A question about a recipe: Faulknerian Family Spice Cake, with Caramel Icing

Alternatively, if you have a tempered glass juice glass, such as a Picardie glass (and it really must be tempered glass for what I trust are obvious reasons), you can set that in the middle of your cake pan, open end up, then pour in the batter. And if all else fails, choose another cake recipe. I recall more than one or two evenings of, "Oh, Mom, I need cupcakes for a class party. Tomorrow."

I'm sorry to say that I don't have good news for you. I'll gladly cede to ENunn's wisdom, but my experience with cake recipes that specify the need for a tube pan is because they really do require a tube pan. They tend to be more dense, which is why they honestly need heat being able to pass up through the middle of the cake in order for doneness to be achieved. Now, that said, if you don't even have an old angel food cake pan lounging in the back of a cupboard, bake the cake in a conventional cake pan, BUT construct a funnel with an open top out of tin foil and position it in the center of your cake pan and hold it there while you pour in the cake batter. Then nominate yourself for a Nobel prize.