Help. Bunt cake fell apart

Trying to get the gingerbread bunt cake out of the mould and it fell apart.  Too many pieces to glue together with icing.

It didn't last year.   What did I do wrong this time?

I only have enough brown sugar for 2 or 3 more attempts and I need 2 complete houses.

To make it worse,  sugar is currently rationed due to a shortage.   Brown sugar is almost impossible to find in town.   So I need to figure out how to make it not fall apart.

It's one of those thick aluminium bunt pans with a coating.  I don't want to scratch the coating.

Help?

Can you get a thin, silicone spatula in there, to get the rest out? Pictures might be helpful.... I'll keep thinking. I'm not sure I understand the initial plan/vision, though. Will it be kept in a cool place, upon finishing? How sturdy does it need to be? Do you have honey, light corn syrup, or anything else like that on hand? Will it be judged for taste/ texture - or on appearances, alone? If on appearances alone, do you have a nut butter or paste on hand?

Did you butter and flour the pan before pouring the batter in?

Maybe add a bit more oil/fat to the cake batter?

here is the bunt pan.

The recipe came with the pan and keeps at room temp for about 10 days.  Longer if I dry it out a little under a towel.  Feast day is before Christmas and the oven will be occupied after tomorrow,  so baking is today and tomorrow morning.

The instructions with the pan advised against flour, just liberal olive or cooking oil - no spray.  They were strict on this so we just used olive oil like last year.


The recipe said sit for 10 min before tuning out, but maybe this could be longer?   That way the cake could shrink?

I see the website suggests flour, so maybe I could try that

r ranson wrote:here is the bunt pan.

The recipe came with the pan and keeps at room temp for about 10 days.  Longer if I dry it out a little under a towel.  Feast day is before Christmas and the oven will be occupied after tomorrow,  so baking is today and tomorrow morning.

The instructions with the pan advised against flour, just liberal olive or cooking oil - no spray.  They were strict on this so we just used olive oil like last year.


The recipe said sit for 10 min before tuning out, but maybe this could be longer?   That way the cake could shrink?

Aahhhhh, ok! Now, I get it. So, if you don't want to do it again, are you up for the idea of a giant, gingerbread house shaped, slice-able cake pop? You could wash the pan, dry it well, then oil it, again. After that, put the entire cake, crumbled up, in a large mixing bowl, and stir in about half of your frosting (brown would likely look best), then pack it *firmly* back into the cake pan and chill it until set, and set upside down in very hot water for about 30 seconds, quickly dry the pan, then invert with a serving platter, to unmold. With so much frosting in the cake, you'll want to be pretty minimal on the outside, or it will be too sweet - but berries &/or candies would be lovely. A bit unconventional - but, worth a shot, maybe.

I'm feeling pretty smug because I bought my baking supplies during the summer.   It always goes on sale in July.

But I only bought what I need for up to January as I didn't expect there to be a sugar shortage.   Most shops here have zero sugar on the shelves.   Some have basic sugar (one per customer per day)  but nothing fancy like icieing sugar.  So icing is limited.

Also, I refuse to shop during the holiday rush.


I like this cake, so I'll freeze the mistakes for snacking during the year.

I just don't want the next cake to get stuck like this one.

What's the trick to getting the bunt cake to escape from the tin unharmed?

I've always done butter, or lard (I'm not a fan of oil, for this) followed with a good dusting of flour, and bake until the cake starts to pull away from the sides. If there's flour residue on the cake, I use a pastry brush (basically a dedicated paint brush), to gently brush it off.

Just to clarify, how long did the cake sit in the pan at room temperature before you tried to remove it, r?

John Weiland wrote:Just to clarify, how long did the cake sit in the pan at room temperature before you tried to remove it, r?

10 min.

The recipe said.... but now I think we usually leave it half an hour.

Also maybe too much candy ginger?

r ranson wrote:Also maybe too much candy ginger?

Yup. The extra sugar would make it softer, slightly more moist- and delicate. The waiting cooling time, the extra sugar... sounds like you've figured out what went wrong. But, I'll bet it's yummy!

Recently baked my wife's birthday cake and had the same thing happen.  In my case, however, I suspect it was because I left the cakes in the glass cake dish overnight.....they not only cooled completely, but seemed to solidify the bond with the glass even more.  Interestingly, I've seen that the fix for trying to get cold cakes out of pans is to set the pan in a shallow dish of hot water for 15-20 min..  This probably helps to solubilize the fats and sugars that are causing the 'cementing effect' and not letting the cake out.  In your case, I do suspect 10 min to be bit too hasty.  Most the quick breads and cakes I make *usually* get 40 - 60 min. of cooling before trying to invert and recover from the pan....hopefully, the happy medium between a cooled, firmed cake mass and not-yet-bonded interface with the cake pan.  Looks yummy all the same!...

