Hi All

Am making a fav Carrot cake recipe using a Bundt Pan for the first time ....I really want it to be unmoulded neatly like those picture perfect bundt cakes you see, esp since this is a gift.

Kindly tell me if there is anything else I need to know apart from these…thanks.

1) Grease the pan properly. Use a pastry brush or spray or a mister and make sure every nook and corner has been well greased. Two areas you need to focus on are the bottom of the pan which has the curves or design and where the tube meets the bottom.Melt it, paint it own with a brush, then flour the surface. (Do I need to melt the shortening?) I do not have veg spray.

2) About 2 minutes before your cake is ready to come out the oven, place a kitchen towel in the sink. Pour steaming water until its completely soaked. As soon as your cake is out of the oven place it on top of the towel and let it sit for 10 seconds.Immediately invert the cake onto a cooling rack. The cake will come out clean and whole without sticking.

Will point # 2 work, or shd I just leave them in the pans for 15 min.s and then unmould? Do revert to tell.

re: 1), it might be easier to get the shortening into every bit of detail if it is melted and you use a brush, but melting isn’t a prerequisite to good release.  After the pan is coated with the shortening, you might want to chill it to firm up the shortening so that it doesn’t attract too much flour when you coat it.

re: 2), never heard of this, don’t have any experience of whether or not it would make a difference.  The effect would be to cool the bottom of the cake to the temp of the steaming towel, while leaving the interior unchanged. If you go this route, be very careful that the cake doesn’t crack or split as the crumb will be very delicate/fragile while still hot from the oven.

My only other thought is don’t use a new pan (sometimes new pans stick more on their first use) and make sure the crust of the cake isn’t underbrowned.  An underbaked crust will stick more than a properly browned one.  And a nonstick bundt pan will release more easily than a silver metal one.

Not sure what recipe you’re considering, but chocolate cakes and sponge cakes stick more than yellow/white butter cakes.

Thanks Julie, will keep these in mind as I bake…and will make sure the cake is nicely baked and browned, you are so right to say undercooked can stick…it can so mar the overall appearance ...

My pan is new, so thats the only hitch..however, it is non stick, so I guess it shd’nt cause a problem…my only concern is, have never baked in a bundt pan earlier…

Neways, will revert once i do my bake..its a Carol Bloom’s Carrot Cake which uses a lil bit of brown sugar apart from the normal granulated in it as well…thanks so much.