I checked out Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours from the Library, and picked these little bundt cakes as my first recipe to try out of the book. Mainly because I have a mini bundt pan and am always looking for excuses to use it. In the end, they turned out okay tasting, but making them was a huge effort.

I generously buttered the mini bundt pan, but as I was buttering it, I remarked to Larry that I’d bet Pam would work better. I was right, the cakes ended up being stuck in the pans and we had to partially mutilate them to get them out.

The recipe says to put a little batter in, then sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar pecans, then more batter. The batter was really thick and I almost ran out at the end. It was a mess getting the batter spread over the nuts.

The last issue was with the chocolate glaze for the top, I don’t know what the problem was but it was too thick. So it just glommed on. This photo was the best of the bunch, and that’s not saying much. I just hope I have better luck with some of the other recipes.

• Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes (Baking: From My Home to Yours, p. 188)