I’ll go ahead and show off my well loved and well used supplies. My cake pans are discolored from their many trips into the oven. My batter, dough, and grease spattered hands have toted my shortening cannister to counter, opened it, and scooped out little bits over, and over, and over. After all, a tub of shortening lasts a lloooonnnngg time. Bottom line- the wear and tear are proud badges of happy times of baking and creating, but moving on….
Why Prepare Cake Layer Pans?
You work hard to buy groceries, carefully measure ingredients, and combine, stir, and beat them just right. Don’t make skipping the little step of prepping those pans cost you your entire cake! Even if most of your cakes come out perfectly without following all of the steps of properly prepping your pans, I say it’s not worth it. I want Every. Single. Cake. to be a raging success!
Wax Paper Rounds
I strongly recommend putting a wax paper round in the bottom of every cake pan you use to ensure your cake comes out of the pan cleanly. Nothing is sadder (well almost nothing..) than creating a delicious cake, only to have half of it release onto a plate and the other half remain in the cake pan! You can make wax paper rounds yourself and I’ve provided steps below tot make that process easy peasy. If you prefer though, you can buy parchment paper rounds here. Parchment or wax paper is fine, but wax paper is usually a little cheaper and it works just as well for this, so it’s my preference.
- Tear off three squares of wax paper that are at least as long as the bottom of the your cake pan.
- Turn a cake pan over so that the flat bottom is facing up. Place one wax paper sheet on top of the pan.
- Run the edge of your kitchen sheers or scissors over the wax paper in a circle around the edges of the cake pan to “score” a line in the shape of the bottom of the pan as you see below.
- Then, cut out the circle on the scored line.
- Repeat this process two more times.
- Place a wax paper round in the bottom of each pan with the edges curling upward (that way you know you have the correct side of the wax paper facing up toward the cake).
- To finish, grease the inner sides and wax paper round in the bottom of the pan with shortening.
You are ready to BaKe! And your cake is bound to slide out of the pan beautifully and effortlessly! When the cake comes out of the oven, simply run a plastic knife quickly around the edges of the cake to release the sides. Then invert each cake layer onto a plate that is covered with a parchment square. Peel off the and discard the wax paper. Then stack the parchment paper squares and cake layers and cover with a cake carrier lid to cool. This holds in moisture, so don’t mind the steam that accumulates inside the carrier. Once cool, refrigerate the cake until ready to assemble. And remember, cold cakes are easiest to assemble!!
