Watergate Bundt Cake is nutty and moist thanks to pistachio pudding and pecans. Finished with a sweet, light whipped cream topping and coconut, this pistachio Bundt cake has it ALL!
If you love pistachio, try our soft and chewy pistachio cookies. Loaded with white chocolate chips and pistachio pudding, they have great flavor and a perfect texture. You’ll also enjoy our pistachio fudge for something a little more decadent!
Why You’ll Love This Watergate Bundt Cake
If you’ve never had a Watergate Cake you are truly missing out! It’s a vintage classic and one of the most popular recipes on my site, for a good reason.
As if the moist, nutty cake and fluffy frosting wasn’t enough, I love adding the chopped pecans and coconut flakes to the top of the cake for that extra delicious crunch!
Here’s what makes this pistachio cake so special:
- By using a boxed cake mix and instant pudding mix, you cut down on time and effort without sacrificing flavor. The moist cake made with pistachio pudding is incredible.
- The light “frosting” made with Cool Whip or homemade whipped cream is the perfect finish to the nutty dessert. I love the shape and the way the frosting wraps around each slice of a bundt cake!
- There are no cake layers here and no piping frosting. This is an easy Bundt cake recipe perfect for beginning bakers, but still delicious enough to impress!
Some of my favorite Bundt cakes include this Cherry 7-UP Pound Cake, with its sweet glaze on top! I also love this Lemon Zucchini Bundt Cake. I’m happy to add Watergate Bundt Cake to the list of new favorites!
Important Ingredient Notes
- White cake mix– Any brand you like (or whatever is on sale!) is just fine.
- Pistachio pudding mix – Be sure to buy instant pudding, not cook-and-serve.
- Canola oil – Vegetable oil is also fine.
- Eggs – Let these sit out at room temperature. They’ll hold more air when beaten, giving your pistachio cake a lighter texture!
- Spite – Or another lemon-lime flavored soda like Sierra Mist or 7UP.
- Chopped pecans – You could use pistachios if you’d like, but I prefer the flavor and texture of pecans in this Watergate cake recipe.
For the topping:
- Cool Whip – You can also substitute a homemade stabilized whipped cream if preferred.
- Skim milk – To keep our topping light.
- Instant pistachio pudding mix – For more pistachio flavor and a light green tint.
- Chopped pecans– Toast the pecans for best flavor!
- Coconut flakes – Use sweetened shredded flakes. Toast the coconut if you prefer.
How to Make Watergate Bundt Cake
Prepare: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with baking spray. (I love this pan, it never fails on me when I flip my cake out!)
Make the Batter:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the cake mix, oil, pudding, eggs, and lemon lime soda with a hand mixer on medium speed for about 3 minutes, or until well-combined.
- Fold in the pecans.
- Pour the batter into the Bundt cake pan.
Bake: Place the pan in the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until the edges are lightly browned.
Cool: Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Flip onto a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
Frost the Cake:
- Whisk the milk and pudding mix together and refrigerate the mixture for about 5 minutes.
- Fold the Cool Whip into the chilled pudding mixture.
- Spread the frosting over the cooled cake.
- Press the pecans and coconut into the sides of the cake.
Tips and Tricks
- Store this Watergate Bundt cake covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Leftovers are delicious chilled!
- If your Bundt cakes tend to break, crumble, or get stuck when you try to remove them from the pan, you may be leaving them in the pan too long. After taking the cake out of the oven, let it rest in the pan for only 5 minutes! Tap the bottom of the pan gently with a knife to help loosen the cake.
- If you use homemade whipped cream, keep in mind that it won’t last quite as long as Cool Whip. The addition of pudding does stabilize the whipped cream, so it will last longer than whipped cream that isn’t stabilized, but it still doesn’t match the storage life of Cool Whip!
Recipe FAQs
For a more traditional cake, try my Watergate Cake recipe, which is made in round cake pans, or my Watergate Sheet Cake Recipe.
Yes! If you’d like to keep it simple, try the glaze from my Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake, but omit the lemon zest. The cream cheese frosting from my Carrot Bundt Cake would also work, or simply dust the cake with powdered sugar.
Yes, you can freeze this cake before you frost it. After baking, remove the cake from the pan and wrap it in foil twice to freeze. When ready to eat, let the cake thaw at room temperature, then frost and add the pecans and coconut.
More Cake recipes
- Mint Chocolate Chip cake
- Instant Pot chocolate bundt cake
- Best Chocolate Cake recipe
- Heaven on Earth Cake
- Carrot Cake recipe
- Wacky Cake
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Pistachio Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 box white cake mix
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 package instant pistachio pudding mix 3 oz
- 1 cup lemon-lime soda sprite, sierra mist, etc
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup chopped pecans
For the topping:
- 1 cup skim milk
- 1 package instant pistachio pudding mix 3 oz
- 1 tub Cool Whip, thawed 8 oz
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 12cup bundt pan with baking spray, set aside. I love this pan, never fails on me when I flip my cake out!
- In a large mixing bowl, beat cake mix, oil, pudding, eggs and lemon lime soda on medium spead until well blended (about 3 minutes). Fold in pecans.
- Pour batter into bundt cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool in pan about 5 minutes. Flip onto a wire rack and cool completely.
- For the frosting, whisk the milk and pudding mix together. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes. When ready to frost cake, fold the Cool Whip into the pudding mixture. Spread generously over the cake. Using your hand, press the pecans and coconut to the sides of the cake. ENJOY. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
- How to store: Because of the frosting, you need to keep this cake in the fridge. Store covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. A slice of this bundt cake tastes wonderful served cold!
- Removing cake from pan: If your bundt cakes tend to break, crumble or get stuck when you try to remove them from the pan, you may be leaving it in the pan too long. After taking the cake out of the oven, let it rest in the pan for only 5 minutes! Tap the bottom of the pan gently with a knife to help loosen the cake.
- Can you freeze this cake? Yes, you can freeze this cake before you frost it! After baking the bundt, remove it from the pan and wrap in foil twice to freeze. When ready to eat, let the cake thaw at room temperature then frost with the cool whip topping, pecans and coconuts.
Love this! So moist.
I don’t have any soda except Pepsi. Can that be substituted for the lemon lime?
No I wouldn’t use pepsi, as it can add flavor and color that is undesirable.
I loved when I poured the soda in and it’s wash like a green bath bomb! I have it in the oven now! I used yellow cake mix,
This is the first time I’ve made this cake. But we sure love it!! I’ll be making this often. I doubled it and baked it in my 9″ square pans. This would also be good with a cream cheese frosting..
I did, but I was willing to pay 50.00 for it to be made, after I called bakeries up to 30 min away w/o any luck,lol.
Huge hit!!!!!! Compliments galore, Thank you HUGE for super easy to understand directions recipe, everythng.
My bro-in-law makes this all the time. Only he uses orange juice instaed of soda and then he pulls about a1/3 of the mix out and adds 1/2 to 3/4 cup chocolate syrup. Pour in the greena nd then lay in the chocolate in a bundt pan. No topping just powedered sugar.