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    Home » Desserts

    Bábovka – Czech Bundt Cake

    Published: Jan 14, 2021 · Modified: Jan 28, 2022 by Petra Kupská

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    Czech bábovka is a very popular coffee cake, in English known as a bundt cake. This is an old-fashioned Czech recipe for cocoa marble bábovka, easy to make with no fad crazy ingredients.

    czech bábovka
    Table of Contents show
    Czech Babovka
    Ingredients
    Instructions
    Unmolding
    Decorating
    Pronunciation
    Cook’s Tips
    Bábovka – Czech Bundt Cake

    Czech Babovka

    Here in the Czech Republic, a bábovka cake belongs to the most popular desserts made at weekends. Marble bundt cake means mramorová bábovka in Czech.

    Because of its simplicity, both young girls and men who want to surprise someone with their baking often prepare the bábovka on weekends.

    Other famous Czech desserts are kolache or vánočka houska bread (baked at Christmas).

    When I was little, my dad usually made the bábovka. He prepared this lovely swirl cake the same way as in this recipe: vanilla part of bábovka generously marbled with cocoa batter.

    We were always curious about the two-color pattern inside the bábovka once we cut it open.

    Czech marble bábovka

    Ingredients

    Here are all ingredients to make the best homemade Czech bábovka from scratch:

    • Plain Greek yogurt, about 10 % fat
    • All-purpose flour, in Czech „hladká mouka“
    • Granulated sugar
    • Eggs
    • Baking powder
    • Vegetable oil
    • Cocoa powder, for a nice chocolate flavor
    • A little milk
    • Vanilla essence or extract

    In addition, you will need just 2 mixing bowls and a well-dusted bundt cake pan.

    ✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.

    bábovka ingredients

    Instructions

    Don’t forget that you’ll need a bundt cake pan before we begin. I have had an old ceramic pan for years, and it’s battered, but I really like it.

    There isn’t any non-stick coating inside. Because of this, I have to carefully grease and dust the pan with sifted breadcrumbs or with coarse flour (Czech hrubá mouka).

    After the bundt cake pan is ready, let’s go and make some bábovka batter!

    Czech bábovka instructions
    1. Beat eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl for 5 minutes. Use a hand-held mixer set to the highest rotations.
    2. Add vegetable oil, yogurt, vanilla, flour mixed with baking powder and continue mixing for another 2 minutes.
    3. Mix a third of the batter with cocoa powder and a little milk.
    4. Pour half of the white vanilla batter into the bundt cake pan, add cocoa batter, finish with the white batter layer.
    5. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 50 minutes.

    Once the bábovka cools down, you just dust it with powdered sugar.

    Czech babovka

    Unmolding

    Getting the bábovka out of the mold (bundt cake pan) can be quite tricky. The problem is magnified with old bundt cake pans without non-stick coating.

    Whenever you are using a bund cake pan, never skip this step:

    Grease and dust the pan carefully before baking. Coarse flour (in Czech hrubá mouka) or sifted breadcrumbs are used for dusting the pan in the Czech Republic.

    Once you finished the bábovka, let it cool down for 10 minutes.

    Then, invert the cake onto a rack and cover the pan with a kitchen towel, first soaked in cold water, with the water squeezed out.

    Leave the wet towel on a bundt cake pan for 5 minutes, soak and squeeze the towel out again if needed. You can then try to take the bábovka out of the mold.

    Because of the quick change of temperature, bábovka can be easily separated from the mold.

    bábovka unmolding

    Decorating

    In the Czech Republic, we generally dust the bábovka surface with powdered sugar. Glazing bábovka is less common. A bundt pan produces beautiful shapes on the surface of bábovka, which means the cake doesn’t need any extra more decoration to amaze.

    Pronunciation

    I recorded a short audio clip on pronouncing the Czech word bábovka. The first word in the audio is "bábovka", the second is "mramorová bábovka", which means marble bábovka.

    Cook’s Tips

    • Bábovka cakes have one significant problem: they’re often quite dry and crumbly inside.
    • I’ve got a solution: this bábovka is moist and mild because of a secret ingredient: Greek Yogurt!
    • Greek Yogurt is a plain yogurt high in fat percentage, containing about 10 % of fat. Feel free to substitute the Greek yogurt with sour cream.

