# Anyone know how to grease and flour a bundt cake pan?



## SirPentor (Sep 15, 2004)

I've been making this one kind of cake frequently lately, and recipe says to grease and flour the bundt cake pan. How do I do that? Currently, I spray it with non-stick spray, and then try to coat the pan with a light dusting of flour. This has three results:

Some of the cake ends up with clunks of flour on it.
Some of the cake sticks to the pan.
There if flour *everywhere*.
Any advice?


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## Oh the Irony (Dec 14, 2003)

veggie shortening baby..

maybe coconut oil, you need a solid.


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## shannon0218 (Oct 10, 2003)

If by any chance the cake is a mix or if it calls for all the dry ingredients to be mixed together before adding wet ingred. save a bit of it out to use instead of flour.
Using non stick spray with a light dusting of flour should work, you may well need a new bundt pan.
Just a tip on using flour without getting everywhere--I put it in a "sugar shaker" like you would use to sprinkle icing sugar on something--so bigger holes than a salt shaker but not too big.


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## BeeandOwlsMum (Jul 11, 2002)

My mom always did it this way, and it has always worked for me.









Take a paper towel and a pat of butter, and use that to grease the pan. Get in all the little cracks (this has the added benefit of not getting butter all over your hands.)

Then take a couple tablespoons of flour and put it in the pan, rotate the pan on end, and tap while moving the flour around the inside of the pan. Make sure you get all of the pan. When that is done, tap all the extra flour out into the garbage. You may have to tap a little harder to get some of it off, but you should have a very light dusting of flour all over the pan.

Pour in batter and you are done!


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## GoodEats (Mar 14, 2005)

I hate getting scummy cakes out of pans. I like Wilton Cake Release. It's probably a petroleum product.







: I don't use it unless I'm making a cake, which is extremely rare but, when I do it releases the cake from the pan without flouring and you don't get a crummy/scummy layer on the outside.


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## SirPentor (Sep 15, 2004)

Thanks for the advice everyone! Next time I'll be ready.


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## FillingMyQuiver (Jul 20, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *AdinaL*
My mom always did it this way, and it has always worked for me.









Take a paper towel and a pat of butter, and use that to grease the pan. Get in all the little cracks (this has the added benefit of not getting butter all over your hands.)

Then take a couple tablespoons of flour and put it in the pan, rotate the pan on end, and tap while moving the flour around the inside of the pan. Make sure you get all of the pan. When that is done, tap all the extra flour out into the garbage. You may have to tap a little harder to get some of it off, but you should have a very light dusting of flour all over the pan.

Pour in batter and you are done!

















This is how I was taught to grease and flour a pan!!! Wow!! I'm so glad to see others do it this way too


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## BeeandOwlsMum (Jul 11, 2002)

Works like a charm every time!


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## Oh the Irony (Dec 14, 2003)

yeah, i use the same technique except with the veggie shortening.
taught to me by my grandmother in law...


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## liawbh (Sep 29, 2004)

What Adina said! Also learned from a grandmother.


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## guest9969 (Apr 16, 2004)

Bundt pans are different than regular pans and they cause that "dirty" or "floury" look if you flour using the traditional method mentioned above.

The only solution I've found is to buy the spray with the flour built in. I think its called "Pam for Baking" or something like that.


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## umefey (Sep 10, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Zack419*







This is how I was taught to grease and flour a pan!!! Wow!! I'm so glad to see others do it this way too

















Me too.








It's the only reason we ever have paper towels in the house. :LOL


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## sohj (Jan 14, 2003)

Pam Spray is revolting and tastes nasty. (Yeah, yeah, I know it is supposedly tasteless, but it isn't. There is an _absence_ of flavor where butter should be.)

Not to mention a huge waste of resources...the steel for the can, the propellant, etc. And the paper-towel method is also wasteful.

The PROPER and efficient way to grease a pan (or several) is

1) keep a small jar of CLARIFIED BUTTER in your fridge and put it in a pot of warm water on the stove to melt it. When it is liquid, take a pastry brush and brush it over the inside of your pan/mold/whatever. This will get it everywhere and not have any clumps sticking to mar the crust of the cake.

2) take a tablespoon of flour and sprinkle it around the inside of the pan. Pick up the pan and tilt while turning to cover the inside -- hold it over the sink while you do it.

