I have a few questions about how everyone does this. I normally just cut the hump off the top of my cakes and it works well enough, but I hate wasting all that cake.
I've asked about the bake even strips and everyone's answers were great and I'm thinking about trying them out, but making them myself using a tea towel. My question about this is...the cake I'm going to make isn't being made in a normal cake pan...I'll be doing it in a pyrex 9X13 glass dish. Will it still work with my makeshift bake even strips or will they only work on the metal pans?
I've also read people talking about another method that I'm not quite understanding and I'm hoping someone can help me out. It seems that they take their cake out of the oven and press on the top until it levels...is that right or am I totally crazy? It sounds weird to me and I've never heard of it before. Can someone explain in detail about this method please?
Thanks so much for all your help!
I use the bake strips and level the cake (we call the trimmed cake pieces"trim jobs" at our house!).
I read a lot about folks being concerned about wasted cake, but it's just part of the product. Woodworkers have wood strips and sawdust all over the place when they finish a project, painters wash excess paint out of their brushes and rolling pans, If you knit or crochet or cross-stitch, you have little pieces of thread that go right into the trash, scrapbookkers trash the excess of their "trim jobs". People who sew have scraps of material they pitch unless they are also into quiltmaking. Heck, when we make mashed potatoes for our family dinner, we're throwing out potato peelings! The domed part of the cake that is trimmed away is just another version of a potato peel.
(By the way, here's an idea my family LUVS for leftover potato peelings. Deep fry them enought to cook the potato. Place on a baking sheet and cover with bacon bits, chopped green onion and shredded cheese. Bake until the cheese is melted. It's their favorite watching-tv snack!)
the dish towel method works remarkably well. real good but it makes the cake denser. not bad cause a lot of people love dense cakes it seems more scratch i guess.
For the baking strips i never used them on pyrex yet but here's a bump.
I use a clean dishtowel to press on my cakes as soon as they come out of the oven. BUT, you have to be carefull not to press on one side too hard, or the cake will still be uneven. Just evenly press down. You might even take the cake board and put on top of the towel and use that to press. It does change the texture a little bit, but I like it that way, it is more dense. I use this method on my cake mix cakes and the scratch cakes I make.
p.s. I also lower the oven temp to 325 and extend my cooking time to help with the humps.
I too tried the pressing down method. Yes it works like a charm, but ruins the cake texture, especially on scratch cakes. I hate to waste too, so i save all the tops in the freezer until I have enough to make a batch of cake balls.
I level out my cake by placing them upsidedown, trim the edges and them place cake under the edges to make it level. I use buttercream to "glue the cake peices to the main cake so it doesn't come apart. No fuss no muss...easy as that.
The bake even cake strips are not horribly expensive. I bought mine at Joann -using a 40% off coupon, they were less than $5 - a good investment. You could also check in your Sunday paper for the coupon Michaels has, and buy the strips there. I haven't tried the strips on pyrex, but they're worth the investment.
In regard to using a towel to flatten out a cake, I saw a lady do this once, only she took a smaller cake pan (that would fit inside the cake pan being used) and she placed a piece of parchment paper on top of the cake, and using the smaller cake pan to press down on the cake's crown.
Do you guys also trim the sides of your cakes to where they're straight or do you just fill in the uneven parts with icing?
I see pictures of people's cakes where the sides are totally straight and smooth and there's a 90-degree angle between the side and top of the cake and I always wondered whether it's an illusion given by the frosting or whether the sides actually ARE that straight!
i used the bake even strips on the pyrex all the time, and it works great. i actually haven't had to trim the cakes at all since i've been using them . . . but i don't worry quite as much about the "perfect square" look on the cake.
After I level off my cake, I place the scraps in the freezer. I sell cake balls as well, so I always have enough "scraps" to pull together an order when I need to. Less waste!
first, cake balls are delicious. There are lots of posts and directions on this site, but basically they are crumbled cake with enough buttercream added to be able to form it into ball (some people use coffee creamer some how too). Then they are dipped in chocolate. YUM!
As for leveling the cake, I love my bake even strips. They are not very expensive, and definately worth getting. Sometimes I do use a big wooden cutting board to level a cake. I have one that is bigger than my pan and I just lay it on the top for a few minutes when the cake comes out of the oven. I cant push too hard on one side because the sides of the pan are there.
Another great use for cake scraps is a punchbowl cake! Just crumble your leftover cake in a large bowl, add a layer of crushed pineapple, a layer of vanilla pudding, a layer of strawberries mixed in strawberry glaze, and then top with whipped cream - YUM!! I freeze my cake scraps and make this when my husband needs a big dessert for work.
Steady2Hands-
You can find how to make cake balls by doing a search on this site. Mainly, I just put my scraps in my KA, add just a bit of buttercream frosting, and a touch of vanilla coffee syrup. Mix all together, form into small balls, dip in melted almond bark and freeze.
I think they're way too sweet, but everyone else I know loves them!
I did cake balls recently by mixing in strawberry jam instead of buttercream. It gave them the strawberry flavor, they were super moist, and they didn't have the overt sweetness of the buttercream.
Yummy.
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