Hello, my name is Celia and I’m a bundt panaholic. It’s been three weeks, four days and eight hours since I purchased my last bundt.
It all started five years ago, when Maude bought a Nordic Ware daisy pan. We’ve both been collecting these magnificent cast aluminium pans ever since. Surprisingly, our extensive collections have very little overlap – perhaps a culinary manifestation of the “I’m not wearing the same dress as you” phenomenon.
I don’t know how many pans I have, and I refuse to count them (trust me, it’s better that way). These Nordic Ware and Wilton cake tins are heavy, non-stick and easy to care for, and priced accordingly. That’s why I’m posting this now, so you can get your lists off to Santa in time.
Speaking of Christmas, my friend Janelle gave me this tree bundt a couple of years ago. I adore the toy train set that runs around the bottom of the pan. A light dusting of icing sugar “snow” over the pine trees is the perfect way to finish off the cake.
This Wilton Belle bundt is the most versatile tin in my collection. It produces a cake which is elegant and easy to slice, and because the design runs all the way down the side of the pan, it can be filled to different levels (which means it can accommodate a number of different cake recipes).
A friend once baked a packet mix in her Wilton Queen of Hearts tin and stunned her guests by turning out a magnificent looking cake. Presentation might not be everything, but in baking terms, it counts for a lot!
This is my current favourite – a Heritage Bundt from Nordic Ware that Big Boy bought me for Christmas last year. It reminds me of my mother’s Marquesite brooch.
Most of the cakes baked in these pans only need a dusting of icing sugar to dress them up. Here’s the cake I baked for Dan’s birthday in my Nordic Ware Chrysanthemum bundt pan.
Some bundt pan tips:
- To grease the pans, spray the inside with a light vegetable oil. I always use a canola oil spray – olive oil will stain the pan, as did a rice bran oil I tried recently.
- Reduce your oven temperature by 10 – 20C, as these pans brown much more than regular bakeware.
- Always wait at least 10 minutes before turning your finished cake out, to maximise your chances of getting the cake out intact.
- Don’t wash your pan in the dishwasher. The instructions that come with the pan always say to wash by hand only, but that didn’t stop me trying the dishwasher just once. It was a mistake.
- Buy a soft brush to clean out any crumbs stuck to the pan. Pete found one in the auto department – petrol heads are very protective of their cars, and as a result they’ve come up with some very gentle cleaning tools.
- Don’t overfill your pans – two-thirds full is about right.
- Resist the urge to buy the teeny tiny holed pans, unless you’re planning to use them for jelly or chocolates. I bought a petit fours pan with 24 small flower moulds, but it’s hard to get perfect little cakes out of it. It’s great for agar jellies though! Having said that, the six holed pans like the floral one in the top photo work brilliantly for large muffin sized cakes.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I am so envious. That heritage Bundt would be very popular here – think I will have to invest in one!
Alex, I’ve done the maths. If you bake all the bread for your family for three weeks, you’ll save enough money to buy the bundt pan. :)
oh wow – look at that collection – it is huge!! And they all look magnificent. If only you lived closer, I could pop over and borrow some….a cake pan lending library?! :)
I like the look of that heritage pan – I nearly pressed “buy” the last time I saw it on an online site. Then again your Chrysanthemum cake looks gorgeous too…as do the tiny jellies, and the Christmas tree one…sigh. I can’t choose.
And thanks for the tips with using them. I have noticed that my cakes have been a tad burnt on the outside and wondered if I should be doing something about the temperature or cooking time. Have you noticed a difference between the silvery ones and the black/non stick ones?
SG, I haven’t really noticed much difference. All the pans are non-stick – the silvery ones seem to be the latest finish from Nordic Ware – and they all need to be baked at a lower temp, and occasionally for a shorter time as well. The heritage pan is really gorgeous – here’s the cake I baked for my mum’s birthday in it.
That cake looks absolutely stunning! Now I really want one (more) of those bundt pans….or 35 like you have!!
