What are you Baking? February 2025

I was thinking about rice pudding yesterday but ended up making a chocolate cake. Maybe next weekend.

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LOL - my baking thoughts had been trending chocolate. The rice pudding is almost gone and I’ve been searching chocolate/cherry cakes and quick breads – have a can of cherry pie filling that’s beyond it’s best-by date to use up. As of now, it looks like I’ll instead be making a cherry/pecan quick bread cake. and take the commenter suggestions to substitute applesauce for some of the oil and reduce the sugar by half.

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Apparently, someone really likes my Apple Cake, or her appetite is coming back or both!! Either way this GREAT news – really happy Sunshine is eating again.

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Cherry Pecan Bundt - using up a can of cherry pie filling. Both my sweet-tooth husband and I are pleased with nicely sweet-enough flavor, with my modifications to this recipe, gathered from commenters on the recipe. In place of 1.5 C oil, I used a 4 oz cup of applesauce and 1 c. vegetable oil, and instead of 2 C. granulated sugar I used half - just 1 C. Mine baked in a 12 C. Bundt pan for 1 hour, instead of in 2 loaf pans.

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I’ve been saving a package of cranberries in my freezer for over a year, wanting to make rstuart’s recipe for Cranberry Cream Cheese Poundcake. It’s for a 12 cup tube pan, which I didn’t have so used a 10 cup Bundt and put 2 cups into a little loaf pan. (Funny the cake doesn’t call for any salt.) Recipe calls for
3 cups cranberries, I know those packages hold 3.5 cups so just used all of it.

I made a batch of “Cake Goop” and was careful to put as much as I could into the design. The 2 little loaves came out easily. They took about 40 minutes, the cake took 1 hour, 40 minutes. As I’ve been advised here, I waited 10 minutes before removing from pan … almost made it, but not perfect. I wonder if I need to wait longer or if a different recipe would be better for this demanding pan.

I haven’t cut into it yet.


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To me it kind of looks like it stuck where the cranberries pressed against the metal. Were there cranberries left in the pan?

ETA: have you tried the baking spray with flour? Maybe it gets better coverage?

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Cranberries + cake

Would waiting more than 10 minutes help? The pan was pretty hot so when I went to flip, not easy.

I think I used this pan once before for a lemon pound cake and it was ok



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Oops

It included a Curry Leaf plant I gave a friend.

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Remember, I used the Baker’s Spay with Flour and the chocolate cake with bourbon, in a swirl Bundt, did not slide out well. That’s when I got the advice to use Cake Goop and only wait 10 minutes to turn out.

But that you cooled for an hour. The sugars had rehardened, probably.

I suspect you’re running into a similar problem with cherries. They might be candying and thus getting stuck on the design.

Maybe you could test Baker’s Spray plus 10 minutes turn-out?

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I love it. Great gift!

The only troubles with sticking I’ve ever had with bundt baking is from small berries/cranberries. I never use homemade goop, so I can’t comment on that, and I’m one of those who definitely waits more than ten minutes to unmold.

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How long do you wait?

Frozen cranberries coated with flour. Even though recipe includes 3 cups of sugar, cake doesn’t taste at all sweet to me.

The chocolate bourbon cake I followed the directions … waited 2 whole hours.

NordicWare (makers of Bundt pans) has a list of best-practices, and hands out printed instructions in their Outlet store which is only a few miles from me - a spot I’ve visited often. They include:

  1. Use a flour-included spray to coat the pan.
  2. Use a small silicon brush to be sure spray gets into all crevices.
  3. After filling, rap pan a couple of times on countertop, to remove air bubbles, ensure batter is fully in contact with pan.
  4. Bake until done. Check in several spots with a skewer, or a temperature probe.
  5. Cool (in pan) on a rack 10 minutes. Longer cooling most often results in sticking.
  6. Rap pan on countertop a couple of times to loosen cake. (My baking buddy also uses a wooden skewer to carefully loosen outer and center edges if they appear stuck to pan).
  7. Invert pan on rack or a plate you then place on rack, allow to fully cool.
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One other hint I read somewhere. Before making your batter spray or brush your bundt pan and put it in the fridge this stops the grease from pooling at the bottom. Seems to work for me. I always use bakers grease.

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I use this everbake baking spray from King Arthur and I have the same brilliant pan and other finicky bun pans and I’ve never had an issue with sticking

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I did all this.

Even though this recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar, this cake seems very lacking in sweetness. Maybe it needs a glaze.

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Just ordered some of this - thanks for the recommendation.

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When you make crème caramel do you strain out the chalaza as you put the mixture into the baking dish? I always do, but it’s a pain to then clean the sieve, so I was wondering if leaving it in makes it unpleasant.