Have a beautiful borosilicate glass bundt pan with which I have had mixed results when baking. My Kugelhopfs and babkas turn out well sometimes and so do other bundts like the Apple Dapple cake etc.. Yet at times the cakes turn out a bit raw or underdone around the 'closed' tube area. I bake successfully in glass pans, adjusting heat times and settings. But these bundt pans have me puzzled. To achieve consistent results, I use the same methods, times and heat settings as for the successful bakes. Sometimes the cakes turn out fine, at other times raw, gooey dough around the center tube results. I'm no engineer but I think perhaps the tube shouldn't be closed? Is there any way I can compensate for the lack of even heat distribution, especially around the center tube? Haven't tried using a pie drip catcher (hole in center) to set the bundt pan on; that's my next test. If you have a solution that really works, please share it. Hate having to wonder if my cakes are done, especially gift cakes for the holidays. Thank you for any help you can provide.
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1It's beautiful - So it's art, or a gelatine mold, and a metal pan with a hole in the center will work far more reliably for cake-baking - which it appears to be bad at. Kinda like the practical value of glass slippers as shoes...– EcnerwalSep 7 at 2:50
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2What do you mean by 'closed tube'?– GdDSep 7 at 10:33
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@GdD a Bundt pan is a torus. This one has the tubular part making doughnut-hole or bagel-hole in the middle of the cake closed off, rather than being open for airflow through it, evidently. So the cake is a torus but the pan isn't, topologically-speaking.– EcnerwalSep 7 at 11:17
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Ah, that makes sense @Ecnerwal. Seems like an odd design choice.– GdDSep 7 at 11:57
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@Sophia, does your oven have a convection (i.e. fan) mode?– GdDSep 7 at 11:58
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1 Answer
I don’t think it has much to do with lack of air circulation from the closed tube, but with the gigantic mass of glass in the center. That’ll take a long time to heat up, retarding the cooking in that area.
For forgiving recipes which are fine with extended cooking, consider increasing the cooking time. For recipes which need to be cooked thoroughly without being overcooked, consider buying a metal pan.
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Might it not also be an option to preheat the pan in the oven before adding in the cake mixture? Sep 7 at 13:39
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1@JanusBahsJacquet Maybe? I wouldn't really want to grease, prepare, and fill a piping hot chunk of glass with batter. It's not normally how I bake cakes.– SneftelSep 7 at 13:48
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True, if you’re greasing ‘by hand’ (as opposed to spraying, for example), it could get both messy and painful rather quickly. Didn’t consider that. Sep 7 at 13:59
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