Patience above! The things that pop into my mind! “Write about Bundt cakes!” said an inner voice last night, when I was trying to read JAMA. This tangential topic doesn’t sound at all like something The Muses would inspire. [1] Whose the culprit I wonder? The Fates? The Norns? Who can tell. Regardless, this is what’s on the menu today. Bundt cakes. Oh the horror.

The other day while poking about the kitchen looking for a certain pan Someone keeps putting away in the wrong place, I came across the Bundt cake pan. [2] I cannot remember when I last baked a Bundt cake – Halloween 2019, I suppose. [3] My emotions tend to run towards ‘wanting to use things’ to justify their existence so when I saw the pan I thought I should get it out and wash it and make a cake.

The last thing I need to do these days is make a cake. My Bundt cake pan is a large and deep as Lake Michigan; it makes a cake to feed a lot of people. If I succumb to this lunacy I could make the cake and bring it to office. Alas, Babylon! The staff at work are rawther particular in their diets; as a group they are avoiding eggs and sugar and food coloring and anything that has to do with eating pleasure, so a Bundt cake I fear would go mostly uneaten. [4]

Mother used her Bundt cake pan ‘for company’ like her bridge parties and church functions. I don’t remember her ever making a Bundt cake for us kids. We got pan cakes. I suppose there is a difference in recipe/ingredients to make a proper Bundt cake, rather than just ‘cake batter, poured into the pan”. I will have to look this up.

Are Bundt cake pans used for anything other than cake? I don’t mean dinners shaped into a Bundt ring, but as a deep-dish cooking pan. Anyone know? Anyone use their Bundt pan for cooking meals?

As I type this, I have the terrible intuition these pans were (are?) being also used as Jello-molds. Anyone do this?

I’ve talked myself into making me a Bundt cake. Anyone got a to-die-for Bundt cake recipe?

[1] The nine Muses are known for their music and singing, not for their cooking. When is comes to food, they prefer eating in restaurants or ordering take-out. Thalia, on the other hand, has a killer recipe for pasta salad, which she brings to the potlucks.

[2] I should stop and state the word “Bundt” is a trademark name, like Champagne vs. sparkling wine. The “B” word is not to be used lightly lest Nordic-Ware sends The Furies or The Attorneys. The name for generic pans is ‘fluted tube pan”. Oh the pain. Risking wrath, I will keep using “Bundt”, as it is easier to type than fluted tube pan. Please don’t write in.

[3] The Halloween Bundt cake had an interior of purple, black, and orange-colored cake and the whole thing was adorned in glaze of same colors. Jolly good fun, that was!

[4] The protocol for cakes made for the office is an interesting psychological study. One has to cut out the first piece and eat it yourself, otherwise no one will touch it, as no one wants to be the first to cut into a cake. Cutting the cake into already-made servings also promotes the consumption of cake. It’s good to put a sign up saying “Chocolate Raspberry” or “Raisin Cinnamon” as people are more likely to bite if they know what it is exactly. Thems allergic to nuts or eggs appreciate an ingredient list but don’t go crazy on this or the cake becomes an object of suspicion that nobody eats. Curious! I find these ‘rules’ more likely in an office in which the staff are predominately women. The men-folk tend to just eat the damn thing.