Cake Pans: All You Need to Know
Making a special layer cake for your kid’s birthday? Without good cake pans, all your efforts will certainly go down the drain. Indeed, you will probably end up with a cake that sticks to the bottom and sides of your disposable aluminum pans. So here’s a ready guide to what cake pan you must buy for different kinds of cakes. And whatever cake pans you buy, make sure you have at least a pair. To get you started, here are some cake pan basics:
Materials: Cake pans are traditionally made from tinned steel, stainless steel, aluminized steel, or aluminum. Some pans have non-stick coatings. There are even some new varieties of flexible cake pans that use silicon-coated fiberglass.
Depth: The standard depth of a 9-inch cake pan is 2 inches. That gives you an idea of the proportions for other sizes. However, some 9-inch cake pans can be 1½ inches or 2¾ inches deep.
Insulation: Some cake pans are actually made from two layers of metal with airspace in between. Insulated pans are designed to prevent too much browning.
Weight: Cake pans can weigh from 5-25 ounces. For obvious reasons, heavier pans are more often used commercially or professionally.
In addition to these basics, you need to see if your cake pans satisfy the following requirements:
- Cake layers must release easily from cake pans. Portions of the crust or even whole chunks of cake often stick to the pan.
- A cake pan should brown the cake without roasting it. Obviously, therefore, your cake pans must conduct heat evenly so that the crust is uniformly colored and the cake rises evenly.
- Cakes usually release better from pans lined with nonstick coatings.
- Another thumb rule is: the darker the pan, the darker the crust. However, dark cake pans can create a darker crust without making it too brown. In fact, cakes baked in darker cake pans may prove sturdier and more resistant to crumbling.
- Aluminum cake pans with light-colored or shiny finishes also make well-browned cakes because aluminum conducts heat evenly and quickly. Tinned steel (but NOT stainless steel) cake pans with a nonstick coating also produce a dark finish.
- Insulated pans are also low on the list of preferences because the two layers of metal separated by airspace slow down the browning process.
- Cake pans with handles on either side are easier to handle for obvious reasons.
So now you know all, drop us a line to let us know how you get on with your baking!