Bundt cakes are some of the best cakes to bake if you’re a beginner. They require no skill or decorations but still turn out delicious. The best part is, you’ll end up with an impressive-looking cake with almost no effort!
While there’s no wrong way to bake a Bundt cake, there are still some rules to baking! For example, Bundt cakes are typically dense, so you can’t use a box mix or a sponge cake recipe.
In this article, we’ll tell you some Bundt cake tips and hacks that’ll transform your cake from an average, homemade dessert to a sophisticated dish. Let’s dive in!
Bundt Cake Tips and Hacks
You can make any cake you want using a Bundt pan. You can go for chocolate cake, coffee cake, fruit cake, or even fill the cake with cream! The possibilities are endless.
Regardless of the type of Bundt cake you’re baking, you can elevate your recipe as well as avoid baking mishaps by following these tips and hacks:
1 – Grease the Pan
Getting your cake out of a Bundt pan is a notoriously tricky task. You must grease the pan, even if you’re using an expensive, non-stick one!
To ensure you cover the entire pan with grease, use a pastry brush to spread the butter or oil all over the pan. Make sure you get the center cone.
If you only grease the pan, the batter might absorb the oil and still stick. That’s why dusting the Bundt pan with a dry ingredient is important.
This depends on your preference and the cake you’re making. Generally, you can’t go wrong with flour, but you can also use cocoa powder or granulated sugar.
It might be tempting to just spray your Bundt pan with cooking spray. However, you should avoid doing so, even if it means not greasing the pan!
That’s because it can react with the outer coating of your non-stick pan, rendering it useless. Instead, you should use baking spray.
2 – Choose the Correct Recipe
It might surprise you to find out that there’s no such thing as a Bundt cake! Any cake can be a Bundt cake if you bake it in a Bundt pan.
Still, if you want your Bundt cake to turn out perfect, you should choose the recipe that best suits the particular pan.
To explain, Bundt pans have a distinct shape. The middle cone distributes the heat evenly throughout the cake.
Bundt cakes end up being denser, yet more moist, unlike other cakes which rise in the middle. Accordingly, you need a heavy batter that will maintain its structural integrity when baking.
Accordingly, you should pick a cake recipe that doesn’t have much “air.” This means you should stay away from box cakes or sponge cakes.
Instead, you might use a traditional pound cake recipe. You can also go for coffee or chocolate cakes, as long as the batter is dense enough.
3 – Remove Air Bubbles
Bundt cakes have a gorgeous design. So, you can impress your guests without having to decorate the cake!
Still, you need to keep the exterior of the cake smooth and crisp. That’s why there shouldn’t be any air bubbles in the batter before baking.
Though air bubbles are usually great for an airy, fluffy cake, this isn’t the case for Bundt cakes.
When air is trapped in the pockets of the pan, the batter might overflow while baking, and the cake won’t have the fine details of the Bundt pan.
For this reason, firmly tap the pan about ten times before placing it in the oven to drive the air out. Additionally, make sure you don’t incorporate air into the batter during mixing.
4 – Keep the Bottom Flat
One of the most common issues with Bundt cakes is domed bottoms. Bundt cakes are different from other cakes in that they’re baked upside down. So, the bottom of the cake rises, creating a dome!
If you want to present your gorgeous cake in a cake stand, the domed bottom will prevent it from sitting flat.
Keeping the bottom of the cake flat means you’ll have to prevent it from rising!
You can simply do this by turning down the oven temperature by about 25 ℉. Then, let the cake bake for an extra couple of minutes.
If this seems intimidating to you, don’t worry! You can still have an excellent Bundt cake.
Don’t fill the pan to the brim. Instead, leave room for the cake to rise. Yet, have the thick batter come up to the sides a little more.
5 – Add the Right Leavening Agent
Although you don’t want too much air in your batter to keep the Bundt cake from overflowing, all cakes should be somewhat fluffy.
In addition, just because Bundt cakes are dense doesn’t mean you should neglect to add the leavening agent!
