Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

Recipe Search

Saturday in Lovella's Kitchen ~ Baking a level cake




I used to bake layer cakes and then cut the round mound off the top to make them level to layer, fill and frost.  Does that sound like something you do?




The easiest way to make your cake level is to create a cool wrap for them while they are baking.


You can buy strips for your cake pans but the strips only come in certain lengths.

I used an old towel to create my cool strips.

  1. Measure around your pan.
  2. Measure how deep your pan is.  You will want the towel to be folded to make it double thick.
  3. Cut strips.  Serge together the length and then sew lengths of bias tape on each end to tie the strip together.  Safety pins work well too.
  4. Wet the strips well with cold water.  Squeeze out the drips, leaving the strips as wet as possible.
  5. Tie strips around cake pans and fill with batter and bake as usual.




I've done this for every pan I own including rectangular pans and it works well on them all. 



I used this method of baking my cakes for the Tiered Chocolate Cake



14 comments:

  1. Absolute genius! I see a sewing project in my very near future. Thank you for this post, Lovella. :)

    Blessings to All,
    Anna (Toronto)

    ReplyDelete
  2. The cool wraps are great! I learned about them a year ago and have used them ever since. Wish I had known I could make my own, it would have saved a pile of money and then I would have one for each pan. I think I will still make some for some of my larger pans. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just take them from the oven, let sit for 10 minutes and then invert on a cooling rack...the bottom, now the top is always perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good Afternoon Lovella, This is such a wonderful idea and one I have never heard of. I am certainly going to be trying your technique when I bake my next cake.... because it seems to work perfectly.
    Thank you so much for this exciting sewing/baking project.
    Best Wishes to you.
    Daphne

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh .. neat idea, Lovella! and just to add a note about the science behind the success. The cake rises unevenly because of uneven heat distribution - sides and center of cake absorbing heat at different times .. So the cooling cloth slows down the sides until the middle can catch up .. and voila! you have the lovely evenly risen cake on Lovella's photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the explanation. I wondered why it worked.

      Delete
  6. How wonderful!!! I've never heard of this---Your tiered cake is beautiful! ♥

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a new idea to me. Easy to make, too. Your tiered cake is gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is very interesting. Your cake is absolutely beautiful!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Well now, this is brilliant. In all my years of baking I've never heard of this. Thanks for a nifty idea!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Glad to see I'm not the only commenter who has never heard of such a thing! And doubly glad to know I can make my own instead of buying them - thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have a couple of cake pans that I bought at Michaels and they are intended to bake the cake with a flat top. They work. Maybe the sides are double thick? They weren't expensive, because Michaels always has a coupon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting, Lorrie! When I read the science behind it, I wondered why they don't make pans with the sides double thick or something. Makes more sense. The kind of seamstress I am, it would be a lot faster to slice off the tops than sew something. =)

      Delete
  12. If one is not inclined to sew, search "Evenbake Cake Strips" on Amazon. They have several options including ones made by Wilton. They aren't very expensive. I have and have successfully used the evenbake strips.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.