Air Fryer Plum Orange Bundt Cake
My air fryer plum orange bundt cake recipe is what you have been waiting for. The perfect recipe to make a slightly smaller bundt cake in the air fryer and save energy and money. Part of my Baking On A Budget series.
Air Fryer Plum Orange Bundt Cake
Baking On A Budget Series
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Baking On A Budget
Baking should not be a luxury – It is not just about fancy cakes, but making from scratch, learning a life skill and not relying on ready-made, often highly processed foods. Baking is also very therapeutic for so many, and beneficial to mental health. So with Baking On A Budget, I aim to make baking accessible to all.
Me, Caro xx
Energy And Money Saving Baking
With the continuing cost-of-living crisis, many of my recent recipes have been developed to reduce energy and/or cost. Where any less expensive ingredients can be used, I always use or recommend them. In this particular recipe, you are saving energy & money, by using the air fryer.
The recipe uses a smaller bundt pan that will fit most small basket style air fryers. So not only saving on energy bills, but also saving with slightly less ingredients.
Click to see more Baking On A Budget Recipes
Make Your Own Butter & Save
It is super easy to make your own butter at home. If you see Double/Heavy/Whipping Cream on sale & about to go past its best before date, take the opportunity to make homemade butter.
It saves it being binned and you get butter & buttermilk from it. Just freeze the butter and it will be fine for a longer time & just use when needed. See my article for homemade butter & buttermilk.
UK readers, I highly recommend buying unsalted butter from Farmfoods. While their packs are slightly smaller at 226g (1 cup/8 oz) instead of 250g, they always work out cheaper than even the likes of Aldi or Lidl. And sometimes on offer with buy 2 for £xxx. If you sign up for emails, you also get vouchers.
Why Make This Recipe?
- Easy & Quick to make
- Energy/Money Saving
- Can bake in Summer/warmer months
- Simple/basic Ingredients
- Simple Decoration required
- Detailed directions & photos
- Customizable to seasonal fruit
Ingredients & Substitutions
Here are the ingredients for this plum & orange air fryer bundt cake:
- Butter, unsalted
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Flour
- Baking Powder
- Ginger
- Anise
- Orange Extract
- Vanilla Extract
- Orange juice & zest
- Red Plums
- Icing/Powdered Sugar
***Ingredient amounts given in Recipe Card below
Jump to Recipe
Sugar
Caster sugar is used in the recipe, with Extra/Super Fine Sugar being the US equivalent. Alternatively, make your own Caster sugar by processing granulated sugar. See my UK sugar comparison photo of our UK sugars.
EGGS
UK medium or large sized eggs are used, roughly equivalent to large or extra large in US.
RED PLUMS
Red firm plums give a great tart taste, texture & amazing colour to the bundt cake. Since sizes can vary, I have given an approximation when whole & weight/volume for when stoned and chopped.
Spices
Ground ginger & anise are used, but optional. Ginger pairs beautifully with the orange, and anise is in a very small amount to bring out the flavours.
Orange
The humble orange provides us with not only orange juice for adding moisture to the thick cake batter, but also its zest, for the inside the cake & as final decoration.
Orange & Vanilla Extract
Orange extract gives more zing to the cake, and a little vanilla extract is also used to bring all the flavours together. This is optional, but read how to make homemade Vanilla Extract for baking.
Alternative Fruits
During recipe development and testing, I have also used 2 alternative fruits that both work well for this air fryer bundt cake.
Rhubarb
When in season, try the cake with fresh rhubarb pieces, (125g, 4.5 oz, rounded 1 cup) & if you love rhubarb & ginger, increase the ginger by 1 – 1.5 tsp. (See below)
Using Rhubarb
Fresh Cranberry
Another seasonal fruit & another red tart fruit to use is fresh cranberries. A classic cranberry orange combination. Use 112g (4 oz) or 1 cups worth.
Bundt Tin
This recipe was developed & tested in my old small air fryer, that is 3.5 litre (about 3.7 quarts), with a small basket that can’t take a cake tin wider than 7″/18cm & is only 4″/10cm deep. So when my friend Christine gifted me a slightly smaller bundt tin, it turned out to be the perfect size for that air fryer.