    More Czech desserts:

    • Žemlovka – apple bread pudding
    • Lívance – yeasted pancakes with cinnamon
    • Míša řezy – black & white sheet cake

    Recipe card

    czech bábovka recipe

    Bábovka – Czech Bundt Cake

    This is a traditional recipe for bábovka, very common coffee cake in the Czech Republic.
    5 from 8 votes
    Print Pin
    Prep Time: 15 minutes
    Cook Time: 50 minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
    Servings: 10 slices
    Calories: 287kcal
    Author: Petra Kupská
    Prevent your screen from going dark
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: Czech
    Keyword: bábovka

    Ingredients

    • 3 eggs
    • 3 Tbsp dark powdered cocoa
    • ¾ cup plain Greek yogurt (210g) around 10 % fat
    • 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour (200g)
    • 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
    • ½ cup vegetable oil (110g)
    • 3 tsp baking powder
    • 1 tsp vanilla essence or extract
    • 2 Tbsp milk
    • 2 Tbsp powdered sugar to dust baked babovka cake

    Instructions

    • Preheat the oven to 340 °F (170 °C).
    • Grease the bundt cake pan properly and dust with sifted breadcrumbs or coarse flour. Set aside.
    • Place eggs and granulated sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix with a hand-held mixer on high speed for 5 minutes until light and airy substance is produced.
    • Add oil, yogurt, vanilla, flour mixed with baking powder. Mix on low speed for another 2 minutes. The batter should look creamy and semi-liquid.
    • Take ⅓ of batter to a small bowl, stir in cocoa powder and milk using a rubber spatula until combine.
    • Spread ⅓ of white batter in the mold.
    • Pour the cocoa batter over top of the white batter.
    • Finish by spooning the rest of the white batter over the cocoa layer.
    • Bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer or a tooth stick comes out clean (make a test at the end of baking).
    • Set the pan on the cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then flip the pan onto the rack, if necessary, use the „cold-soaked towel dish“ trick (see the section on getting the bábovka out of the mold).
    • Once it’s almost cold, dust it with powdered sugar.

    Notes

    This recipe amounts to 1 smaller bábovka mold – my bundt cake pan has an upper diameter of about 22 cm (9 inches).

    DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:

    Conversion chart

    Nutritional Estimate pro portion

    Calories: 287kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 50mg | Sodium: 155mg | Potassium: 66mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 86IU | Calcium: 106mg | Iron: 1mg
    Do you like the recipe?I would be happy for your feedback! Please, rate the recipe and share your opinion or questions in comments bellow. Thank you very much.

    Bábovka is an ideal treat for mornings, Czech like to eat a slice of this bundt cake for breakfast!

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    « Vánočka (Houska) – Czech Christmas Bread
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jitka

      January 15, 2021 at 2:29 pm

      5 stars
      Lovely cake, it looks delicous!

      Reply
      • Petra

        January 17, 2021 at 12:08 pm

        Hello Jitka, happy you like this bábovka cake!

        Reply
      • margarita

        March 02, 2021 at 8:20 pm

        5 stars
        came out Delicious! my first time making it. Everyone loved it!

        Reply
        • Petra

          March 03, 2021 at 3:30 am

          Ahoj Margarita, thanks a lot for your comment, and I’m happy you liked the bábovka recipe! 🙂

          Reply
    2. Sabrina Koleilat

      January 17, 2021 at 11:19 am

      Petro, dekuji moc za recept! Dnes bude pect! Jsem moc rada, ze jsem vás našla! Happy New Year!

      Reply
      • Petra

        January 17, 2021 at 12:08 pm

        Hello Sabrina, thanks a lot for your kind comment, I hope bábovka will turn great out. Moc zdravím a samozřejmě v novém roce i vám jen to dobré!

        Reply
    3. Radka

      May 23, 2021 at 12:26 am

      5 stars
      Hello from Canada!
      So happy I came across your website. It does not happen very often I'd be craving something but I did want to have babovka the other day! Your Babovka was a hit and will make it again. I appreciate that your recipe does not call for 6 eggs, 4 cups sugar and 2 cups oil if you know what I mean. 🙂 Take care and keep it up, best wishes from the Rockies.

