The 10 Best Bundt Pans in 2022

The modest Bundt pan is ideal for various sweet delicacies like monkey bread, marble cakes, and jello, as well as supper alternatives like roast chicken, timbale, or meatloaf.

Although Bundt cakes have been around for years, the Bundt pan was invented in the mid-20th century, and although cakes cooked in a Bundt pan look great, they may be time consuming to prepare correctly beforehand. In this post, we’ll go over how to keep food from adhering to your Bundt pan, as well as what the finest Bundt pan has to offer for baking the greatest Bundt cake.

Things to Consider Before Buying a Bundt Pan

A Bundt pan may be used to make tunnel cakes, marble cakes, gelled desserts, meatloaf, frittata, phyllo ring, timbale, monkey bread, bread, or even a Thanksgiving stuffing ring! You may also lay veggies in the bottom of the pan and attach or impale a seasoned chicken to it so that its fluids flavor the vegetables as it cooks and crisps.

A Bundt pan is usually equipped with a chimney or center tube to create a hole in the center of the cake. This implies that a Bundt cake has a toroidal form, which allows more surface area of the cake to be in touch with the heat during cooking, resulting in quicker cooking and more equal browning.

Bundt pan sides are often patterned with conventional grooves or flutes, while modern pans may frequently have more sophisticated patterns or even landscape designs.

The Bundt Cake

The Bundt cake is based on the Kugelhupf, a European cake with several variations. The Gugelhupf, a brioche-like cake popular in a number of European Jewish communities, is one such variety. The form of the Bundt cake, rather than the recipe, is what distinguishes it.

Gugelhupf is known as Bundkuchen in Southwestern Germany. There is no universal consensus on why the cake is named Bund, given the term has many connotations in various European languages. Bund cake recipes were discovered in Jewish-American cookbooks around the turn of the century.

Nordic Ware and the Birth of the Bundt Pan

Although Bundt cakes have been around for a while, the Bundt pan is rather new. H. David Dalquist, the proprietor of Minneapolis Nordic Ware, cast an aluminum pan in 1950 for a Jewish women organization who wished to make a traditional Kugelhupf.

This original pan included ridges for better cake cutting, and Dalquist dubbed it a Bund pan, which means bond or alliance in German. Bundt was subsequently added to the name. Nobody understood if this was done for trademark grounds or to distinguish the pan from a similarly titled pro-Nazi outfit.

During the 1950s and 1960s, there was minimal demand for Bundt pans, but everything changed when a Bundt cake placed second in the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. As a consequence, Nordic Ware was forced to raise output to 30,000 Bundt pans each day.

Nordic Ware also released Bundt cookbooks, which were tested in the home kitchen of H. David Dalquist’s wife.

Difference Between a Bundt Pan and a Tube Pan

A real tube pan, also known as an angel food cake pan, is slightly slanted and smooth-sided, with a removable bottom that allows you to remove your cake with minimum damage. It also features a chimney, sometimes known as a central tube.

This is when things get perplexing. Because Nordic Ware owns the Bundt pan trademark, other manufacturers are not permitted to advertise pans for baking Bundt cakes under that name. They will consequently refer to them as tube pans, despite the fact that they will be made similarly to, and will resemble, a Bundt pan, replete with swirls, fluting, or other designs.

If you’re baking a Bundt cake, a patterned tube pan that looks like a Bundt pan should suffice. If you are cooking a recipe that asks for a tube pan, such as an angel food cake, you should use a smooth-sided, loose-bottomed tube or angel food cake pan.

So, in some circumstances, there is a very evident difference between a Bundt pan and a tube pan, while in others, the only distinction is the use of a tradename.

Choosing Metal, Glass or Silicone Bundt Pans

Because of its great heat conductivity, aluminum is the most common form of Bundt pan. Similarly, steel does. Metal pans are also strong, although they might be difficult to remove cakes from. Lighter pans may assist reduce some of the overbrowning that might occur when using a darker pan.

A nonstick metal pan makes it simpler to release the cake, but if your Bundt pan is older and the nonstick is damaged or wearing thin, it is definitely time to replace it since even if your cakes are not presently stuck, they will be soon.

Glass does not transfer heat as efficiently as metal, and its lack of elasticity might make releasing your cake more difficult.