You can see the bundt pan/tin below, and is sometimes referred to as a ‘Kugelhopf Pan’. It is 6.5″ (17cm) at its widest end, depth of 3.5″ (9cm) and inner tube of diameter 2″ (cm). We don’t have cup sizes on our bundt pans in the UK but I have measured the volume of the bundt and calculated it is approximately a 5 – 6 cup pan.
Not only does it fit perfectly for a small air fryer, but makes for a slightly smaller cake. Yielding 10 – 11 slices, it is not too small & still great for sharing.
Greasing The Bundt Pan
I always always always, recommend homemade lining paste (AKA Cake Goop) for greasing bundt pans. It works perfectly every time.
Make your own lining paste with oil, flour & vegetable shortening & store in the fridge for anytime you need to grease in your baking or cooking. Lasts a long time & less expensive than using cake-release spray or butter & flour.
See how to make homemade cake lining paste/cake goop.
Brush the lining paste on in upward strokes and I like to apply 2 generous coats as seen in the photo collage.
Step-By-Step Instructions
1. Begin by cubing the butter into small pieces, about 1cm or ⅓” size, as a smaller surface area will mean the butter will soften & come to room temperature quicker. If you forget or are short on time, try this hack I reviewed for softening butter in about 12 minutes.
2.While the butter is softening, prepare the red plums. Remove the stone and chop into small pieces (about 1cm or ⅓” long) before washing in warm water.
3. Pat dry with kitchen paper/paper towel and leave till the batter is ready. See Photo 1.
4. Add the softened butter & sugar to a mixing bowl or stand-mixer bowl & ‘cream’ together with the ‘k-paddle’ until smooth, spreadable & lighter in colour.
5. Add in the eggs (make sure at room temperature), one egg at a time, beating in-between each addition. **Don’t worry if the mixture looks ‘curdled’, it will be fine.
6. Sieve over the flour & baking powder. **Do not skip sieving as it is very important for incorporating air into the batter & achieving a good rise to the cake. Lift the sieve up off the bowl, with some height between the sieve and bowl, and even more air will be incorporated.
7. Now add the grounder ginger & anise, before spooning in the orange juice.
8. Add in half of the orange zest, before beating the mixture. Don’t over-mix the cake batter & only mix until all ingredients are combined and no flour is left at the bottom of the bowl.
**It will be a relatively thick batter.
9. Now grab the washed & dried plum pieces and add to a small bowl with a few tbsp of flour (any kind of flour).
10. Toss the plum pieces to coat in the flour. This method helps reduce all of the fruit pieces sinking to the bottom of the cake when baking. See Photo 4.
11. Take a few tbsps of the flour-coated plum pieces and add to the cake batter. Use a spatula (rubber or silicone, not a metal spoon), and gently ‘fold’ the fruit pieces into the batter. Mixing through the batter as if you were writing a number 8, where the spatula is a pen and the batter your paper. ***videos**
12. Once the fruit is coated in batter, add a few more tbsps of the fruit and repeat this process until all plum pieces are added.
**’Folding-in’ and adding in increments, stops you knocking out all the air your incorporated as well as ensuring a more even distribution of the plum pieces.
13. Well grease the bundt pan now, with homemade lining paste/cake goop, or butter & flour. (I apply 2 generous coats of lining paste). See Photo 5 above.
14. Carefully spoon the batter into the bundt tin/pan & level off as best you can. Any batter than moves the lining paste, (for example the inner tube), just wipe the batter off & brush on more lining paste.
15. Give the pan a few taps & place in air fryer, baking @ 170°c/325°f for 20 minutes. (150°c fan assisted oven instead of air fryer, or gas mark 3).
16. Increase to 180°c/350°f, continue baking for another 6 minutes. (If the top of the cake is set and golden, cover).
17. Now place paper and the base of a tart tin (or something similar that will fit in your air fryer.
18. Wearing oven gloves, very carefully hold everything and turn out the bundt pan so it is upside-down. See Photo collage 7.
19. Then lift the bundt, paper and base, back into the air fryer. If you have a wider air fryer basket or a front-opening door style air fryer, use whichever method is easiest for you to get the tin out and back in again upside-down. **Please note, if your air fryer is open-front and large, you might not need to turn over if it bakes evenly and is good clearance below the level the cake is baked on**.
20. Continue baking at 180°c/350°f for about another 6 – 9 minutes until thoroughly cooked through. Internal temperature for this cake is best if at least 99°c/210°f.