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        May 23, 2021 at 4:50 am

        Ahoj Radka, what a nice comment, thank you!
        I have heard that abroad cakes similar to Czech bábovka are made much sweeter, and the home cooks top them with various glazes or frostings. Czechs are advocates of simple recipes; they usually just dust the surface of the bábovka with icing sugar. I think it looks good that way and tastes just enough to have a sweet life still 🙂
        Best wishes from North Bohemia, Petra

        Reply
    4. Bianca

      July 01, 2021 at 11:36 pm

      5 stars
      looks and smells great so far, cant wait to taste.
      I was looking for a Bábovka recipe as I fondly remember the ones my Grandma and my Babi would make for me as a child. This is one of the recipes that I never leaned from them so am so grateful for your blog!

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        July 02, 2021 at 10:41 am

        Oh, thank you so much for such a sweet comment and for remembering your Grandma and Babi! I truly hope you enjoy the bábovka cake, and as we say: dobrou chuť!

        Reply
    5. kristena

      August 22, 2021 at 1:10 am

      5 stars
      This is a fantastic recipe. I had written you a few months back to tell you how excited I am to find Czech recipes in English. You and your son did a great job!
      For me, the recipe is perfect. However, my cooktime was less than recommended. I live at 2500 above sea level and used 340. It was done after 40 minutes for me. Maybe next time I will try 325.
      Again, I appreciate these recipes. It makes me so happy..

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        August 22, 2021 at 7:30 am

        Hi Kristena, thank you for writing in again! Your comment made me happy and of course, I'll let my son know too, I'm sure your words will please him. I am surprised that altitude affects baking time - nature works wonders and we have to adapt 🙂 Anyway, I'm glad you had success with the bábovka cake and that your loved ones enjoyed it! Many greetings from the Czech Republic, Petra

        Reply
    6. kristena

      September 03, 2021 at 11:13 pm

      5 stars
      I'm making it again - I have found that 335 for 45 minutes is the trick. Also, I have one of those thick non-stick bundt pans, so that may impact baking time too.
      Everyone loves this cake. My husband takes it to work and they asked for the recipe! Thanks again.

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        September 09, 2021 at 8:52 am

        Thank you very much for the feedback on the bábovka cake. It's true that a lot of seemingly little things affect the baking method or time. What is important is the result, which was a success, and that is the best praise for any home baker!

        Reply
    7. Milena Bartik

      October 30, 2021 at 1:48 pm

      5 stars
      Wow, I have never made or eaten such a fine(jemnou) babovku. That yogurt makes such a difference,

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        October 31, 2021 at 7:40 am

        Oh, thank you for such a lovely comment 🙂 You're right, and I can confirm that sour cream (or Greek yogurt) will ensure that the bábovka cake is soft and moist (not dry). I'm glad the bábovka cake was a success with you! ????

        Reply
        • Milena Bartik

          October 31, 2021 at 1:07 pm

          Just a question, do you think that the yogurt would make a difference in gluten free(bezlepku) babovka? So far any gluten free baking from scratch was not success for me.

          Reply
    8. Sandy

      October 31, 2021 at 2:51 pm

      My husband’s cousin who recently passed away used to make something she called Babovka. She must have been using the wrong name because this is not at all what she made. Her’s was a poppy seed filled very light bread type roll shaped more like a strudel. Does this sound familiar to you? Do you know what the correct would be? I’m going to have to give this “real” babovka a try. It looks delicious.

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        November 01, 2021 at 4:49 am

        I suppose it could be either a classic poppy seed strudel or a sweet pastry made from yeast dough called "babka." The word babka is similar to the phrase bábovka. Babka pastry is a slice of yeasted dough, coated with a filling of ground poppy seeds (or chocolate, walnuts,...), then rolled and baked. Please try a google image search for the word "babka poppy seed," it might be what you are looking for. Otherwise, the classic Czech bábovka cake is baked in a particular mold (see recipe) and tastes wonderful 🙂 If you decide to give the bábovka a try, I'd love it if you'd post how it turned out. Best wishes, Petra

        Reply
    9. Andrea

      January 10, 2022 at 9:14 pm

      5 stars
      This babovka is delicious! Feels like “home”, thank you so much for the recipe 😉

      Reply
      • Petra Kupská

        January 11, 2022 at 5:09 am

        Thank you for your nice words, Andrea! 🙂

        Reply

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    Hi there, I’m Petra, a Czech mom of two teen boys with more than 20 years of cooking experience. I am here to share traditional recipes from the Czech Republic, a small country in the very heart of Europe.

    More about me →

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