Did you cool the cake/pan upside down?  Tap the pan before trying to remove and then shake the pan gently?

This is how we do our angel food cakes.

I also have a small plastic knife I try to insert to make sure nothing is stuck.

Anne Miller wrote:Did you cool the cake/pan upside down?  Tap the pan before trying to remove and then shake the pan gently?

This is how we do our angel food cakes.

I also have a small plastic knife I try to insert to make sure nothing is stuck.

I'm supposed to cool it upside-down?

I don't know if this information is of any help, but it is the main thing that stands out when it comes to gingerbread to me.

I have seen two types of gingerbread made. I'm not sure how to tell the difference besides texture/taste. The one type of gingerbread that my grandmother would make would be sturdy and pretty solid after she made them. The gingerbread I made last year from a random online recipe was a softer doughy type that required 'drying' time before it was structural. It was something like an entire night sitting after I had brought it out of the oven before it would stay on its own. I did not use a bunt pan but rather a flat sheet that I cut shapes out of. The nice shape cookies went to family while the remnants were for me haha.

Observation:  After reading the entire post, I'd oil and flour the pan, not put so much ginger (it can go on top as decoration), let it sit for 30 minutes or so to shrink, then use the spatula to assist with the removal.

i always get myself in similar trouble with the fancy bundt pans. i think one needs the crazy cooking spray, or lecithin, or something else nutty for it to be successful. I'd butter (not oil) and flour it, regardless of what the instructions were, if I were to try it again.
As for the leftovers--- i bet that would make a crazy good trifle with some custard.....

Timothy Norton wrote:I don't know if this information is of any help, but it is the main thing that stands out when it comes to gingerbread to me.

I have seen two types of gingerbread made. I'm not sure how to tell the difference besides texture/taste. The one type of gingerbread that my grandmother would make would be sturdy and pretty solid after she made them. The gingerbread I made last year from a random online recipe was a softer doughy type that required 'drying' time before it was structural. It was something like an entire night sitting after I had brought it out of the oven before it would stay on its own. I did not use a bunt pan but rather a flat sheet that I cut shapes out of. The nice shape cookies went to family while the remnants were for me haha.

What I'm making is more a gingerbread flavoured bunt cake with a gingerbread house shape.

We used to make traditional gingerbread... well, 20th century style, but it's easier not to have to put the house together.

r ranson wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:Did you cool the cake/pan upside down?  Tap the pan before trying to remove and then shake the pan gently?

This is how we do our angel food cakes.

I also have a small plastic knife I try to insert to make sure nothing is stuck.

I'm supposed to cool it upside-down?

No. That is angelfood specific. And, in the bakeries, we never used oil to prep pans - only butter or lard.

It has been a long time since I owned a bundt pan.

I asked Mr. Google what would happen if you cooled a bundt pan upside down:

There are some good tips here:

. Get upside down. Let the bundt cake cool before removing from the pan.

No, not the scary alternate reality from Stranger Things. Let the cake rest for 5 minutes once you remove it from the oven. Then, flip the cake onto a cooling rack upside down and let it rest for about 5 minutes before you remove the pan. A little trick here is to use a grid cooling rack, not one that has big gaps. That can cause the cake to settle into the gaps and makes it harder to transfer to a platter.

https://handletheheat.com/prevent-bundt-cake-sticking/

My go-to lubricant for all  baking pans, including my Bundt pan, is liquid lecithin. I source mine from Azure Standard < https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/search/liquid%20lecithin>; It's oily-sticky, and a little goes a long way, especially if you mix it 50-50 with olive or avocado oil. And instead of lightly sprinkling plain flour over the it, I mix the flour with something from the ingredients list e,g., cacao, some spices, powdered sugar…. That way you don't have an alien chalky bloom on the cake. I let my Christmas Chocolate Fruit and Nut Cake, our traditional Christmas cake for over 50 years (I'm old!), sit for about 8 minutes before turning it out of the Bundt pan onto a wire cooling rack (wire rack over the pan, quick flip wearing oven gloves) to let it rest undisturbed til it's cool. Hope that helps. Merry Everything!

So... the conclusion.  I got two lovely houses and they are now decorated and gone.

I couldn't figure out how to use a solid fat on such an intricate mould, but it did help to butter the central shaft.  

In my cookbook, I have a big "no" next to the part of flouring the mould, so I didn't try it this year.  

The big help was to leave it sit for 30 min before trying to remove it.  That seems to be what I was missing.  now to write it on the recipe because there's no way I'll remember next year.  


Thanks for your help everyone.  

I'm sorry - didn't think about that part! I melt the butter or lard, and use a pastry brush to brush it on. You get a much more even coat, and it gets into all the nooks & crannies, then any extra can get poured back out.