Although silicone Bundt pans have exceptional nonstick properties and are simple to clean, their flexibility makes them more unsteady when used. Silicone also functions as a heat insulator rather than a conductor, thus cakes may take longer to properly bake while risking the exterior of the cake burning.

Pan Capacity

Most pans have a capacity of 10 to 12 cup, and many recipes are written for this size. Smaller individual pans, as well as bigger 15 cup pans, are available. If you use a bigger or smaller pan, you can easily scale the recipe up or down.

If you are unsure of your pan’s capacity, use a measuring cup to fill it to the brim with water to acquire an exact measurement. Remember that you won’t need to mix as much batter as this since a Bundt pan should only be around two-thirds full when baking a light Bundt cake. If it is more than three-quarters full, there is a greater likelihood that the batter may overflow when it rises. Fill the pan with extra batter if creating pound cakes or other cakes that will not rise as much.

Greasing and Flouring a Bundt Pan

If you are one of the many of us who possess one or more Bundt pans, you have undoubtedly had at least one Bundt cake catastrophe. Although there may be other causes, such as the cake’s fragility, the pan is often the primary culprit when calamity hits. This implies that it is always worthwhile to take the time to properly prepare the pan.

It is normally best to oil the Bundt pan just before adding the batter to it. When you oil the oven before turning it on, there is a greater likelihood of the grease flowing down the sides and collecting in the bottom.

To grease a Bundt pan, use melted shortening or a nonstick vegetable oil spray, then use a pastry brush to ensure that the pan and chimney are thoroughly and evenly covered with grease.

Some manufacturers may advise against using cooking spray since it might leave a residue that makes cleaning more difficult over time, and although butter is traditional for greasing, it can occasionally cause batter to adhere to the pan.

Some of us flour the pan, but this does not work for everyone, and the layer of flour that may form on top of the cake is not always appropriate for the kind of cake made.

Alternatively, try coating with granulated sugar. Because this will remain semi-liquid while heated, the cake will slip out more easily. A finely ground nut flour will help provide a barrier between the pan and the batter, and an even coating of cocoa in the pan will give more flavor to the cake if you’re preparing a rich chocolate Bundt cake.

To flour or coat, set your oiled pan on a piece of parchment paper and sprinkle with sugar, nut flour, or cocoa. To get a fine and uniform coating, flip the pan on its side and carefully spin it, tapping it on the counter as it revolves to remove any extra coating. Rotate it in the other way to ensure that all portions of the pan are covered, and the excess should have dripped out of the pan and onto the paper by this time.

After you’ve added your batter, wipe the pan’s edges with a wet cloth to remove any leftover oil and batter, which will help prevent residue from collecting on the pan’s edge. Place your Bundt pan on a sheet pan to collect any spills and to keep the tin from tilting or baking unevenly on the wire rack.

Releasing a Bundt Cake from its Pan

When a Bundt cake is done, its interior temperature should have reached roughly 200F.

or the pan’s rim. To assist free a stuck cake, slide a table knife or thin silicone spatula between the cake and the pan and press it as far down as it can go. This may be more difficult if you’re using an ornate Bundt pan, and there’s a danger of damaging the nonstick coating. You may also gently push the cake away from the borders with your fingertips.When the cake is done, cut away any extra that has risen over the chimney and serve.

Then, before ejecting the cake, allow it to cool somewhat. A Bundt cake will sometimes shatter because it is still too hot when it comes out of the pan. Leaving the cake for five minutes upside down on the rack and then five minutes right side up will sometimes be enough to gently release a resistant or fragile cake. If it still won’t come out, try a few gentle side to side shakes or returning it to the cooling oven for five to ten minutes to see if it releases the stuck places.

Decorating a Bundt Cake

Because frosting a Bundt cake may be tricky owing to its form, the simplest alternatives for decorating after it’s cool are to serve it as is, pour glaze or sauce over the top, or just sprinkle with powdered sugar or cocoa.

Conclusion

We looked at a variety of Bundt, tube, and fluted pans that are great for producing Bundt cakes and other delicacies in this post. We’ve also discussed the distinctions between these pans, as well as some tried-and-true strategies for keeping your cake from adhering to a Bundt pan.

If you’re seeking to replace a worn-out Bundt pan or make your first Bundt cake, we believe our reviews will help you find the best Bundt pan for your kitchen, whatever you want to make with this simple, but well-designed piece of cookware.