Layer Cake From Scratch
Cakes by MK Ultimate Beginner's Guide
2 - P R E P P I N G CA K E P A N S
Cakes by MK
CAKES BY MK @cakesbymk.nz
PREPPING YOUR CAKE PANS
Before you begin preparing your cake batter, it's good practice to
prepare your cake pans first.
Firstly, it's important to do this so that we can get our cakes into the
oven as soon as possible, once our batter is complete. This is
because when we prepare cake batter, we use a number of
techniques and ingredients to ensure that our cake batter results in
a tasty, moist, risen cake. For example, when whisking ingredients,
we incorporate air bubbles into our cake batter, which results in a
fluffy cake. Another example is when we use raising agents such as
baking powder or baking soda, which results in a beautifully risen
cake. However, the effectiveness of these techniques and
ingredients only last for a short amount of time. Therefore, if we
leave our cake batter sitting for too long, it may not result in that
perfect cake we were expecting!
Secondly, prepping your cake pans correctly is really important in
ensuring that your cake layers release properly from your pans. The
last thing you want is your cake sticking to your pan and having to
remove it by breaking your cake layer apart.
In this document I have outlined the key steps to prepping your cake
pans so that your cake layers release perfect every time!
1-PREPPING YOUR CAKE PANS
LAYER CAKE FROM SCRATCH: CAKES BY MK ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE
STEP 1
GREASE YOUR CAKE PANS
The first step to prepping your cake pans is to grease them.
I prefer to use softened butter as my 'grease', but you can also
use shortening or vegetable oil/cooking spray.
Using a baster or another spreading tool, simply coat the entire
pan with the grease, ensuring you get all the corners and sides.
1-PREPPING YOUR CAKE PANS
LAYER CAKE FROM SCRATCH: CAKES BY MK ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE
STEP 2
COVER THE BOTTOM OF THE CAKE TINS WITH
PARCHMENT/BAKING PAPER
To ensure your cake layers release from the cake pan in one
piece, it is important to put parchment/baking paper on the
bottom of the cake tin.
To do this, place the cake pan on top of some parchment paper
and draw an outline of the cake pan.
1-PREPPING YOUR CAKE PANS
LAYER CAKE FROM SCRATCH: CAKES BY MK ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE
Next, cut out a circle slightly smaller than the cake circle you
just marked. The reason why you cut the circle out a little
smaller is to prevent the parchment paper from creeping up the
sides of the cake pan. If this happens, then the bottom of our
cake layers will have ridges on them from the parchment paper,
which we want to prevent.
Once the circle is cut out, place it on the bottom of the cake
pan. Repeat the same steps with the remaining cake pans.
1-PREPPING YOUR CAKE PANS
LAYER CAKE FROM SCRATCH: CAKES BY MK ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE
STEP 3
FLOUR YOUR CAKE PANS
The last step is to flour your cake pans. To do this, simply put a
couple of tablespoons of flour in your cake pan, and shake it
around (starting from the bottom, then moving to the sides of
the cake pan) until the entire pan is covered.
To remove excess flour from the cake pan, simply bang the cake pan
on to a surface and the excess flour will drop to the bottom of the cake
pan. Shake this excess flour off and you are done! Repeat the process
with the remaining cake pans.
1-PREPPING YOUR CAKE PANS
LAYER CAKE FROM SCRATCH: CAKES BY MK ULTIMATE BEGINNER'S GUIDE