Now don’t be like that, I’m sure I don’t have 35…not that I’ve counted.. :)
I have one Bundt pan…..and it is silicone. I absolutely love the texture of cakes from a silicone pan versus metal…you will have to try it Celia. However, it doesn’t give you the classic sloping sides of a regular Bundt. These are lovely…should I look out for the postman :-)
Oz, I’m the reverse, I can’t stand silicone bakeware. Love it for all other kitchenware, just not in the oven. I find the silicone results in cakes with a steamed exterior rather than the browned crust I prefer. Anna from Paris has told me it works well for cannele, which could well be an exception, since they have a pancake style batter. But for standard butter based cakes, unfortunately silicone and I don’t match!
hi celia, i am drooling over your bundt tin collection and may be inspired to start an addiction. thanks for your constant inspiration you rock.xx dot
Great post! Do you take them out late at night and polish them and arrange them in different patterns? At least you use them to make cakes though! Are you never tempted by all the antique copperware jelly moulds and the creamware fish shapes? There are some stunning moulds out there just calling your name…….
But that heritage tin may have to go on my birthday list as it is very beautiful. Any suggested cake recipes to go in them, do you think the yoghurt cake could go in one? Also I wondered if there is a clever way of working out quantities of batter to fit the tin if you are scaling up or down a recipe?
zeb
Jo, I actually keep them a little hidden, or Pete starts rolling his eyes over how many there are. I’ve never been tempted by the copper moulds, firstly because they’re just so darned expensive, and secondly because I love the non-stick finish of these pans, and the way the cakes just slide out.
In terms of recipes, it’s a little bit of trial and error. Most of the bundt tins have a 10-cup capacity, although there are a couple of bigger ones that take up to 15 cups. Oddly, many of the US recipes specify a 12-cup bundt. If you choose a bundt with a uniform design all the way down the pan (like the Belle pan), you can fill it to a lower level and still get a pretty cake. But a pan like the Christmas trees needs to be filled up properly, or the train set detailing won’t show up.
I have some recipe suggestions:
White Chocolate Bundt cake – this recipe makes more batter than needed for the 10 cup bundts, so you can either bake the leftover as muffins or mini-cakes, or make it in a larger bundt pan.
Buttermilk Almond Cake – a slightly smaller cake, I usually bake it in my Belle pan
Lemon Pound Cake – another large cake. Pound cakes do really well in the bundt pans.
I haven’t tried the yoghurt cake recipe in this – I think you might need to double it, as it’s quite a small batter. I’ll give it a go and let you know.
I also regularly bake chocolate cakes in these pans, and pour a runny icing over the top of them. Baking one today, in fact.. :)
Celia
Wow – Fab bakeware! I’ve always steered clear of them though. I’d be afraid that my cake wouldn’t come out :-0
But I’d love to make such a creation though. Maybe I should put one on my Christmas list!!
They are a little pricey … is there one for beginners or are they all the same to use??
Gillian, the non-stick finish on the Nordic Ware and Wilton pans is really great.
That’s actually a really good question – thank you – because the pans really aren’t all the same to use.
As a rule, the bundts with a hole in the middle (as opposed to say the quilted heart pan in the top photo) bake more evenly, as the heat goes into the centre of the cake as it’s baking. If you were only having a single pan, I’d avoid one that has too much fussy detailing – there is a rose pan I’ve never bought, for instance, because I think the deep crevices in the design would tend to burn. I reckon it would also be a pain to clean!
As I mentioned in my post, the little tiny holed pans are also hard to use for cakes. If you choose a slightly simpler pan which doesn’t have too much design detailing around its base, you’ll have more flexibility to use it for a variety of different recipes.
Sigh…sorry for such a longwinded answer! :) In the case of the pans above, the easiest to use are :
– the Belle pan
– the Queen of Hearts pan
– the Perennial pan (which is the floral pan in the top photo on the bottom left).
All three are from the Wilton Dimensions range.
My latest purchase is a large Anniversary Bundt from Nordic Ware, which is also most gooorgeous and perfect for my larger cake batters.
Celia
Hi Celia,
What a nice collection. I have one! But then I’m not the baker that you are. Also, I don’t have a lot of extra storage. I do have number of measuring cups, though.
