Bundt Mess

For breakfast this morning I had peanut butter straight out of the jar with a spoon. I love peanut butter. I know I've mentioned that a few times on the blog already. I'm not a huge chocolate person, but pair it with Peanut Butter and I'm in heaven. Put it in a yummy cake and that's even better!

The Original Pin

http://pixelatedcrumb.com/2011/09/13/chocolate-chip-peanut-butter-pound-cake-with-peanut-butter-glaze/

Oh that looks fantastic. Good thing my birthday's coming up!

Paula saw this on Pinterest and gave it a whirl. "It looked simple and tasty...my only prerequisites for a recipe. The recipe states to spray the pan generously. I think I added even more spray than I needed, but is still stuck. :( Maybe it's just me and Bundt pans, but my cakes never come out right when I use them.  I followed the directions precisely,  but there were a few problems. First of all the batter could not be poured. It was so thick I had to scoop it in. Also, it was not cooked in the time it stated. We took it out after 1 hour and 40 minutes." 

The Pinstrosity

"The good news is that it was delicious! The texture was nice, minus the breakage with a slightly sweet taste. The glaze was perfect. Just peanut buttery enough!"

But can this cake be made without it crumbling?

Before I try any recipe from online I look for comments. There are often some good pieces of advice and fun cooking tidbits in the comments. Looking through the comments for this recipe, many people raved about how delicious and easy the recipe was, but there were a good handful of people who had an experience similar to Paulas.

The reviews are mixed, but it seems like many are able to get this to work. From the comments and notes by the author it seems like you need to do a few key things to get this, or any homemade cake really, to work.

• Use the right ingredients and measure properly. 
• If it calls for butter, use butter (non-salted) NOT margarine. 
• Make sure your scoops are level and your liquids are right. Even an extra 1/2 cap full of flavorings can make a difference in recipes. 
• Spray the pan very well. 
• Kristen, the author, suggests using a cooking spray that contains flour. 
• Check your oven temperature. 
• You can get handy oven thermometers for decently cheap to make sure your 350 is really 350.
• Test the cake for doneness before removing from the oven. 
• Knife, toothpick, skewer, whatever works.
• Kristen said, "Check on the cake at 1 hour to make sure it's not browning too quickly on top. If it is, just place a piece of foil loosely over the top of the pan."
• Remove carefully.   
• Let it cool for 20 minutes before trying to remove the cake from the pan. 

And, if you need more help with using bundt pans, removing a bundt cake from the pan, or how to decorate a bundt cake, check out this link.