Anyone who has ever put their best effort into baking the perfect cake, mixed up the ultimate batter, and waited patiently for the oven timer to ring, has faced this fateful moment: trying to extract the freshly baked cake from its pan without crumpling it into pieces. Luckily, we’ve got you covered for the next time you have to face this moment of truth. Below, we’ll explain how to successfully slide a cake out of its pan with zero accidents.
In order to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan, start by thoroughly greasing the cake pan. In most cases, a well-greased and lined pan should prevent the stuck-cake issue in the first place. Another tip is to let the cake sufficiently cool before you try to remove it from the pan, ideally to room temperature for about an hour. This will help the edges soften up.
Finally, the real deal. Start by running a butter knife around the edge of the pan, between the cake and the pan itself. Make sure the knife stays in contact with the side of the pan the entire time, so you don’t accidentally cut into the cake itself. If the pan was sufficiently greased before baking, this should do the trick. But what if the cake breaks while you transfer it? That’s happened to the best of us. The moment the cake breaks, stop moving it and grab a spatula to help gently lift it. You can use fluffy buttercream to seal the cracks and conceal the damage.
