Pound Cake: Loaf Pan or Bundt Pan

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  • #3762
    cwcdesign
    Participant

      This question is probably a no-brainer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. You all knew that, didn't you?

      We've had many discussions on making a full recipe of batter for a bundt pan and then dividing it into two loaf pans. We've also talked about halving a bundt pan recipe for one loaf pan. So, if you had a recipe for a pound cake to be made in one loaf pan, could you just double the ingredients, put the batter in a bundt pan and bake it longer? I've had a request for a vanilla pound cake and I like this recipe I have, so I'd like to make it bigger.

      Thanks!

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      #3763
      BakerAunt
      Participant

        I think that you would be fine doubling a loaf and baking it in a bundt pan. It might be a little trickier if you were going the other way and taking a recipe designed for a bundt pan and using it as a loaf cake. I seem to recall Cass telling us that Bundt cakes can break some rule because they have the additional inside pan area and that helps with structure. Maybe he will see this post and chime in.

        #3769
        rottiedogs
        Participant

          I just posted the "Halving Bundt Cake Recipes" thread. Lots of good info.

          #4281
          cwcdesign
          Participant

            At the last minute I was asked to bake a birthday cake for a co-worker. I said I didn't have time to make more than a bundt cake and I would make this one that I had been planning to make. I think I had the oven temp wrong because I started checking the cake at 45 minutes (recipe for loaf pan said 50-60 minutes). I stuck in my tester and it came out clean, no little crumbs stuck to it, which of course made me nervous. It also didn't rise as high as I'd expected although the top looked like the photo. Well, everyone loved it - great flavor - but it was dry. I spoke with Chef this morning and she said it was really good, but I asked if she thought it was dry and she said maybe a little. I told her about the oven and we laughed and I said it's hard when you can't do QC. I also think there was a problem with how she combined ingredients, so I'll post later with that info and see what you all think.

            #4282
            Mike Nolan
            Keymaster

              Most pound cakes taste a bit dry to me, but then so does an Angel food cake.

              #4283
              BakerAunt
              Participant

                Almost every bundt cake I've made bakes faster than the recipe specifies.

                #4702
                cwcdesign
                Participant

                  I've been asked to make this cake again and did a little research on the recipe. And, then I discovered I never followed up on it here. So here's what I learned and here's what I'm thinking.

                  Ina posted the recipe on food network. The comments were pretty evenly split between too dry and perfect. Many thought it should be baked at 325 instead of 350. I'm definitely going to try that. One person had the same recipe from a 2007 House Beautiful where Ina used less flour. Someone used more honey and vanilla which I'd like to do. I think I wrote in another post how you put the eggs, vanilla and lemon zest in a measuring cup and then add one egg at a time and the other ingredients flow in. I wonder if I could cream the honey with the butter and sugar to get all of the honey in the cake. Oh, I think this same person did some research and thought maybe the quantities of baking powder and salt should be switched.

                  Here are the ingredients as written with possible changes in parentheses
                  ½ pound butter at cool room temperature
                  1¼ cups sugar
                  4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
                  2 tablespoons honey (3 tablespoons)
                  2 teaspoons vanilla (1 tablespoon)
                  1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
                  2 cups sifted cake flour (1 3/4 cups flour or 1 3/4 cup AP minus 3 tablespoons)
                  1 teaspoon kosher salt (½ teaspoon)
                  ½ teaspoon baking powder (1 teaspoon)

                  Basically cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time. Sift dry ingredients together and add slowly while on low speed.

                  The person who used the recipe from HB said she used 1½ cups flour

                  Looking forward to your thoughts. Thanks!

                  Here are the ingred

                  • This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by cwcdesign.
                  #4711
                  BakerAunt
                  Participant

                    Cwcdesign, here is what I might do with the recipe.

                    1. Use extra-fine sugar. The weight is the same as regular sugar. You can either buy it in the store, or process it in a blender or food processor. (If you do the latter, be sure the lid is tight: one of my friends had an issue where it came off, and she had sugar--then ants--all over her kitchen. It's easier to get extra-fine sugar creamed into butter. I use it for all my cakes, and my observation is that it creates a more tender crumb.