21. Carefully remove the bundt tin with the paper & base, onto a cooling rack for 30 minutes. If too hot and difficult to lift out, you could place the air fryer basket on top of the cooling rack for about 40 minutes.
22. The bundt pan should lift off easily, especially is you used lining paste/cake goop. But give a few taps if needed.
23. Leave to cool on the rack alone before decorating.
24. Once fully cooled down, you can prepare the orange glaze/icing. Add the icing sugar/powdered sugar to a small bowl and add in the orange extract.
25. Mix very slowly with a metal spoon, pushing down on the sugar for it to take on as much fluid as possible. Add 1 or 2 little squeezes of the orange juice & mix in until you have a very thick paste. Then very gradually add 1/4 tsp (drops) of the orange juice until you have a thick but pourable glaze. You can also add some of the orange zest if you want to slightly colour the icing.
26. Place the cake on the serving plate/cake stand, with 4 little squares of baking/parchment paper underneath. Then very carefully take your time spooning the glaze onto the top-most part of the cake. Let it drip down the centre and then use a small spoon to work your way out towards the edge. Let glaze drip down one grove at a time and use a cocktail stick to gently encourage it down.
27. Make sure the glaze is not too thin & don’t let the glaze drip all the way down to the plate for a neater finish. If it does, you always have the paper underneath to pull away once set up.
28. Continue adding more glaze or just have on the topmost part of the cake & perhaps save the rest of the glaze for adding when serving alongside a slice. Finally top with orange zest. See Photo 10.
29. Leave to set before slicing. You can place in the fridge to speed this up and it will make cutting easier too.
30. Serve a slice of the plum & orange bundt cake, with your favourite tea or coffee. Some cream or even ice-cream on the side is also great.
31. Store the cake preferably in a cake or cookie tin for at least 3 days. Glass cake domes also work. Bundt cake can be frozenin individual slices, wrapped in parchment paper then cling film/plastic wrap or foil and in a labelled food bag for up to 3 months1
Recipe Card
Air Fryer Red Plum Orange Bundt Cake
Equipment
- Digital scales or measuring cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Stand/Hand-mixer
- Sieve
- Smaller Bundt Pan (Mine is a Kugelhopf Pan & 6½″ (17cm)*** see notes)
- Lining Paste/Cake Goop (Homemade Lining Paste/Cake Goop, butter & flour, or Cake release spray – see notes)
- Timer
- Wooden Cocktail stick
- Cooling rack
- 2 Small Bowl (for making glaze & flour-coating plum pieces)
- Zester
- Knife & chopping board
- Silicone/Plastic/Rubber Spatula
Ingredients
- 112 grams Butter – unsalted, cubed and softened. (4 oz, ½ cup)
- 112 grams Caster Sugar (Extra/Super Fine Sugar, 4 oz, rounded ½ cup)*
- 3 Medium Eggs (US – Large to Extra Large)
- 142 grams Plain Flour (5 oz, 1 cup + 2 tbsp All Purpose Flour*)
- 1¾ tsp Baking Powder
- 2 tsp Ground Ginger
- ⅛ tsp Ground Anise
- Splash of Vanilla Extract (optional – make homemade vanilla extract)
- 1 tsp Orange Extract
- 2 tbsp Orange Juice
- ½ Orange Zest (from ½ orange)
- 122 grams Red plums (About 4 firm plums, 4⅓ oz when chopped)
For The Orange Glaze:
- 125 grams Icing Sugar (4½ oz, 1 cup, Powdered Sugar)
- 1½ tsp Orange Extract
- Orange Juice (from orange)
- ½ Orange Zest
Instructions
Before Starting
- Before preparing the batter, weigh/measure the butter & cut into small cubes (about 1cm, ⅓") for the butter to soften quicker. Short on time, try this hack for softening butter in about 12 minutes.
- Remove the stone from the plums and chop in small pieces (about 1cm, ⅓") before washing in warm water. Then pat dry in-between kitchen paper/paper towel and leave to the side.
Prepare Cake Batter
- Add the softened butter to the mixing bowl with the sugar, & use a hand-mixer or stand-mixer to ‘Cream’ together.
- Add one egg at a time to the mixture, mixing well in-between each addition. Sieve over the flour & baking powder. Then add in the ground ginger & anise, followed by half the orange zest, 1 tsp orange extract & the 2 tbsp orange juice. Mix together just until all combined. Note it will be a very thick batter.
