The Clever Hack That Lets You DIY Your Own Bundt Pan

In the wide world of cake baking, a few classics stand out. German chocolate cake, for example, as well as cheesecake, frosted chocolate, and yellow layer cakes. And then there's the whole realm of Bundt cakes, which are, of course, defined by the pan they're baked in. A Bundt pan is typically made of aluminum with fluted sides and a hollow tube in the center, which turns out a ridged cake with a hole in the middle (via Food & Wine and MyRecipes). The pan was invented back in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, owner of the Nordic Ware cookware company, who was helping a local Minneapolis society of Jewish women recreate the shape and style of a traditional kugelhopf, a dense ring-shaped cake.

But what if the urge to Bundt strikes, and you don't happen to possess one of these pans? Food blogger and Instagrammer @grandbabycakes has a hack for that.

Interested in making a Bundt cake but don't have the right type of pan on hand? On her Instagram page, recipe blogger Jocelyn Delk Adams — aka @grandbabycakes — shared a hack for creating what she calls a DIY Bundt pan (although it's actually a tube pan, since it doesn't feature the fluted or ridged sides of a true Bundt). This method is an excellent option for baking Bundt cakes in a pinch.

To hack the Bundt pan, Adams takes a round, straight-sided cake pan and places a small, empty aluminum can (with the label ripped off, of course) in the center. She then pours rice into the center of the can to steady it, sprays the whole thing with nonstick cooking spray, pours in her cake batter, and is ready to bake. It's a handy trick we'll definitely keep in mind the next time the craving for a Bundt cake strikes.