Article: BC Bundt Rings up Cakes Sales
| CONTINUED (page 3 of 4) A Perfect Fit... From the outside, the B.C. Bundt plant in Taylor, Pa. looks like a warehouse. On the inside, it is a highly-automated baking arrangement that occupies only 3,500 sq. ft of a 15,000 sq. ft. facility.Because B.C. Bundt builds and installs its own machinery, it does not have to add the “bells and whistles” that other equipment has. In addition, Hokes says, we build for just one product -ring cakes- not several.. |
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Although B.C. Bundt has its customized equipment, the company worked closely with equipment suppliers to solve problems. ‘Pan manufacturing was one area where we sought help,” Hokes says. B.C. Bundt typically sent out its pans for cleaning and glazing with silicone about every three months. Hokes says that he challenged suppliers to come up with different coatings that would be non-stick and last from one to two years. “We’re looking for durability beyond our current experience,” Hokes says, “ and the suppliers were up to the challenge. ”The same thing occurred on the packaging line. “Packaging tended to become brittle at sub-zero temperatures, would crack, and this was unacceptable,” Hokes says. To overcome this hurdle, a supplier came to Hokes with thermal-formed PET packaging. “They designed the packaging around the products we produced,” says Hokes. “They didn’t crack at sub-zero temperatures.” Now Bundt is an industry leader in using PET packaging. When it came to expanding its cake varieties, B.C. Bundt looked to ingredient suppliers, Hokes says. He knew that it would take highly technical research and development facilities to develop the ingredients called for in the low cholesterol, no cholesterol Bundt cakes, and the sugar-free and fat-free cakes B.C. Bundt now produces. The company brought their questions to the ingredient suppliers and they came up with answers. Taylor Made Manufacturing Hokes notes that cake production at Taylor is a continuous system. The only down-time is for switching cake batches. The mixing and depositing system runs at a set speed; the tunnel oven bakes cakes for a set time; the cakes leave the tunnel at a set temperature and enter the ambient air-cooling conveying line for a set time before icing. The iced cakes undergo ambient cooling on conveyers a set time before moving to the packaging line. From the time batter is deposited into the pan to the time it reaches icing, not one hand touches the pans. The automatic greaser and batter depositing system insure proper scaling. Cake pans enter the 72 ft. long tunnel oven six at a time every 14 seconds. They come out of the oven at 204 degrees to 208 degrees and move along an ambient air conveying line for 5-6 minutes to the icing station. “We ice the cake at 180 degrees Fahrenheit and the temperature of the cake helps melt the icing,” McRee says. |
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