A bundt cake is any type of cake recipe cooked in a bundt pan. The shape of the resulting cake is what defines a bundt cake, rather than the type of cake it is, so if your cake falls apart and doesn’t resemble the classical bundt shape, then it isn’t a bundt cake at all!
Due to the intricate bundt pan molds, a cake that falls apart as you try to remove it from the pan is quite common. Even professional bakers can suffer from this unfortunate baking mishap, so don’t be disheartened if it happens to one of your cakes.
There are a number of different ways you can save a broken bundt cake, depending on how badly misshapen your bundt cake is. Here we investigate ways to fix a bundt cake that fell apart.
Use Icing as Glue
The number one way to repair a bundt cake that has fallen apart upon removal from the pan is with icing. As we all know, icing is very sticky, so you can use it as a type of glue to stick your broken bundt cake pieces back together. This works best when there is a chunk or several chunks missing from a bundt cake, or when a bundt cake has broken into two pieces.
Any type of icing or frosting can work as a glue to adhere your cake back together, but experienced bakers note that buttercream is the best type of icing to use as glue. To use this method, take your broken chunk of bundt cake and dab icing onto the sides where it should join the rest of the cake.
Try to keep the icing away from any seams of the cake, so that it doesn’t seep through the cracks when the cake has been pressed back together. After the icing has been dabbed onto the chunk of cake, slot it firmly into its place on the bundt cake.
This will work best when your bundt cake is still warm from the oven because the residual heat can help the sponge melt itself back together, resulting in a cake that looks like it never fell apart in the first place.
Icing does a really good job of assembling the bundt cake back into a whole, but in some cases, you may still be able to see the cracks once the icing has set. If your bundt cake still doesn’t look perfect after it has been pieced back together, a good option is to use frosting or icing to cover the whole of the cake’s surface to hide any imperfections.
This is an ideal solution if you are serving your bundt cake at a family dinner or party, and don’t have time to start over from scratch. Smother icing over the cracks in the bundt cake and nobody will be able to tell that there was ever an issue with the cake in the first place. When serving the cake, bear in mind that the parts which were glued together with icing are going to be extra sweet.
Hide with Whipped Cream and Fruit
One of the most tragic things that can happen when you remove a bundt cake from the pan, is that the whole top of the cake sticks to the pan so that your bundt cake is missing its entire upper surface. This can happen for a variety of reasons, for example, if the pan’s non-stick coating has started to degrade, or if you didn’t grease the pan well enough.
It can also happen if you try to remove the cake from the pan before it has cooled, or even if you let it cool for too long. Sometimes, it will happen even when you have done everything exactly as you should have, especially if the bundt pan has a particularly intricate base.
In this case, when the whole top of the cake remains in the pan and is too baked-on to be salvageable, then gluing pieces back together with icing simply isn’t going to be an option. At this point, you have the choice of scrapping the cake altogether and starting over or hiding the damage to the bundt cake with some tasty decorations.
For extreme damage, whipped cream is your best friend because it will hide a multitude of sins. This thick, airy cream has excellent coverage and can be spread or dolloped across the whole top of your bundt cake so that none of the broken parts can be seen.
Top it off with some fruit slices or whole berries, or some chocolate chips or sprinkles, and it will appear to everyone else as though you had always intended for the bundt to look that way.
Serve Upside Down
If the damage to your bundt cake is on the top of the cake, and it is only mild, then one quick way to fix this is to serve the cake upside down. Whether or not this will work depends on the type of bundt mold you were using.
A simple donut-shaped pan lends itself well to being thrown on its head, however, molds shaped like castles won’t be suited to this fix. After flipping your cake over, it will probably be quite obvious that you’ve served an upside-down cake, but this can be easily hidden with a sprinkling of icing sugar, or with frosting.
Repurpose the Bundt Cake
There are going to be times when your bundt cake simply cannot be saved, but that doesn’t mean it deserves to end up in the trash. There are several different ways you can repurpose your bundt cake into something fabulous.
1. Cake pops
Cake pops are a fun addition to a children’s birthday table, or you can serve them for a special dessert. To make cake pops out of broken bundt cake, slice the cake into chunks and then dip them into melted chocolate, or cover them in icing, followed by sprinkles.
2. Crumb topping
If your bundt cake cannot be saved, you can grind it down into a cake crumble and store it in your refrigerator in some tupperware for up to a week. This can then be used as a tasty topping on ice cream, jello, or on yogurt.
3. Trifle
Trifle is a type of dessert made from a number of different layers, including custard, jelly, cream, and cake. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to assembling a trifle, so you can use any flavors you like, and any variety of different layers you like.
For a bundt cake that has fallen apart, break the cake down into chunks and use these for one of your layers. You can also use broken bundt cake instead of ladyfingers when making a tiramisu pudding.
4. Just eat it!
Bundt cakes are more than just elaborate showpieces- they are also delicious! If your bundt cake falls apart, just eat it and enjoy the taste without worrying about how it looks. There are always guaranteed to be some friends, family, or neighbors who will love a slice of bundt cake even if it doesn’t look how you were expecting it to.
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