I will NOT throw the cake pan across the room....

[kitanzi]

No matter how much I want to.

A couple weeks ago I baked a cake, as a practice run for the birthday cake I planned to make for ACat's birthday this weekend. It baked fine, but came out of the pans VERY badly, which I figured was because I didn't flour the pans enough. Ok, stupid mistake but easy to fix - I never tried baking a cake before.

Today, I decided to bake a cake for his birthday to take along to dinner with friends tonight. If it turned out well, I'd make another tomorrow for just us. Well, I greased the pans and floured the pans until they were nice and floury white on the insides. I baked two layers in them, and they smelled and looked lovely. I took them out and let them cool while we went out shopping, came home and took a short nap, work up cranky with a headache, and went to take them out of the pans, perfectly cool.

It was a fucking disaster. It wouldn't come out and it wouldn't come out. I whacked the pan, I beat on the pan, I tried to gently cut it loose with a knife, ACat tried whacking the pan, and finally tried to pry it out with a fork while I fumed and tried VERY hard not to act any more like a frustrated five year old than I already was. It ripped into several messy pieces, and came out in handfuls, with much of it visibly coated with flour on the bottom!

I haven't even tried to get the other one out - we're eating the ruined one with icecream and chocolate syrup to make lemonade out of my lemons, but can anyone tell me what the hell I did wrong? I was so sure I'd figured it out and fixed it, and I would REALLY like to try again and make him a proper birthday cake. The box does say to let them cool in the pans - is that wrong? I've even contemplated trying next time in the springform pans I have for cheesecake, but I don't think I have two the same size.

Comments

[bardling.livejournal.com]

I'm by no means an expert baker, and it has been well over a decade since last I baked any cakes... but I don't remember ever flouring pans. I only ever greased them to ensure being able to get the cakes out...

[niquildrvr.livejournal.com]

I have the best success spraying the pan with Pam. And not flouring.

Good luck--I know it's frustrating, but think of all the fun eating the trials! And with the broken cake, you've got potential trifles there...

[oreouk.livejournal.com]

I grease and flour my pans when I make my chocolate cake. I find that it's good to leave them to ceel a bit in the pans but not too long. Also before you try and turn them out run a sharp knife around the edged so at least a percentage of the surface area is no longer attached.

This works mostly OK - the cake I made for Phil's birthday last week left a bit of cake in the bottom of one of the pans but it was retrievable with a flat knife and I made that the top layer and one the thing was iced one couldn't tell (and I think it happened because I left the cakes to cool for a bit too long). How long is the right length? Hmm until it's a little less squidgy in texture but still warm. 5-10 minutes, she guesses wildly.

[oreouk.livejournal.com]

Oh, and you don't need too much flour on the grease - I bang the pans gently after I've floured them to get much of it off - only the bit that's actually stuck to the grease remains.

[grey-lady.livejournal.com]

Yep, what she said. Too much flour can make matters worse; knock out anything that hasn't stuck to the grease being used.

[sibylle]

hmm ... what kind of material is the form made from? and what kind of cake is it? some forms are a pain, and some cakes are, so it could be either of that.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Did it taste good, though?

I'm not much of a baker, but I don't recall flouring pans, just a little grease

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

I follow the same route as oreouk—grease, flour, bang around, and then pour out the excess.

I personally don't think it's the greasing/flouring that's the issue at all. It's one of the following:

1. It's the cake itself—either the mix is not designed for those of us living in the South with all of its summer humidity, or it's a bad mix, or your oven thermostat isn't perfect, or Nature is telling you to buy the Wooden Spoon Dessert Book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0871136074/), where the recipes always work (except for the fudge, for some reason), so you can use the buttermilk-cake recipe, which is one of those recipes that always works. Always.
   
   
2. You have the birthday cake curse. I always bake the kids' birthday cakes because Elizabeth gets nervous and is sure she'll ruin the cakes. So I bake them, they turn out fine, and that's it.

Incidentally, did the box tell you to check that the cake was done in the middle by sticking either a fork or a toothpick in the middle to see if it came out clean? You can also use a metal chopstock—that's perfect, really.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

steak knives are also good for this procedure

[themouseshouse.livejournal.com]

Pieces of uncooked!! spaghetti are also good for testing doneness...

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

All the cake mixes I've ever used say "generously grease and lightly flour" the pans. I also tap the pans together (upside down over the sink) to shed the excess flour.

Was the bottom of the cake you managed to dig out overly browned? Sometimes that contributes to excessive stick-to-the-pannishness.

You might try cutting circles of wax paper to fit into the bottoms of the pans. Same principle as the paper cups on cupcakes and muffins.

