great recipe!