How To Remove a Cake From a Pan Without Breaking It

Last Updated on January 27, 2023

Knowing how to remove a cake from a pan without breaking it can help ensure you have a beautiful and delicious dessert. There’s a lot of work that goes into baking a cake, so you don’t want to waste it by having it break. You don’t want to spend all that time baking a cake for a party only for it to fall apart when you remove it from the pan.

No matter if you baked a square, round, or sheet cake, it is important to remove it properly from the pan to prevent any breakage. Fortunately, there are some simple steps you can take to ensure your cake turns out perfect when you remove it from the pan. You want your cake to be free of any cracks or breaks to ensure a smooth surface for decorating.

What You Need For This Tutorial For How to Remove a Cake From a Pan Without Breaking It

The best way to ensure your cake will come cleanly out of the pan is to properly prepare the pan before baking and to let the cake cool. The biggest reason why your cake will break when removing it is if you didn’t take proper preparation beforehand. To do so, you will need:

• Baked cake
• Wire rack
• Plate or Platter
• Butter Knife.

Step-by-step instructions: How To Remove a Cake From a Pan Without Breaking It

Step one: Grease your pan and line it with parchment paper

When baking a cake, you must grease your pan before baking to prevent the cake from sticking. Generously spray your pan with cooking spray to prevent your cake from sticking. To help your cake come out even easier, grease your pan, add a layer of parchment paper at the bottom and then lightly grease the paper.

Instead of cooking spray, you can also grease your pan with butter. After greasing with butter, it is a good idea to sprinkle some flour in your pan to further prevent any sticking.

Step two: Let it fully cool

Though it can be tempting to eat your cake right out of the oven, it is important to let your cake cool first. You should cool your cake on a wire rack to allow it to evenly cool. After cooling it for around an hour, you can remove your cakes from the pans.

Step three: Run a knife around the edge

To help remove the cake from its pan, run a knife around the edge of the cake. This can remove or loosen any parts of the cake that were stuck to the sides of the pan.

Step four: Place a plate on top then invert the cake pan

After letting your cake cool, you can place a plate or platter over your cake. While holding the plate on top, flip your cake pan and place the plate on the counter. Carefully lift the cake pan and the cake should smoothly come out on the cake.

Tips and Tricks

Whether you forgot to grease your pan or your cake is simply being tricky, cakes will sometimes stick in the pan. Fortunately, if this happens there are some handy tips to get your cake unstuck from the pan

When trying to remove the cake from the pan, try tapping the sides. This can often do the trick to loosen the cake and remove it from the pan without breaking it.

If your cake doesn’t seem to want to budge even after tapping it, try letting it sit upside down for several minutes on a plate. Gravity will often work to remove the cake from the pan.

For a cake that is particularly difficult to remove, you can use a warm towel to help loosen it. Run a towel under warm water and wring out any excess water. Wrap the towel around the pan for several minutes and the cake should then come right out of the pan.

What to Do If Your Cake Breaks?

Even if you are careful, cakes can still sometimes break. In your cake breaks and you can’t fix it with frosting, don’t throw it away as you can still use it for another dessert.

Make cake pops

Cake pops are a wonderful use for a cake that didn’t turn out right. Crumble the cake up and mix it with some buttercream frosting. Form the cake and frosting mixture into balls and then dip them in candy melts or chocolate.

Use it as a topping on ice cream or mix it in milkshakes

Ice cream and cake go wonderfully together. You can crumble your broken cake on top of your favorite ice cream and top it with chocolate or caramel sauce and whipped cream for a delicious sundae. You can also mix the cake into a milkshake for a fun treat.

Do You Let a Cake Cool Before Removing it From the Pan?

For best results, you should let your cake fully cool before removing it from the pan unless the recipe says otherwise. You should cool on a wire rack to speed up the cooling process and allow for even cooling.

Allowing a cake to cool can be a timely process. It can take your cake up to one hour to fully cool. If you need to speed up the process to cool down your cake, you can place it in your fridge. By doing this, you can shave several minutes off of the cooling process.

Allowing your cake to fully cool generally makes it easier to remove from your pan. Allowing your cake to fully cool before removing it from the pan can help decrease the chances of it breaking or sticking when you remove it from the pan. 

In addition, the cake should be fully cooled before your frost it. If your cake is still warm when you go to frost it this can cause the frosting to melt, making a mess. 

How to Get a Stuck Cake Out of the Pan

If you try to remove your cake from the pan and realize that it is stuck, don’t panic as there are steps you can take to remove a stuck cake. The first step you should take is to run a knife along the edge of the pan to loosen any sides of the cake that may be stuck. Then place a plate or platter on top of your cake pan, invert it, and then give it a few pats to remove the cake.

If this still does not work, you can try putting it in the fridge or place the pan in a large bowl of ice until it is cold. Then, you can try again to remove your cake from the pan once it’s cooled. On the other hand, you can try wrapping a hot towel around the edges of the pan to help loosen the cake.

Another method is to leave the cake inverted on a platter for an extended amount of time to see if it will come out on its own. If you can’t seem to get the cake out of the pan, you can always frost it and serve it straight from the pan. 

The best way to remove cake from a pan

The best method to remove a cake is to first allow it to fully cool. To make your cake easy to remove, it is recommended to use parchment paper in your pan and then use cooking spray on top of it. Using parchment paper will allow for easy removal as it helps prevent sticking. 

Once your cake has cooled on a wire rack, carefully place a platter on top and then invert it. Next, carefully pull your cake pan off to remove it. This is the best way how to remove a cake from a pan without breaking it and your cake is now ready for you to decorate. 

No More Broken Cakes: How To Remove A Cake From A Pan Without Breaking It

The best way to prevent your cake from breaking when removing it from the pan is to properly grease the pan and let the cake fully cool first. If it is still sticking, try tapping the pan, letting it sit upside down, running a knife along the edges, or wrapping a warm towel around the pan.

Do you have any questions regarding how to remove a cake from a pan without breaking it? If so, please ask your cake pan questions in the comments.

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