Cut Into This Bundt Cake for a Festive Surprise With Every Slice

This recipe elevates the beloved traditional pound cake with a modern twist that will surprise and delight your holiday guests. Classic pound cake is baked in a fluted Bundt pan giving it that quintessential holiday glam — but the best part is the mini Christmas trees hidden in each slice.

Similar to our pumpkin surprise cake, this cake is inspired by the holiday surprise cakes on "The Great British Baking Show", where contestants were challenged to create holiday-themed cakes with a surprise that's revealed only when the cake is sliced. They created cakes with everything from ornaments to penguins hidden inside. And the great thing about this recipe is that you can use any variety of cookie cutter to add a fun surprise in your cake as well. So if you'd prefer gingerbread people, snowflakes, or stars, go for it!

This cake requires making three separate cakes, so be mindful that there's a lot of baking and cooling time. Pound cake can be a little finicky; be sure to follow the directions on the recipe exactly for best results. Get tips to make the best pound cakes.

How to Make a Christmas Tree Surprise Cake

What You'll Need:

• Pound cake recipe (2 separate batches: one tinted green and one untinted)
• Green food coloring
• 2 loaf pans (I used 8½ x 4½ x 2½)
• Cooling rack
• Christmas tree cookie cutter (should be shorter than Bundt cake pan)
• Baking sheet
• 1 fluted Bundt cake pan
• Spatula for spreading batter
• Icing recipe
• Zip-top bag or piping bag with large round tip
• Sugared cranberries (optional decoration)
• Sage leaves or rosemary sprigs (optional decoration)

Making the Christmas Trees

1. Make one batch of pound cake batter and add green food coloring. I used 2 teaspoons of liquid green food coloring to get a vivid bright green color.
2. Grease and flour two loaf pans and evenly split the green pound cake between them.
3. Bake according to the pound cake directions.
4. Immediately turn out the green loaf cakes onto a cooling rack and cool for 1–2 hours.
5. Cut cooled cake into slices as thick as your cookie cutter. I ended up getting about 7 slices from each loaf.
6. Use a Christmas tree cookie cutter to cut out a Christmas tree from each slice of cake.
7. Place all the Christmas tree pieces onto a baking sheet and chill in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes. This prepares them for our next steps.

Note: You will have a lot of cake scraps leftover, and a great way to use them is to make cake pops! Red candy melts would make a perfect holiday coating.

Assembling the Bundt Cake

Step 1: Grease and flour your Bundt cake pan. Make a second batch of pound cake batter, but do not tint it.

Step 2: Add about ⅔ of the batter to the prepared Bundt cake pan.

Step 3: Carefully add the Christmas trees, being sure to put them into the batter upside down, as seen below, so when the cake is turned out of the pan, the trees will be standing the right way up.

Step 4: After all the Christmas tree cakes are inserted, very carefully add the rest of the batter on top. It's okay if some green peeks through (as seen on the left side of the image below). The batter will rise as it cooks.

Step 5: Bake following recipe instructions in a preheated 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) oven for about 1 hour and 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake is just starting to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Step 6: Carefully turn out the cake onto a cooling rack as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Step 7: Let it rest for 2–3 hours until it's completely cool to the touch.

Decorating the Cake

1. Make the icing (see recipe link above).
2. Scoop icing into a zip-top bag and cut off a large corner OR scoop icing into an piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe icing slowly over the top of the cooled cake, letting it drip partway down the sides. Note: Do not pour the icing; pipe it as directed.
3. While your icing is still sticky, add any decorations you like. Sprinkles and red hots could be a very fun and festive decoration. Or you can go more rustic and do sugared cranberries and rosemary springs as I did.

Enjoy the ooohs and aaahs from family and friends as they slice into this festive surprise cake!

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