Unpopular opinion: I thought letting cake cool in the pan was fine until my Denver neighbor showed me her crumbly mess.

She pulled out a chocolate cake that just fell apart, said she left it in the Bundt pan for an hour. I always use a wire rack now, no more gummy centers. Anyone have a different trick for cooling dense loaves?

4 comments

4 Comments

brooke_murray4d ago

Hold up @the_riley what kind of forgiving recipes are we talking? I tried leaving a sour cream pound cake in the pan once and the bottom turned into this dense wet brick that fell apart when I flipped it. Are you doing something specific like flipping it out onto a towel or cutting slits in the top or what? Because my banana bread comes out fine that way but anything with sour cream or yogurt just seems to trap steam.

jenny422mo ago

Used to do that too... learned my lesson.

riverb132mo ago

Oh man, the "used to do that" line is a classic. We've all been there, acting like we invented leaving cake in the pan. Guess the pan had other plans for Jenny's loaf!

the_riley2mo ago

Honestly, I've left pound cake and banana bread in the loaf pan until it was cool for years. It never gets gummy for me. Maybe it's the recipes I use, they're pretty forgiving. That crumbly mess sounds like the cake just stuck, maybe the pan wasn't greased well enough. A wire rack is great, but I find for dense loaves, leaving it in the pan works just fine.