In fact, Bundt cakes call for heavy ingredients, like flour, butter, and eggs. On the other hand, there isn’t a lot of liquid to keep the cake balanced. This means Bundt cakes are likely to turn out too dry and coarse.
So, don’t skip the leavening agent in your recipe. Though, you shouldn’t increase its ratio!
All you have to do is ensure you’re adding the correct type and amount of leavening agent and that it’s active.
For starters, you can’t substitute baking soda for baking powder! The latter is much less powerful. Rather, use three teaspoons of baking powder for each teaspoon of baking soda.
Then, you should ensure the leavening agent is active. You can test the quality of your leavening agent by adding some acid to it, such as vinegar or lemon juice.
If the mixture fizzes, then you can use the baking soda.
Lastly, avoid inactivating the leavening agent by over-mixing or leaving the batter in a cold oven.
6 – Be Patient
You might think Bundt cakes take less time to bake due to the unique heat distribution of the pan. Yet, since the batter is so dense, it actually requires a longer time!
Checking on the cake might be pretty tempting, but you must be patient. Otherwise, you risk the cake deflating and end up with a Bundt cake that’s underbaked in the middle.
That’s because you must keep the oven door closed until at least five minutes after the top of the cake is golden.
If you hastily check the cake, cold air will rush in, preventing the cake from baking. So, keep the oven door closed for at least ¾ of the baking time. It’ll be worth it!
7 – Let the Bundt Cake Cool
You might be eager to flip the cake out of the Bundt cake right after it’s done baking. That said, letting the cake cool for at least 10 minutes is crucial for the texture of your cake.
While Bundt cakes are traditionally dense, flipping them too soon might result in the texture being chewy.
Additionally, if your cake is too hot, it might crumble, or fall apart when you flip it.
This doesn’t mean you should let the cake cool completely before flipping it. If the pan comes to room temperature as well, the cake might stick to it, even if you’ve greased the pan.
So, the timing is delicate. Ideally, you should set a time to six to twelve minutes, depending on the size of the cake.
8 – Preheat the Oven
Though this might sound redundant, pre-heating the oven can’t be stressed enough. It helps you control the baking time, temperature, and texture of the cake!
Not only does preheating significantly save baking time, but it also ensures the leavening agent doesn’t deactivate in the batter.
So, if you forget this essential step, your cake will deflate, no matter the amount of baking soda added!
Furthermore, since Bundt cakes are dense, relying more on eggs and butter than liquids, the ingredients need to cook properly.
The initial blast of heat from a preheated oven ensures the gluten in these ingredients forms correctly.
In contrast, leaving the cake in a cold oven will cause too much gluten formation, resulting in a chewy, tough cake.
9 – Don’t Decorate the Cake
The beauty of a Bundt cake is the crisp piping details on the exterior. You don’t want to cover its beauty with frosting!
Alternatively, you can serve the cake as it is, or pour a simple glaze on top. You can use ganache, sugar glaze, or just caramel!
If you want the sweet taste of frosting, you can brush some simple syrup on the cake. Make sure the cake is hot, though. Otherwise, it won’t absorb the syrup!
For a sophisticated look, you might also dust the cake with sugar, cocoa powder, or butter and cinnamon!
That’s not the only way to impress your friends and family. The unique design of the Bundt cake means you can add anything in the center.
To keep with the simple nature of the cake, you can simply add chopped fruit!
Final Thoughts
Bundt cakes are the go-to dessert if you want to impress your family with minimal effort and skill. After all, the pan’s intricate piping means you don’t have to decorate the cake!
Still, because of the unique design of the Bundt pan, you should keep a couple of aspects in mind.
For instance, it’s easy for your cake to stick to the many crevices of the pan, so make sure to grease the pan and let the cake cool before flipping it.
You should also use a thick cake batter and leave room on the top of the pan for the cake to rise. This way, you’ll end up with a flat bottom, and a gorgeous Bundt cake.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.