Maybe you’re just not as completely bonkers as I am, Linda. :)
I’ve recently discovered silicone measuring cups, which I’m in love with…
Celia
I am going to study all those recipes you have suggested, I like the idea of the white chocolate bundt cake in particular! But how do I work out how many cups my tins hold? I have one swirly tin with a hole in the middle which looks like a bundt tin, I only used it once. As you know we don’t really do cups much in the UK unless working with american recipes… I do have a set of cup measures in the drawer which I use if I have to. So do I fill it with water and see how many cups the tin will hold to get an idea, or do I fill it with something else? Maybe I will take a picture of my tin and send it to you with measurements and you can give me your expert opinion.
Jo, yes, you could fill your tin with water, then just measure how many litres it will hold (and convert back to cups from there). Having said that, you’re more than welcome to send me a photo and I’ll take a guess. The white chocolate bundt is a VERY large mix, I’d suggest you have muffin pans or other pans at the ready. When you make your cake, just fill the bundt pan to 2/3 full, then use the remainder of the mix in the other pans. With the white choc cake – if you have a smaller pan, just do two layers of the batter, don’t try and get a third in. You’ll need to adjust the baking time accordingly as well.
Hi Celia, I bought the rose pan for a friend in the UK and he hasn’t had a problem with it sticking. Your silicone canele mould keeps staring at me – I have to take him to the post office!! I wonder if the canele work in silicone because of the high sugar level?
aNNA X
That’s good to know, Anna, thanks! I still keep looking at it and wondering how I’d ever clean in the grooves. It does produce a most gorgeous cake – Maude has one (which is probably the other reason I don’t :)). I suspect the canele work because you’re after the slightly steamed texture in the first place..
I’ve just dropped pancake batter off to P&E, and they tell me it’s a celebratory weekend over there. Have a great one! :)
Celia
Hi Celia, that is an amazing collection of tins. Where DO you store them all?
Cathy, shhh…Pete might hear you….
Some of them stack up, so I put a sheet of bubblewrap between them and store them about four tall on the pantry shelf. The remainder are just tucked in here and there.. :)
I saw a really amazing giant cup cake pan the other day it is two pieces top/bottom and the top looks a little like a Madonna bra. That’s on my pan shopping list.
Hahaha…I’ve seen that cake tin, never thought of using it to mould a pointy bra before! Actually though, I’ve always avoided that tin, simply because I think it needs to be iced to look good, and I’m rubbish at piping! :)
I am a lover of Bundt. Yet I never knew all these existed! Thankk yoou! =]
You’re welcome! Although you might not be thanking me once the collection bug strikes! :D
lord, i am weak in the knees. the strength to avoid buying them = a puddle of drool on the floor. if my husband calls, tell him i signed a waiver.
Goodness… what a fabulous collection you have!! I’ve got the same addiction.. and laughed out loud when you replied to the ‘where do you keep them all’? Me too… oh, here and there!! :)
My latest pan is the Heritage pan and was wondering if I could quickly find the cup size of it… and found your post. Loved the pictures and read it right through… now I’m side-tracked while the batter sits in the mixer! :) I DO have the two piece cupcake pan and it’s not too difficult to frost. Just pipe it around the edges in a big fat circle… I made it for my daughter’s 21st birthday this year.. along with 2 other cakes she requested.. did i mention I LOVE to bake?
Enjoyed dropping by to your site.. will definitely be back!
Happy baking.. and how wonderful for you to have a best friend to ‘swap’ pans with!! Darlene
Dana, your small girl would adore one of these! :)
Darlene, it’s a dangerous addiction, isn’t it! :) Thanks for stopping by!
I have bought the train cake pan for my little boy who loves trains. Is it possible to do a fondant icing to bring out all the detail? Last Year I put a buttercream icing over it and it looked like a disaster. (I am not much of a cook) I would love to get it right this birthday! Caitlin
Caitlin, thanks for stopping by! I don’t do a lot of cake decorating, but I don’t think you’ll get a lot of detail with a fondant icing (by that I assume you mean the smooth fondant they put on wedding cakes etc.). I have the small train pan – the one with a train and several carriages – and we make a lemon cake in it and serve it plain. If you did want to decorate it, perhaps your best bet it to try using a coloured icing or buttercream and piping it to highlight the details?