                    2. After creaming in the sugar, I would mix in the honey and the oil. I'd add each egg separately and beat after each one--making sure that I got all the egg white out of the shell. (I use that handy tool--a finger!).

                    3. I agree that the baking powder and salt amounts seem to be the inverse of what is required. I'm basing that on comparison with a Swedish Rum Bundt Cake that I bake. It also has 4 eggs, but 1 3/4 cups sugar, grated lemon peel, and 2 1/2 cups flour, 2/3 cups milk, and 2/3 cups unsalted butter. It calls for 1 3/4 tsp. baking powder but no salt. (I'll have to add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp.--that recipe must have once used salted butter.)

                    4. That bundt cake does bake at 350F for 50-60 min., and I have a note that it is done at 50 minutes. The recipe calls for a 12-cup Bundt pan.

                    I hope these comments are helpful. Keep us posted!

                    • This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: corrected by removing repeated phrases
                    #4715
                    cwcdesign
                    Participant

                      I like your thinking Baker Aunt. Would you stick with cake flour at the 2 cups? Maybe make the other changes that we talked about and deal with the flour if it's still not right? I'm like Livingwell (I really miss her); I'm not very good at figuring out the science of baking.

                      #4717
                      BakerAunt
                      Participant

                        I would leave the cake flour at 2 cups and see what happens with the other changes. If you change too much at once, you won't know what actually made the difference.

                        I was just thinking of Livingwell this morning when my husband and I followed the sacred baking oath to do QC (Quality Control) before I took those buns to church. I miss her comments, and how her questions helped us to learn more about baking.

                        • This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.
                        #4722
                        cwcdesign
                        Participant

                          Maybe she's lurking and knows we're thinking about her.

                          I think I'm going to go ahead and add the extra honey (1 tbl) and vanilla (1 tsp) because I think it will help with the moisture. My Irish Chocolate cake bakes at 325 so I'm still thinking about doing that. I'm not going back into work until Friday, but I have interviews for a company program on Thursday, so the cake will probably get made Friday afternoon for Saturday.

                          #4933
                          cwcdesign
                          Participant

                            I made this cake again yesterday and doubled the recipe. I'll give you the changes based on the recipe itself.
                            I added an additional tablespoon of honey, and additional teaspoon of vanilla. I actually added seeds from a vanilla bean pod for half of the vanilla. I creamed the honey with the sugar and butter and added the lemon zest and vanilla seeds just before I added the eggs. Then before adding the flour, I added the vanilla extract. I did switch the salt and baking powder quantities: 1/2 tsp salt and 1 teaspoon baking powder. I did bake it at 325º and it took an hour. It did start browning more and I think that was because of the honey. I did cover it with foil near the end.

                            It tasted much better, but was still a little dry. As I said it did brown quite a bit. I'm very close to what I want. I tasted the batter during the process and realized that I didn't reduce the sugar to compensate for the extra honey - I will definitely do that the next time. I will not add the lemon zest - I think it overpowers the flavors I am trying to get. And it did rise almost twice as high as the first one and didn't collapse. The crumb is nice, but I think I will try baking it at 350º again and it will probably only take 45 minutes which would be fine. I also realized that the directions say to add 1 egg at a time and I'm adding eight, so I think I should add them 2 at a time so I don't over process.

                            Everyone did like it, though and agreed it was better than the last time.

                            #4937
                            BakerAunt
                            Participant

                              I am not sure that you can overprocess at the egg adding stage. Overprocessing is much more an issue at the adding flour stage. My cakes have improved now that I add one egg at a time and beat it in until fully incorporated. (I realized from a KAF article that I needed to mix until there was no trace of the egg before adding another.) That said, I've not had call to add eight eggs. My highest number has been 5.

                              #4938
                              cwcdesign
                              Participant

                                What I was thinking was that the more you beat the butter and stuff, the warmer it can get and that could change the texture of the cake. I remember watching Emeril way back when and he said it didn't matter how you added the eggs, as long as they got incorporated. I don't think I would go that far, but I thought 2 at a time would be comparable to 1 at a time in the regular recipe.

                                #4940
                                BakerAunt
                                Participant

                                  Ah, I see. I had not thought about the heat issue.

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