Bake A Cake The Way The Pros Do. Secret Tips!

When preparing icing we suggest that you tint all icings at one time while cake cools. Refrigerate tinted icings in covered containers until ready to use.

Baking Directions from the Professionals:
Preheat the oven to 350°F or temperature per recipe instructions. Your cake will unmold easily, without sticking, when you set up the pan properly. Grease the inside of pan using a pastry brush and solid vegetable shortening (do not use butter, margarine or liquid vegetable oil). Spread the shortening so that all indentations are covered. Dust about 2 Tablespoons flour in pan and shake so that flour covers all greased surfaces.

Turn pan upside down and tap lightly to remove excess flour. If any shiny spots linger, touch up with more shortening and flour to prevent cake from sticking. You can use vegetable oil pan spray or vegetable oil pan spray with flour, in place of solid shortening and flour or use a cake release, for perfect, crumb-free cakes. This item can be found at stores that sell cake and candy supplies. Pour the cake batter into pan, and if needed, spread the batter around with a spatula to fill all areas of the pan consistently. Lift a corner of the pan a little bit off of your work table and drop it back down. This will get out all of the air bubbles. Be cautious not to touch inner sides or bottom of pan.

Bake cake on middle rack of 350°F oven for 30-40 minutes or until cake tests ready according to recipe directions. Normally, one tests a cake by inserting a clean toothpick into the middle of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If the toothpick comes out with crumbs, or clearly shows wet cake batter, the cake is not complete cooking. Don’t use a knife to test the cake as this can deflate a cake. Bakers will keep a thermometer in the oven to tell the precise temperature. High heat thermometers are purchased at stores that sell cake decorating supplies. Many bakers use the “hand test” to see if the cake is ready. They push down a little on the cake, (not too hard) and the cake will spring back if totally cooked. Remove cake from oven and cool on cake rack for roughly 10 minutes. While the cake is still in the pan, carefully slice off the raised center portion of the cake. This allows the cake to sit more level and helps prevent cracking.

To remove cake from pan, place cooling rack against cake and rotate both cake rack and pan over. Lift pan off carefully. Cool cake at least one hour. Take a saw-toothed cake knife and trim off any areas where the cake is bulging. Sweep loose crumbs off cake.

To relocate cake to serving board, hold a cake board against cake and turn both cake and rack over. Raise off rack. Hold a different board against bottom of cake and turn cake over. Be sure to hold cake, rack and board close together while turning to prevent cake from cracking. Ice, decorate, and enjoy!

For more information feel free to get in touch with us. We’ll be happy to discuss all that we know about baking and cake decorating supplies.

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