If all else fails, throw the pans away and buy new ones.
All of mine are plain-surfaced aluminum by Mirro.
There's also a nonstick-surface line out called Bakers Friend, but I've never tried them myself.

[spiritdancer]

You might try cutting circles of wax paper to fit into the bottoms of the pans. Same principle as the paper cups on cupcakes and muffins.

Or parchment paper, which is made specifically for use in the oven (and is readily available at any grocery store in my area).

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

One other thing—worse come to worse, you take the cake out in pieces and glue it back together with frosting. It doesn't make for a fabulous presentation, but no one will be upset to have more frosting!

[devinsong.livejournal.com]

Wow- I thought everyone used the trick my mom taught me, and yet no one has mentioned it.

Before baking-
1)Grease the pan.
2)Cut a piece of waxed paper the same size as the bottom of the pan (can be done easily by tracing the pan as it sits on the paper using a knife or the pointy end of the scissors, then cut out the shape you traced).
3)Put the waxed paper in the bottom of the pan and smooth it so there's no big air pockets.
4)Grease the top of the waxed paper.

Then pour in the batter and bake the cake. The best time to take the cake out of the pan is when it has cooled enough you can pick up the pan in your bare hands but it is still warm to the touch (the cake is fragile right out of the oven, and sticks harder to the pan if completely cold). Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the sides of the pan. Put a plate or cookie sheet over the top of the pan (possibly with plastic wrap over it if the top of the cake is tacky and you don't want bits from the surface to stick). Then flip the pan and cake pan together so the cake pan is bottom up. Gently lift the cake pan off the cake, tapping the bottom of the pan if needed to encourage the cake to come out.

Important: Don't forget to remove the waxed paper from the bottom of the cake.

Then let the cake *completely* cool before you frost it (otherwise frosting melts).

Honestly, I've made layer cakes this way since I was about ten and I can't remember *ever* breaking the layers in pieces. I made all the 9x13 sheet cakes this way that got turned into guitar and rocket shapes for Concertinos '99 and '03. I have three 8" layer pans (I *wanted* two 9" ones, but I needed pans in a hurry and the store was out, and I'm too cheap to get another set of pans so I've been making triple and six-layer cakes ever since!). So believe me when I say this is fairly foolproof!

*looks thoughtful* It's been a while since I made six layer chocolate with whipped cream in the layers... perhaps for the next MASSFILC meeting...

[devinsong.livejournal.com]

Oh, msminlr did suggest the waxed paper. Missed that on the first pass!

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Yknow, with the amazing guitar shaped cake I saw you put together for Concertino, you really should have been the FIRST person I thought to ask about this. I'm about to start making the next try at it now (day off, mental health day after all the insanity!) using your tips, so wish me luck! (And don't tell ACat - he's at work! *G*)

[devinsong.livejournal.com]

My lips are sealed! *zips*

Well, in your defense, the guitar wasn't a layer cake! It was actually made from 4 sheet cakes, which I extracted from pans using the method I described and then froze on cookie sheets. Once frozen, I just slipped them into large freezer bags. They were easy to store and handle as frozen slabs until the day of the con. Then I arranged them on the foil-covered cardboard, laid the large guitar template over the cake and cut and arranged the pieces, sticking it all together with frosting. Lots of frosting! Would you believe that I had *never* decorated a cake like that before? Total improvisation on my part.

Good luck! I've honestly *never* had a problem with this, in dozens of cakes. Tho I think part of your prior issue was probably letting the pans get completely cold. There's a really big difference between cake sticking/structural integrity at hot/warm/cold. (When hot, it's not sticking but the cake is too fragile to come out in one piece. When cold, the cake is stronger, but it's also sticking harder than the cake will survive to get it out. When it's just warm, cake strength exceeds the bond to the pan... excuse me, I just lapsed into engineer-think there for a moment!)

When you've got this down, if you want to try baking cake from scratch, I've got a couple of easy recipes I can recommend. :)

~R

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Well, I took them out just before heading out to meet ACat for lunch, and they came out like a charm! I just now finished frosting them, and I'm ready to call this a success. I have one symmetrical two layer cake in the requested flavors of cake and frosting, with frosting on all the appropriate bits and no holes or chunks. *G* It's not the most elegant frosting job, but I'm happy with it! And yes, I do remember you decorating that cake. I remember you were trying to figure out what to use for guitar pegs, and Frank came up with some root beer barrels from somewhere that worked well. You also had candy legos all over it for the "future tech" look, which bemused me since I didn't know those existed. That was still the best consuite I have ever seen, and I'm not saying that just because I helped. :)

[devinsong.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you should take a picture of the cake before it gets eaten! I'm glad it came out well! (Someday I'm going to take a cake decorating class just so I can find out the secret to making them look pretty, but I suspect it's in the frosting- and I love my butter frosting recipe- I'm not going to change to something I that doesn't taste as good to make it look prettier!)

