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 
