Baker's Joy

Baker's Joy

There are a lot of methods for getting a cake to not stick to the pan.  Up until today, I've been doing it the old fashion way: smear shortening all along the inside and dust it with flour.  Up until today, my cakes have come out ugly.  Today, I used Baker's Joy.  

It was first suggested to me from a cakecentral.com forum post that I had made about cake spackle.  I bought a can of this stuff at Walmart for under $3.  Today I baked a 10"x3" round, 2 8"x3" rounds, and a 6"x2" round for to kick off my busy busy February caking.  Every single one of them baked up tall and looked gorgeous.  The only thing I did different was reduce the heat a smidge and use Baker's Joy.

Here's what my past 6"x2" rounds have looked like ... these were 2 rounds that were leveled and stacked:

The Duncan Hines Red Velvet can be a little delicate.  The sides stuck to the pan mercilessly ... a chunk of the bottom even ripped off one of them.

Today, this is what I pulled out of the oven:

Before I flipped the cake out of the pan, I used a butter knife to make sure the sides weren't sticking.  That was completely unnecessary.  I flipped the cake pan with the cake resting on my left hand.  I'm used to banging the edge of the pan against the cooling rack to "coax" the cake out.  Today, it fell right into my palm.  It wasn't crumbly or delicate.  It was perfectly formed.  

The cakes in the 3" pans baked up so tall, I'm now considering torting those instead of making new layers.

 

For the 10"x3" round, I put a flower nail in the center of the pan sprayed with Baker's Joy.  After I flipped the cake, it was plucked out without consequence.  Not sure why the middle of the cake looks like brains, but I assure you, it's cooked thoroughly and smells delicious.

 

I've seen the light!  Baker's Joy it is from now on!

UPDATE (02/01/2012)
It's been almost 2 years since I posted this.  I've long stopped using Baker's Joy, but there are still a couple cans of it in my pantry.  Nowadays I cut out parchment paper to line the bottom of the pan and do nothing to the sides.  After my baked cake has cooled slightly, I run a knife along the sides and out it pops.  Why did I stop using Baker's Joy?  Well, it was messy.  I would run out.  It formed a weird film on my pans that was hard to scrub off.  I suppose Baker's Joy and I have grown apart!  Oh well, at least we have this post to remind me.