How To Release a Bundt Cake from the Pan

Has this ever happened to you? You took so much time and effort to make a nice bundt cake recipe and then your bundt is sticking to the pan and simply does not release in one piece? Maybe even tears were shed, you may be thinking of making a layer desserts, trifle, cake pops, etc. But before you have to resort to plan B or C, this blog post will give you all the tips and tricks for you to serve one bundt cake as ONE whole pieces. The most important trick being that you have to wrap the bundt form in a damp towel right after getting it out of the oven (see number 4 below). After ten minutes you should be able to release the cake without a problem.

Moist lemon bundt cake

#1 Your bundt cake form needs to be very clean and dry

If your bundt cake has still some leftover batter pieces inside, these will be prefect for your new batter to use to stick to. Be sure to properly clean your bundt cake form thoroughly. As a tip: as soon as I was able to release the bundt cake from the pan, I immediately soak the bundt cake pan in hot water with a bit of soap. This way you can clean it easily with a cloth and will not form new scratches. Once clean, also be sure it is very dry before using it again.

#2 Grease with a neutral oil and flour with bread crumbs or cocoa powder

Before you pour the batter into the cake form, be sure to grease your bundt cake form properly. I like to use an oil spray I got in Spain, but you can simply brush on a neutral oil (such as sunflower). This is better than butter as butter tends to stick to the new batter, which oil doesn’t. Be sure to cover every part, e.g. all crevices. A brush can help to cover every part evenly. I have stopped flouring my bundt cake form with flour, I feel it doesn’t help so much. If I have on hand, I use bread crumbs instead or cocoa powder for a chocolate bundt cake. If you don’t have bread curmbs at hand, greasing suffices.

 

#3 Be sure to bake your bundt cake long enough

If your bundt cake hasn’t baked fully, it is very likely it will stick to the pan. An inserted toothpick should come out clean. I recommend the following, stick the toothpick into the center, not somewhere around the edges and check if any crumbs or batter can be seen on it. If this is the case, bake for five more minutes. Repeat until the toothpick comes out clean. Once you use your oven more often, you will get a better understanding whether it requires more time than the recipe asks for. Keep in mind, every oven is different, so baking time may vary.

#4 Wrap in a damp towel right out of the oven for 10 minutes

Take your bundt cake out of the oven and immediately wrap in a damp towel. Let sit like this for 10 minutes. If you are reading this when your bundt cake has been cooling off for a bit already, be sure to soak the towel in boiling water and then wrap around the bundt cake form. Let sit for 10 minutes, so to speak steaming for a little while.

On the left wrapped in a damp towel, in the middle edges are loosened, on the right inverted cake pan was wrapped in damp towel again. Usually at this point it is no problem to get the cake out of the pan!

#5 Gently loosen egdes with a plastic utensil

Loosen the edges with a plastic spatula or similar. It is important that you do note create new scratches in your bundt cake form, otherwise each scratch means a new possibility for your batter to stick to it. This may also be the reason why a bundt cake form didn’t have problems at the beginning, but not everything is stuck. Also be sure to loosen the funnel in the middle. Invert the cake of a cooling rack and wrap in damp towel again for a few minutes. I usually manage to get the cake out at this point the latest.

#6 Place inside of a waterbath for 10 minutes

If you still cannot get it out, prepare a waterbath and let the cake pan sit inside for another ten minutes, the water shouldn’t touch the cake itself though. Now try again.

Chocolate bundt cake with pears

#7 Freeze

If you have enough time, you can also freeze your cake for an hour. It will shrink a little bit and then should come out of the cake pan easily.

#8 Larger pieces can be glued back on with egg white

If desprite all efforts some pieces broke off, you can glue them back on with some egg white. Yes, jam, melted chocolate or some icing (see below number 9) will also work, but these you may see later on whereas egg white is usually invisible. Check out what to do with leftover egg yolk in this blog post.

Torta negra, a Colombian/Venezuelan fruit cake as a bundt

#9 Icing, a glaze, melted chocolate, crushed nuts, dried fruits, and/or edible flowers can camouflage any smaller mistakes

If only small pieces didin’t come out, you can use caramel, melted chocolate, crushed nuts, dried fruits, edible flowers or similar to camouflage smaller mistakes. Just dusting the bundt cake with icing sugar will make it look more appetizing. If you ask me personally, the taste of the cake is so much more important than the look. I am sure your guests will agree, if it doesn’t look perfect, but tastes amazing, that will easily been forgiven.

#10 As a last resort you can make cake pops, trifle or similar out of the broken pieces

If despite all efforts your bundt cake was damaged, make cake pops, a trifle or some layer dessert, e.g. with one layer of bundt cake crumbs, whipping cream, and fruits, or compote.

P.S.: The cake that served as a model here is this moist apple cinnamon bundt cake.