This is not messy and it is cheaper and more efficient than any other method.

To make clarified butter, take some butter in a pyrex or other heatproof measuring cup, set it in hot water to melt slowly and when it is all melted, pour off the milk fat solids and save the "oil" part. With the milk fat solids removed, it will keep a really, really long time and won't burn on the pan. (I add the solids to the dog's food. She loves 'em.)

The brush-on method is the best.

Yours,

Someone who made a living baking pastry for a while.


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## Oh the Irony (Dec 14, 2003)

sohj, that sounds great, but there is an element of tradition in it for me. i love doing it the way i was taught by my grandmother in law--course when i use the pan i am making a really decadent pound cake that is her recipe. doing it the traditional way (traditional for my family) makes me feel connected to the past.


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## sadiesmom (Feb 18, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sohj*
The PROPER and efficient way to grease a pan (or several) is

1) keep a small jar of CLARIFIED BUTTER in your fridge and put it in a pot of warm water on the stove to melt it. When it is liquid, take a pastry brush and brush it over the inside of your pan/mold/whatever. This will get it everywhere and not have any clumps sticking to mar the crust of the cake.

2) take a tablespoon of flour and sprinkle it around the inside of the pan. Pick up the pan and tilt while turning to cover the inside -- hold it over the sink while you do it.

This is not messy and it is cheaper and more efficient than any other method.

To make clarified butter, take some butter in a pyrex or other heatproof measuring cup, set it in hot water to melt slowly and when it is all melted, pour off the milk fat solids and save the "oil" part. With the milk fat solids removed, it will keep a really, really long time and won't burn on the pan. (I add the solids to the dog's food. She loves 'em.)

The brush-on method is the best.

Yours,

Someone who made a living baking pastry for a while.

Another pastry chef here...ditto to above.


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## sohj (Jan 14, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *wolfmama*
.... doing it the traditional way (traditional for my family) makes me feel connected to the past.

As far as I know, vegetable "shortening" was only invented during the crank-up of the industrial era in the late 1800's. Vegetable shortening used to be called compound lard.

My family's recipes come from the old countries (France, Ireland and Pays Basque via Quebec; Germany; Poland; and Sicily). My idea of tradition doesn't involve any industrialization.

And I got the clarified butter instructions from my great-aunt Roberta who's mother was cook for the whole logging camp up the French River in Georgian Bay. Nothing frou-frou about her.










Just promoting more "natural living". If I want my power from off-grid, I'm not going to stay connected to it by buying Crisco.


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## Oh the Irony (Dec 14, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sohj*
As far as I know, vegetable "shortening" was only invented during the crank-up of the industrial era in the late 1800's. Vegetable shortening used to be called compound lard.

And I got the clarified butter instructions from my great-aunt Roberta who's mother was cook for the whole logging camp up the French River in Georgian Bay. Nothing frou-frou about her.









Yes, my grandmother in law would be from that time period. Wasn't saying your way was frou-frou; I'll give it a try on other recipes. Thank you. Just a bit of nostalgia on this one particular cake...I make it on the anniversary of her death for all her grandchildren.








back at you


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## BeeandOwlsMum (Jul 11, 2002)

PROPER huh?

:LOL

YOu are right - you can not use the paper towel. And that workes just fine. THat was my job as a kid when my mom made cakes - and I never used the towel. But for things like bundt cakes pans and things with small crevices, I have found the paper towel works well.

As for clarified butter....cool. Don't think most people know about that.

Sorry that my method is not PROPER and efficient. Has always worked for me, my mom, my grandma. At least I come from a long line of UNPROPER cake bakers.


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## pfamilygal (Feb 28, 2005)

In the Wilton cake classes we were taught to melt a little Crisco in the Microwave and mix in an equal part of flour. Let the mixture cool and store in the fridge for up to 3 months. I just put about 1 TBS on a paper towel and apply it to the bundt pan. Works wonderfully.


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## guest9969 (Apr 16, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sohj*
Pam Spray is revolting and tastes nasty. (Yeah, yeah, I know it is supposedly tasteless, but it isn't. There is an _absence_ of flavor where butter should be.)

Somebody had cranky flakes for breakfast. While we are at it, I'll have a bowl too.

