I need a 12" x 3" pan. The cake is the full 3" thick. The topping layer is 3/8" thick usually fresh strawberries sliced and reduced with turbinado sugar. Beneath that is another 3/8" sour cream, vanilla bean, and sugar layer. So the cake itself is 2.25" thick. Anyway I need a pan that is actually 3", not just close. These cakes are heavy and unwieldly, so transferring to a cake round in the 12" cake carrier I use is not a pleasant task.
If there is a better cake pan for this than the springform that I have been using I would like to know about it. Silicone sounds interesting except 1) do they make them in 12" x 3" and 2) it seems like getting my giant cake out of it would be a nightmare. When I read retiredbaker's comment I immediately thought non-springform removable bottom pan, which I have considered, but the springform pan I have seems so much more accessible, especially for a big heavy cake.
Before I bought my 12" springform last year I considered a non-springform pan from Fat Daddio's. But I haven't figured out an easy way to extract the cake from it whereas a springform is easy access. Also, I had to return a Fat Daddio's springform pan because it was 1/4" short on both the diameter and the height.
What is the non-pro issue with springforms? I can certainly see issues with the pedestal type. I have one that I don't use because it lifts the cake out of the water bath by 1/2". I don't like that but it is doable if necessary. The second and worse issue was that my Reynolds Oven Bag cannot even attempt to navigate the pedestal. I have bigger bags now which will accommodate my 12" pan as well as my 11" pedestal pan. But I'll avoid using the 11" unless there is an emergency.
The Reynolds Oven Bags are 19" x 23.5" and can only fit around my 12" pan with about 20 minutes of tedious effort, especially, at the springform clasp. But my new bags I will be trying for the first time soon are 20" x 30", easily accommodating my 12" pan and my 11" pedestal pan if necessary. The size is perfect. If the durability of the material is there (and it seems like it will be) then I'll have a winner. Pacz saver Oven Bags.
If there is a 12" x 3" silicone pan that I can easily remove from around the cake, then that might be the best solution since it is its own water bath barrier and would not require any foil or oven bag at all.
I will be experimenting with clarified butter on my next cake. I just clarified 5 pounds of butter leaving me 4 pounds which I keep in wide mouth 16 oz mason jars. I've been getting into clarified butter lately; using it instead of regular butter for everything and instead of olive oil for frying various things.
Amazing stuff. I guess mine might be more of a ghee since I don't extract the clarified butter but pour it through a cheesecloth filter. Still it does not have the additional flavors you typically get with ghee. Gurgle it for about 45 minutes then cut the heat when it reaches 260° F (127° C); then pour through a substantial cheesecloth filter into a heat-proof bowl (not allowing the milk sold sediment to follow it into the cheesecloth). The end result is essentially the same as butter drawn out from between the bottom sediment and the top foam remnants. I've never had better clarified butter anywhere else.
This Super Butter is great and better for most things than regular butter, but maybe not cheesecake crust. We'll see. The milk solids that the clarification process removes probably helps the crust hold together. Without them the butter is just butter flavored oil once heated. The seeping/leaking of oil out of the crust problem reported here might be nothing compared to the possible effects of using clarified butter.
Still, I think flavor-wise it will be better. I am counting on its pure butterfat oil to soak into the crushed graham cracker more readily and form a better crust. I have also increased the turbinado sugar content of the crust recipe so that when it caramelizes it will further bolster the structure. Even so, I will be lucky if it turns out as a crust at all and not a crumb-laden film. If that happens a springform pan will be essential.
In deciding to try clarified butter I was thinking about the problem that KitchenChaos and now njemjy have had with their crust. I was wondering if the milk solids and water content of the butter was somehow causing the crust to fail. It did not seem like there was a reasonable explanation for their results other than maybe a bath leak.
If removing the milk solids, lactose, and water, using clarified butter, the possible issues they cause would be also removed. But even if it does remove those issues, the fact that it is instead a purified butter oil might be worse. I hope not. I have my heart set on a great clarified butter crust.