Things I'm Digging: Bundtapalooza

I mentioned earlier in the week that I like to serve non-cake in Bundt pans. Seriously, I do. They are great for kids' parties, for serving things like chips, Chex mix or, my boys' favorite, candy popcorn. (Recipe for candy popcorn: pop popcorn. Add M&Ms and candy corn. Despair as heavier candy descends to bottom. Take note of fact that kids don't seem to care. Also take note of fact that adults are eating candy popcorn in lieu of grown-up desserts. Cringe when adults compliment you on your "cooking.")

Bundt pans don't chip when kids bump things into them, on account of how they are metal (the pans; if I am acquainted with any metal kids, like that android chicklet on "Small Wonder," I am not aware of it). But the biggest plus in the Bundt pan column: I have a ton of them. So it's like having ten or twelve coordinating serving bowls.

I do occasionally bake in my pans - just not as much as I should to justify their existence in my kitchen. Again, there are a lot of pans to get to, and we don't eat that much cake.

Featured above, a sampler from my cake pan collection (clockwise from top left):

The Cathedral;
The Castle;
The Bavaria;
The Sunflower;
The Fiesta Party; and
The Cupcake.

Confession: The Cupcake is not Nordicware. It is, I believe, Wilton. I discovered this, actually, when I was scanning in a photo of The Cupcake and realized that my version is not the Nordicware version. Oopsie. One of these things is not like the other . . . .

This is just the tip of the cake pan iceberg. I have the mini Bundt (Bundtlettes?) plaque pan, and the plaque pan that makes individual train cars. Also snowmen and trees plaque for Christmas. I have a pan shaped like a giant gingerbread man. And specialty loaf pans. Various smaller Bundt-type pans, for when you want to make a tiny cake that isn't Bundtlette tiny.

Oh, and a flower basket pan? Like The Cupcake? You bake the basket separate from the flowers and ice them together.

We won't get into the run-of-the-mill pans, like springforms and the traditional Bundt. But I have those, too. In spades.

Add to this bounty o' baking widgets the brownie pan that is divided into rectangles to look like Hershey's bars and a variety of cookie cutters. Lots and LOTS of cookie cutters. My mom likes to buy me the specialty cookie cutter sets from Williams Sonoma. And, recently, so have my brothers-in-law. I have them to thank for my Star Wars cookie cutters.

Okay, New Year's resolution (yes, I realize that it's April, but I personally start a new year tomorrow): I solemnly swear to put my plethora o' pans to good use and document the results on this blog.