Well I lightly tap mine all the time on the counter..
I drop mine a bunch of times on the counter as well. Brings some of the air bubbles to the surface and evens out the batter.
I do the tapping on the counter with my cakes, too. Just today, I was making a get well cake for a neighbor, did the old bang the counter and my DH hollered at me "What the (insert your choice of expletive) is going on in there?" LOL But it works. 
LOL Doug....I think I'll pass on that method. My kitchen gets messy enough!
I usually get one of my rubber spatulas and run it through the batter in the pan and drop it on the counter a couple of times to get the air bubbles to come out the top. Of course if you don't have a smooth surface, just cut the top off to make it flat and then icing as usual. Hopw this helps!! 
Can someone please clarify? I am one who also used to drop my pan a time or two on the counter to level the batter, until I read somewhere that the idea of beating the batter was to incorporate air and that dropping the cake inhibited this process. This made some amount of sense to me, so I stopped doing the dropping, even though I now find getting the batter level to be a pain.
Most of you are saying precisely that you are dropping the pan to get the air bubbles out. So now I am confused. Do we want air in the batter or not? I'm assuming we aren't talking about cakes with beaten eggwhites like angelfood cakes where dropping the pan is not an option......
Oh, and I'm talking about scratch cakes, does that make a difference?
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
Shalom,
itsacake!
edited for spelling typos. Ihope I got them all.....
Can someone plese clarify? I am one who also used to drop my pan a time or two on the counter to level the batter, until I read somewhere that the idea of beating the batter was to incorporate air and that dropping the cake inhibited this process. This made some amount of sense to me, so I stopped doing the dropping, even though I now find getting the batter level to be a pain.
Most of you are saying precisely that you are dropping the pan to get the air bubbles out. So now I am confused. Do we want air in the batter or not? I'm assuming we aren't talking about cakes with beaten eggwhites like angelfood cakes where dropping the pan is not an option......
Oh, and I'm talking about scratch cakes, does that make a difference?
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
Shalom,
itsacake!
I always felt the same way as you. I just use a spoon to spread it.
Can someone please clarify? I am one who also used to drop my pan a time or two on the counter to level the batter, until I read somewhere that the idea of beating the batter was to incorporate air and that dropping the cake inhibited this process. This made some amount of sense to me, so I stopped doing the dropping, even though I now find getting the batter level to be a pain.
Most of you are saying precisely that you are dropping the pan to get the air bubbles out. So now I am confused. Do we want air in the batter or not? I'm assuming we aren't talking about cakes with beaten eggwhites like angelfood cakes where dropping the pan is not an option......
Oh, and I'm talking about scratch cakes, does that make a difference?
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
Shalom,
itsacake!
edited for spelling typos. Ihope I got them all.....
I guess it would depend on the type of cake you are making. To me I would think you would want air in something like an angel food cake which is light and airy. But I dont think you would want aire in a cake or pound cake. I see those as being more dense and you would want to have as little air in them as possible. I think that would be why it is so important to only beat cakes only as long as they are suppose to. Becuase over or under beating can cause the cakes not to bake right.
I do the tapping on the counter with my cakes, too. Just today, I was making a get well cake for a neighbor, did the old bang the counter and my DH hollered at me "What the (insert your choice of expletive) is going on in there?" LOL But it works.
My dh does the same thing! You would think after seeing me make cakes for 8 years he would KNOW what it means already. lol!
Lisa
Can someone please clarify? I am one who also used to drop my pan a time or two on the counter to level the batter, until I read somewhere that the idea of beating the batter was to incorporate air and that dropping the cake inhibited this process. This made some amount of sense to me, so I stopped doing the dropping, even though I now find getting the batter level to be a pain.
Most of you are saying precisely that you are dropping the pan to get the air bubbles out. So now I am confused. Do we want air in the batter or not? I'm assuming we aren't talking about cakes with beaten eggwhites like angelfood cakes where dropping the pan is not an option......
Oh, and I'm talking about scratch cakes, does that make a difference?
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
Shalom,
itsacake!
edited for spelling typos. Ihope I got them all.....
Well, IMO, you DO want air incorporated into your cakes. However, what you do NOT want is big air bubble holes in the cake. By dropping it on the counter, I am certainly not removing all the air out of my cakes--just any large air bubbles. Now--when I make angel food, I don't drop that, it would just flatten the batter too much.
I make both scratch and boxed cakes and I drop both of them.
HTH!
Lisa
Thank you all! I normally drop and spin mine also - last couple of times it just didn't help though. Last night I made a cake in a jelly roll pan - it looks like a relief map, lol! I think my issue may be overmixing - as cakeconfections pointed out. I have a tendency to over-do it - I want to make the batter look pretty and mix too long. Next time I'll follow directions! 
Thanks again!
Tracey
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