So one of my big surprise happy happy birthday gifts this year was a mini-bundt pan featuring six “bundtlettes” given to me by Lisa and Annette with much love and affection. Saturday night, Lisa came over and we got bundty with it. This is our story.
But should we start with the final image? Sometimes that draws attention. Look how pretty these turned out:
Pretty as a picture, right? Well it is a picture, but you see the point. Bundlettes produce very pretty mini-bundt cakes, for sure.
We used this recipe from Williams Sonoma, linked earlier by one of my site readers. Identify yourself, whoever you are! I’m too lazy to find you! This recipe was a great recipe to start out with, so thanks for recommending it!
The biggest step in the whole mini-bundt process was greasing and flouring the bundt pan. I just rubbed a lot of butter in all the crevises and then floured it. This worked fine. Just use lots of butter. Get bundty with it. (Sorry, this will be a recurring joke. I apologize if you don’t find it funny. May I suggest that you resist it because you don’t know how to get bundty?)
Otherwise, the rest is easy. Just follow the instructions in that link. You make the batter. You pour it in.
Oh wait, that part isn’t easy. Here’s where Lisa and I have a big fight. I will recreate it for you now:
Me: LISA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Lisa: I am distributing the batter evenly in the 6 pans like the instructions say.
Me: Yes, but I think it’s better to fill each of them up entirely than to spread them out evenly and only fill them 2/3rds of the way up.
Lisa: But I read a recipe for this earlier today that said to only fill them up 2/3rds of the way!
Me: But this isn’t that recipe!
Lisa: I don’t care! I’ll do what I like! Deal with it!
So Lisa won that little fight and we put them in the oven looking like this:
For a long while it looked like I would be the victor in the big fight because they weren’t rising. But suddenly, about 2/3rds of the way in (how ironic, right?) they did rise. And they looked perfect. We let them cool when they came out and eventually (and rather nervously) tapped them out on the rack. Lisa felt like a hero:
After that, it was just a matter of making the glaze (we used apple cider instead of apple juice) which we painted on and the let seep in. Eventually we achieved this final image which you’ve already seen:
Again, they look really pretty, right?
As for how did they taste? Well one confession. Lisa and I forgot—ok, I’ll take the blame–I forgot to add the vanilla. So this is lacking one tsp of vanilla. I’m not sure how that impacted the final taste. But ultimately, they tasted like baked donuts with an apple glaze. That sounds nice, right? Ya, it was nice. I didn’t love them. If they didn’t look so pretty and tasted this way I’d be like: “Yo, what’s the deal? This just tastes eh, y’all.” However, because they did look pretty I forgave the just ok taste. See, that’s what happens when you get bundty with it.
Peace.
I didn’t notice if anyone sent you a link straight to the Williams-Sonoma site for that recipe, but I am the one who commented that it was “the first recipe I made in my Bundlette.” And I did identify myself! =) In my post about the cakes, I, too, commented on the difficulty I had greasing and flouring the pan. A reader was kind enough to point out that “Baker’s Joy” is a great solution to the problem. It’s a non-stick cooking spray with flour added. It is, in fact, fantastic for Bundt pans of all shapes and sizes.
I’ll second Kelli’s recommendation — I always use Baker’s Joy with my bundt pans and never have any trouble removing my cakes (or greasing the pans!).