Lightly spiced, buttery, sweet, and entirely festive, Eggnog Cake is a Christmas dream! This bundt cake is drizzled with a sweet and creamy eggnog glaze to make the perfect holiday dessert.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and both sugars at medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
With the mixer on low, add a third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, followed by half of the eggnog and rum. Repeat, alternating with another third of the flour, the remaining eggnog and rum, and then the remaining flour. Scrape down the bowl and beat just until the batter is well combined.
Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with baking spray, and spoon the batter into the greased pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Allow to cake to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert it onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
For the Frosting:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, egg nog, melted butter, and rum until smooth. Spoon icing over the cooled cake and dust the top with nutmeg or cinnamon if desired. Let the glaze set for 30 minutes before slicing.
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Notes
Measure the flour carefully. For a perfectly light and buttery crumb, measure the flour by weighing it on a food scale. If you do not have one, the flour can also be measured by spooning it into measuring cups and before leveling off with a knife to prevent overpacking. Using all-purpose flour instead of cake flour gives the cake a better structure, but if you overpack the flour, it cake lead to a dry cake that is too dense.
Spray the bundt pan with baking spray. To ensure that the cake releases fully from the pan, spray it generously with baking spray before spooning in the batter. Most brands of baking spray contain added flour, making for clean releases and saving the step of flouring the pan. If you do not have baking spray, spray with cooking spray or grease with butter before sprinkling lightly with all-purpose flour. Then, tap the pan to evenly coat and dump out any excess flour.
Alternate wet and dry ingredients. Beat in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating the eggnog and rum between the additions for a light batter and to prevent overmixing, which can create a dense and heavy cake.
Optional: alcohol-free variations. To make this recipe without alcohol, replace the rum with additional eggnog or use 1 teaspoon of rum extract and ¼ cup room temperature apple juice. As mentioned above, the alcohol does cook off during baking, so there is no risk of consuming it once baked.
Cool the cake completely before glazing. Make sure your cake is at room temperature before glazing to prevent the glaze from melting off of the cake.