Jimmy Fallon Made This Easy Cake With His Daughter—and We’ve Got the Recipe

There’s just something so wholesome about Jimmy Fallon, making him one of the most beloved late-night show hosts on television. Maybe it’s his endearing personality or the way he interacts with his guests, but we also think it has something to do with the cooking videos he posts with his daughters. 

In 2022, the “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" host shared an adorable video of him and his “sous chefs,” daughters Winnie and Frances, making a fruit salad—still one of the best fruit salads we’ve tried. A few weeks ago, Fallon was back in the kitchen with his daughter Winnie to bake a tasty dessert from Claire Saffitz’s cookbook "What's for Dessert."

“It’s Bundt cake season,” Fallon said in the video. “Fall is in the air. I feel like Bundt cake’s going to have a big comeback.”

Jimmy Fallon's Easy Go-To Dessert

The father-daughter duo baked Saffitz’s lemon Bundt cake, which is an olive oil cake made with sweet Meyer lemons and encased in a sugary, crystalized glaze. Meyer lemons are technically a winter fruit, but much like Fallon’s pomegranates in a “summer” fruit salad, we’ll let it slide—it’s part of his charm, after all.

Saffitz’s zesty cake is incredibly simple to make with just a few ingredients. Fallon’s 10-year-old daughter did most of the preparation—from dumping the mise en place ingredients into the KitchenAid stand mixer to pouring the batter into the Nordic Ware 75th Anniversary Braided Bundt Pan.

The key to the Bundt cake is the olive oil that makes it extra moist and the Meyer lemon juice and zest to give it a tart, slightly sweet flavor. The next main component is the lemon-sugar glaze.

Unlike most glazes, Saffitz’s is made with granulated sugar instead of confectioners’ sugar. That’s because you want the bright, lemony glaze to crystalize on the cake, so when you bite into a piece, you’ll have a bit of crunch before you reach the tender crumb.

In addition to lemon juice and granulated sugar, the glaze also features more olive oil to encourage extra moisture in the cake—and bring out the fresh flavors even more.

Once the cake comes out of the oven, you’ll immediately apply the glaze. You want to add it while the cake is still hot so the cake sucks up all the moisture and flavor from the lemon glaze.

Once you try the bright, fresh, lemony cake, you’ll understand why Fallon jumped on the Meyer lemon train early this fall. One taste and you too will be “Bundt caking” for the rest of the season—and well into winter. Plus, we hear the lemon Bundt pairs extra well with Jimmy Fallon’s new Christmas album, "Holiday Seasoning," which releases on Nov. 1.