- Place the dry plum pieces in a small bowl and add 1 – 2 tbsps of flour to coat the fruit. Add a few tbsps of the flour-coated fruit to the cake batter & gently fold in, using a rubber, silicone or plastic spatula. Repeat until all plum pieces are incorporated.
- Heat the air fryer to 170°c/325°f if your machine requires a pre-heat. (150°c if using a fan assisted oven instead of air fryer, or gas mark 3)
Prepare The Bundt Pan/Tin
- Generously grease your bundt pan with homemade lining paste (cake goop), cake release spray, or butter & flour. If using lining paste, brush on in upward strokes and apply 2 coats, paying attention to all the nooks & crannies.
Bake The Air Fryer Bundt Cake
- Gently spoon the prepared cake batter into the greased bundt pan & level off with a spoon, before tapping the pan a few times on the counter/worktop. Place the cake in air fryer basket and bake @ 170°c/325°f for 20 minutes. (150°c fan assisted oven instead of air fryer, or gas mark 3).
- Increase temperature to 180°c/350°f, (160°c fan oven/Gas Mark 4) & continue baking for another 6 minutes. (If the top is set and golden, cover).
- Place baking/parchment square on top of the cake & base of a loose bottom pan or tart tin & carefully hold everything together to turn over so you can have the bundt pan in the air fryer upside-down. (**Please note, if you have a deeper air fryer where the bundt pan is not touching the bottom, or a front opening air fryer with the cake baking on a centre shelf, you might not need to turn over, but still cook further).
- Continue baking @ 180°c/350°f, (160°c fan oven/Gas Mark 4) for another 6 – 9 minutes till cooked all the way through. If using a food thermometer, you want at least 99°c (210°f). Leave to cool on a cooling rack with base of bundt at the top for 30 minutes, before lifting off the tin. Leave a little to cool a bit more before decorating.
Glazing The Cake
- Add sieved icing/powdered sugar to a small bowl before adding in orange extract & 1 or 2 little squeezes of the orange & mix until a thick paste is formed. Then very gradually add in small drops (about ¼ tsp worth of orange juice at a time) until you have a thick but pourable glaze. Add a little zest for colour if you like. (See video)
- Place the cooled cake on 4 little squares of paper on top of a cake stand/serving plate & very slowly spoon glaze onto the top-most part of the cake, letting glaze drip into the centre. Next use a small spoon to work your way outwards, letting glaze slowly drip down one grove at a time. Use a cocktail stick to encourage the drip down. Continue adding more drips or just keep the glaze on top and reserve some glaze to serve with a slice. Add orange zest to the top & then leave to set before slicing.
Serving & Storing
- Serve with tea or coffee or with some cream/ice-cream on the side.
- Store the bundt cake in an airtight container such as a cake or cookie tin. A cake dome also works well and will last at least 3 days. The cake can also be frozen in individual slices, wrapped in parchment paper then cling film/plastic wrap or foil and in a labelled food bag for up to 3 months1.
Video
Notes
Bundt Pan – See before this Recipe Card for more details & photos of the pan used. But basically a ‘Kugelhopf Pan’. 6.5″ (17cm) at its widest end, depth of 3.5″ (9cm), inner tube diameter 2″ (cm) approximately a 5 – 6 cup pan capacity.
Recipe Yield – you will get at least 10 slices from this cake, provided you don’t cut really large chunks.
Please see the main recipe blog for more information & step-by-step instructions & photos.
All cake recipes can be found on my Cake Page.
To rate the recipe or leave feedback, please scroll all the way to the bottom of the main recipe post. Many thanks.
(**Fresh cranberry orange version below, more photos & rhubarb version, including amounts, before Recipe Card).
Nutritional Information – based on using all ingredients as listed & from 1 slice from a yield of 11 equal slices. Bigger or smaller slices & these values will change. All information approximate and from website MyFitnessPal.com.
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Caro x
Air Fryer Plum Orange Bundt Cake
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Reference:
- Freezing information from website Freeze It. Co. UK, at https://freezeit.co.uk/can-you-freeze-madeira-cake/ ↩︎
I love that you are making your wonderful detailed recipes work for the air fryer. This turned out great and looking forward to trying the fruits you suggested.
So pleased you are enjoying the recipes.