# How to stop cake from sticking to pan?



## rutledj (May 25, 2010)

I'm a cake novice. When I try cooking a cake I usually spray the (non-stick) bundt pan with oil and coat with flour.

When the cake comes out, the outer most layer (cake skin?) seems to stick to the pan. Needless to say this begats an ugly cake.

How do you get that pretty, crusty, cake that comes out of a pay properly?

Thanks,
Rut


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## chicagoterry (Apr 3, 2012)

Liberally  and carefully applying room-temperature butter --not margarine--to all the nooks and crannies of a bundt pan works for me.

For flat bottomed pans: butter the pan, line the bottom with parchment and butter the parchment.

Cake maven Rose Levy Beranbaum recommends solid vegetable shortening (ie: Crisco) rather than butter in her Cake Bible, which I find to be a very reliable book.

I never use cooking sprays.


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## prettycake (Dec 23, 2011)

Parchment paper..


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## dobzre (Mar 3, 2011)

A couple of things could be the culprit:

How is the quality of he pan you are using? Any significant nicks and scrapes  in the metal can cause temperature variations as well as places for sugar to stick to.

You are over baking the cake.

You are turning it out before its fully cooled.

I always use parchment paper when baking anything, even ganache, as I hate cutting with the lip of the pan in the way, I can just pull it out and cut it on a board. It's naturally non-stick and isn't permeable so a completely rusted antique pan is still useable. Try cooling your cake completely and then chilling it briefly to solidify the fat on the outside of the cake, and shrink it slightly (a visible gap between the pan and the cake), it should fall out in one piece when turning it upside down and rapping it on the table gently.  The butter flour technique to me frankly is a waste of butter and flour.


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

Parchment paper for the bottoms of flat pans.  Rather than butter/grease and flour, I prefer the convenience of a non-stick baking spray that combines the two in an aerosol can.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Heavy restaurant type pans ,not those aluminum household things, Parchment paper  on bottom and sides of loaf type pans as well as vege spray.


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## kaneohegirlinaz (Apr 24, 2011)

Rut, are you using the type of Bundt pan that has an intricate pattern to it?

That could prove to be difficult. I like this Nordic Ware pan.

View media item 69572
As to the question of the skin or crust on the cake, it could be too much fat and flour. 

I found that using softened butter sparingly brushed into to every micro-chasm of the pan; then the least amount of flour (of cocoa for chocolate cake recipes) and banging the heck out of it into the sink to get rid of almost all of the flour, results in the prettiest crust to the Bundt. Using too much fat and flour could be adding to the ugly outside layer on your cake, which happened to me when I used the spray and flour technique.

In addition, I use a flexible-cheap-plastic knife to release the sides of the cake as well as using a glaze to camouflage any mishaps.

*disclaimer - I am not the world's best baker, but Bundt cakes are the one of two things I do make.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

A commercial food  non stick  spray works good because it is capable because of it's fine mist type spray of getting into all the .nooks and crannies of the pan..


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## dan scheitel (Jul 6, 2012)

I work in a cake bakery and we literally make hundereds of cakes per day. In our setting we DO NOT spray our pans. 
You might scoff at not spraying your cake pans, but it can be done. We put 2 parchment paper circles on the bottom the pan. And just bake like that. 
When your cake is done, it will be pulling away from the edge of the pan all on its own. 

It's your personal choice whether to go around the edge of the cake pan when it's out of the oven or cool, with an icing knife to release the cake from the pan. 

When inverted, the cake will fall out. Completely unharmed. 

Now, However. If you're doing a coffee cake or some sort of cake that doesn't get frosted and you need those PERFECT edges. Spray the pan first, then put your parchment round in the bottom of the pan and you will find success!


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