And that's right.. I remember you guys came over and helped transport all that er..stuff..to the con. You typed up all the recipes for me while I was doing battle with decorations. You'll laugh- I distributed those to a bunch of folks after the con, and just a few months ago, Alan Thiesen emailed to ask if he could get another copy- apparently someone out west has been using them to do con suite baking, but lost them, and needed them back!

*g* The remnants of those candy legos took forever to get eaten, too. Talk about playing with your food.. JT certainly found them more fun as toys. I hadn't known about them either.. I found them in a candy store while looking for cake decorating inspiration. *Usually* I stay out of candy stores, on the theory that what I don't see, I won't eat!

Speaking of which, I need to head home.. do a bit more painting, then head down to Clinton to help JT finish packing..moving day tomorrow!

Tell ACat I wish him a happy belated Cake Day! Hugs to you both-

~R

[eloren.livejournal.com]

/me offers the use of the new silicon cake pan (I have no idea how well it works though, haven't given it a test run yet!)

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

In my experience, you don't want to let a cake cool in the pan for too long - a little bit is necessary, but too much time will more or less cement the cake to the bottom of the pan - steam from the cake mixes with the flour to make glue.

When I'm baking and I take something out of the oven, I let it cool on a rack in the pan for about 10-20 minutes at most, then carefully decant it and let it finish cooling on the rack.

Oh, and it also sounds like you used a little too much flour in the pan. Grease it well, but just a pinch of flour goes a long way - I usually hold the pan over a garbage can and tap it so that any excess falls out. Or you can get the Pam spray with flour in it, and avoid that pitfall altogether.

[cellio]

Ditto this. I cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes and then eject. If I lose bits to the pan and I was going to frost it anyway, I just pry 'em out, push them in where they belong, and cover the damage later. And, lots of butter but little flour; I flour over the sink and finish by turning the pan upside down -- anything that doesn't stick doesn't get to play in the oven.

[joyeuse13.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it didn't work out--and I know exactly how you feel!

Happy birthday to A-cat...we need to get together soon so we can give him his birthday present!

[persis.livejournal.com]

What the rest of them said... I would elaborate, but it is way too late,and I have 9 little girls downstairs on their 5th movie of the night...

However, it sounds to me like a combination of a little too much flour, the humidity, and leaving the cakes *in* the pans too long... sorry honey, I'd try again... *hugs*

[alymid.livejournal.com]

I am going to agree with the folks that say only cool for about 10 minutes in the pan on a cooling rack then gently turn it out of the pan and let it cool on a rack until ready for your next step. Also I would strongly encourage the use of parchement paper (over waxed paper - the wax will melt into your food) for pans that have a history of being sticky. Grease the pan, put in the cut to fit parchement paper, then grease and flour the parchement paper.

I use parchement paper for almost everything, it really saves quite a bit of problems.

[andpuff.livejournal.com]

I butter the pan then, if it's a white cake I lightly flour it and if it's a chocolate cake I use cocoa powder. I barely let it cool before running a knife around the edges then placing a plate over the top and then flipping the whole thing. Sometimes I have to tap the bottom of the pan but usually it just lifts right off. I suspect your problem is in letting it cool...

The only time I use parchment paper is if I'm baking *insert fruit of choice* upside down cake.

On and you'll get different results depending on what you grease the pan with -- butter, margarine, spray oils all have different reactions when heated. The only way I can get my ginger snaps to snap is with Pam -- otherwise they're just cookies.

[devinsong.livejournal.com]

Yeah, butter is about 80% water IIRC, so I generally use 70% veg oil margarine if I'm subbing it in. Less than that won't grease very well.

And never, ever, ever use spreadable margarine...it doesn't have high enough oil content to grease anything.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Have you tried the Baker's Joy spray? It's a combination grease and flouring spray. That's what I used for the castle cake pan I have, and it worked very well for me.

Good luck.

[folkmew.livejournal.com]

Remind me to send you our family recipe for amazingly good, incredibly easy, from scratch but just as easy as a box and WAY better cake. Truly, this is EASY.

I have had the same sort of thing happen and I wish I had time to read your responses. FWIW I often bake them in sheet cake pans and just leave them the heck in the pan to frost them. ;-)

Serve it crumbled in parfait cups with chocolate sauce drizzled over it and fresh raspberries and no one will even know it was a mistake.

Oh - and I really would like to see you in your lucky rocketship underwear.

hee. Hugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!