A cute pan with so many possibilities. At least that's what I thought when I bought it. I've never owned a bundt cake pan, but I thought it would be fun to get one. I remember my mom trying to make bundt cakes when I was a child, and it usually ended in failure. The cake always seemed to stick to the pan and come out broken into unsightly chunks instead of a nicely formed ring. After a few failed attempts, my mom gave up. Those memories kept me from attempting bundt cakes prior to this. But since the design of the pan was appealing, and it was non-stick, I decided, "Why not?"
Last week I tried to make pumpkin bread in the pan. It was supposed to cook for an hour. After an hour the pan overflowed and dripped down into the oven. The three inch tall top that rose beyond the limits of the pan was done, and the rest of the cake was pretty much liquid. I cut the top off and considered dumping the whole thing in the garbage. But I put the pan back in the oven while Justin griped about the smell of burned cake and smoke coming out of the oven. After another hour the cake was mostly done, even though it had the consistency of lead. My home ec teachers would have been appalled. The only positive note was, it didn't stick to the pan.
So today, I tried to make an angel food cake in the pan. The cake mix box said something about NOT using a pan smaller than 10"x4". I measured mine, and it turns out mine is 9"x4ish". I figured it would be fine as long as I didn't quite dump all the batter into the pan. After the cake had been in the oven about 15 minutes, I peeked in, only to find batter hanging like icicles from the oven racks and a puddle of cooked batter beginning to smolder on the bottom of the oven. As the smoke started to waft out, I had no choice but to pull out my half cooked disaster, dump it in the disposal and immediately clean the oven. Instead of having a relaxing Sunday afternoon, I spent it doing one of my most dreaded and put-off chores. Now I have a semi-clean oven, a house that smells like burned stuff and oven cleaner, and no cake to show for it. I think I should probably just stick to my boring old never-fail pans.
Note to self: Never, ever, EVER, use a bundt cake pan without putting a cookie sheet under it!
It turns out that most recipes are designed for a 10" pan, so I'm back to square one, and I have no idea how full the pan should be. Do any of you know? Or maybe better yet, does anyone want a bundt cake pan?
5 comments:
Oh I have had that happen to me many times!! (not with a bunt cake, but other cakes) I always just stray a little from the recipe and think it won't make much of a difference, but it always ends up in a disaster!! Sorry your bunt cake pan is cursed. I think it's too pretty to give a way....maybe this pan is for decoration only. As many of mine are!
Ah, give it one more try. I know how you feel though - I'm cursed with making rolls. Tried at least 1200 times and they either didn't rise, or they ALWAYS burned on the bottom. Finally, I learned about proofing the yeast (who knew?) and adjusted three baking factors and now they're perfect. Not sure which one of the baking factors was the problem for burning...
not good at the advice. Baking is not a skill as much as I wish it was. Try again and try again- soon you will be the bunt cake queen!
How the cake coming? Try it again? Just wanted to let you know I gave you an award on my blog.
Bummer...have you googled bundt cakes??? Don't toss the pan, that pumpkin bread was really good.
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