I never worked for Krispy Kreme or Duncan Donuts but I do bake a LOT. I don't bake anything with PHOs, we use organic, high-quality ingredients and I am concerned about not being wasteful. As I use about 1 can of Pam for Baking every other year (I use it only on BUNDT cakes - not others as I mentioned), I don't consider this too wasteful.

And do you REALLY count on the butter you grease a cake pan with to add 'flavor' to the cake? Your cakes must be pretty flavorless to start out with then. I'll rely on my high-quality _ingredients_ for flavor, thank you very much. And I stand by what I said - the clarified butter/flour method in a BUNDT pan will leave a flour residue which makes it look dirty and ugly.










Signed,

Someone who is tired of being returned to her location


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## sohj (Jan 14, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *GriffinsMom*
Somebody had cranky flakes for breakfast. While we are at it, I'll have a bowl too.









:







:

Quote:


Originally Posted by *GriffinsMom*
As I use about 1 can of Pam for Baking every other year (I use it only on BUNDT cakes - not others as I mentioned), I don't consider this too wasteful.

Let's see...assuming you will bake for 40 years, that means 20 cans of Pam. That is nearly a case (assuming 24 cans in a case). -- And if everyone who has viewed this thread (145 people so far) were to follow your advice, that would mean nearly 121 (120.8 to be exact) cases. -- In order for you to get that case, it _requires_ an industrial infrastructure and the factories and the petroleum industry to exist.

Not that all my possessions are free of that, but I plan my purchases to fit into my desire to have my "lifestyle" be sustainable and, if the industrial-capitalist complex disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't have any "crises", large or small, to interfere with my life. So, for starters, I avoid anything "manufactured" for which there exists a perfectly straightforward, easy-to-use-and-make natural alternative.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *GriffinsMom*
And do you REALLY count on the butter you grease a cake pan with to add 'flavor' to the cake?

No, you misunderstood. The _crust_ of the cake is what I am talking about. I _do_ taste what the pan has been greased with. And I think Pam tastes nasty. I also think Crisco tastes nasty. I have also had cakes made with butter that have been made in pans greased with Wesson, and _that_ tastes nasty to me, too, as does using the kind of lard that is easily available -- from factory-farmed pigs and loaded with bha/bht to preserve it.

If you make a fabulous cake, why on earth do something to make the last 5% of the job less than wonderful?









Quote:


Originally Posted by *GriffinsMom*
And I stand by what I said - the clarified butter/flour method in a BUNDT pan will leave a flour residue which makes it look dirty and ugly.

Then, I think, the temperature of your oven is too high. I've had that problem when my thermostat was acting up. It was accompanied by a "merengue" texture to the crust -- a sure sign of a too-hot oven.

It can also happen if the flour was slightly damp and clumped. Days with really high humidity when I've been leaving the flour unsealed (because I've been doing a lot of baking) have had that happen late in the day.


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## sohj (Jan 14, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *AdinaL*
... At least I come from a long line of UNPROPER cake bakers.



















Are there any clothes on under that apron when you bake the cake?


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## Oh the Irony (Dec 14, 2003)

:







:

a two page thread on greasing and flouring cake pans. i love it.

and Griffinsmom, i love your location.


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## guest9969 (Apr 16, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sohj*
I _do_ taste what the pan has been greased with. And I think Pam tastes nasty. I also think Crisco tastes nasty.

Ahhh... now we are getting somewhere. The word "I think" really take the bite out of your posts.









I'll check on my thermostat - thanks for the suggestion. Best wishes,

Jennifer


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## babybugmama (Apr 7, 2003)

How long does clarified butter keep in the refrigerator? You've made a convert Sohj...I had no idea about the butter thing. What do you use when you are sayin baking potato wedges in the oven to keep them from sticking?


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## HoneymoonBaby (Mar 31, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *babybugmama*
How long does clarified butter keep in the refrigerator? You've made a convert Sohj...I had no idea about the butter thing. What do you use when you are sayin baking potato wedges in the oven to keep them from sticking?

Not sohj, but I'll answer for myself: As far as I know, clarified butter (we call it Ghee) keeps in the fridge indefinitely. But I use olive oil to keep potato wedges from sticking. Effective and adds a nice flavor, too.


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