A tube pan—so named for the hollow tube in the center of it—has straight sides and a flat base and is used most often for angel food or chiffon cakes. It’s typically made of lightweight aluminum with a removable bottom, but it also can be found in silicone, with a nonstick finish or without a removable bottom. The popular 10-inch tube pan has a 12-cup capacity.



A Bundt pan is a tube pan with rounded, fluted sides. Typically made of metal, with or without a nonstick finish, it comes in many decorative shapes. The Bundt pan is ideal for denser cakes, like pound cake or coffee cake, because the pan’s indentations create an attractive finish to a cake, yet it’s easy to unmold. Pan capacity varies, from 6 to 12 cups.

Are they interchangeable?
Though both pans have a tube in the center, which ensures even baking, they’re not entirely interchangeable. You can bake light or dense cakes in a tube pan, but you can’t bake light cakes like angel food in a metal Bundt pan; the batter would stick to the crevices, making it difficult to unmold. You can, however, bake light cakes in a silicone Bundt pan; its flexibility makes unmolding easy.