What is the average size of a cake pan

A nonstick coating may be nice for developing a tasty crust in muffins more on that here , but cake is another story. Next to thick muffin batters, cakes have a higher proportion of sugar, fat, and liquid ingredients, which makes the batter comparatively thin.

When heated too rapidly, thin cake batter can't retain the air bubbles trapped inside, resulting in a layer that's gummy and dense beneath a fluffier layer where the batter was better insulated from the too-conductive pan.

The same conductivity leads to cakes with an overdeveloped crust—one that's thick, tough, and dry. Dark and shallow pans cause the surface of the cake to bake too fast, leading to the sort of shrinking that can create a wrinkled surface. Naturally, when cakes bake too fast, they're often over-baked as well, which makes them crumbly and dry. If this is the kind of pan you're stuck with, problems can be mitigated by placing an empty sheet pan on the bottom rack of your oven to help diffuse the heat.

And, of course, use an oven thermometer to make sure you're baking at the proper temperature in the first place. Cake strips, which are bands of cloth that can be soaked in water and wrapped around the pan to provide insulation, can help, but for the cost and hassle, I'd rather invest in better pans than sink time and money into a stopgap solution.

For those who prefer nonstick pans, a better option would be aluminized steel I tested some from USA Pans. They're more expensive and less versatile than my favorite pan, but I recognize that for some folks, nothing can beat nonstick.

I can't really argue with the results, either. In an aluminized-steel pan, my cake baked up with minimal wrinkling, a lighter crust, and a crumb that wasn't dry or crumbly at all. Its straight-sided design means the edges of the cake form a right angle, making layer cakes much easier to frost around the sides. Anodized aluminum is one of my favorite baking materials because it's nonreactive, so you don't have to worry about funky flavors developing in acidic batters—which are fairly common, thanks to our preference for acidic ingredients like lemon juice, buttermilk, natural cocoa powder, and brown sugar.

It keeps the bottom crust nice and light, with minimal wrinkling compared with what you get in darker pans. As I've said, my favorite type of pan isn't just made of anodized aluminum; it's also ultra deep, like this eight- by three-inch cake pan from Fat Daddio's. Those super-tall sides shield the cake in the oven, allowing it to bake up smooth and pale, which means the top crust will be delicate and thin above the moist and fluffy crumb. The added protection offered by a tall-sided pan is especially helpful for folks with ovens that can run a little hot, or those whose electric ovens have a powerful top coil.

Beyond the realm of layer cake, as mentioned above, these deep pans are fantastic for turning out molded and layered desserts, and, with a parchment lining, can also take the place of springform pans for deep-dish cheesecakes. Once the cheesecake has chilled overnight, place the pan in a few inches of hot water for about five minutes, after which you can flip it right out. Most boxes of cake mix include directions for baking with eight- or nine-inch pans, leading lots of folks to believe those two sizes are virtually interchangeable.

But they're really not: When you're working with a cylinder, an extra inch of width represents a huge increase in volume. So, when you're using the same amount of batter, not only will the cake be much thinner by nature, a new problem will arise: under-filling.

Without sufficient batter in the pan, a cake doesn't rise as well or as evenly; the change in surface area means the batter will set faster than it can rise, leading to weird bubbles, cracks, and blemishes in the crust. So when a recipe calls for eight-inch pans, don't plow ahead as if a nine-inch pan were just as good. If a recipe calls for nine-inch pans, there's no issue with baking the layers in eight- by three-inch pans instead, but you'll risk doming or overflow if your pans are too shallow.

Trim any excess paper to avoid it scorching in the oven. Using a little butter on a piece of folded clean kitchen towel, carefully grease the inside of the tin, taking care not to over-grease and leave lumps of butter as this will make your finished cake greasy.

If you bake regularly, ready-made cake tin liners or pre-cut greaseproof baking paper circles are a good option. The only downside is that they are a little pricier than the traditional baking paper method. We use circles of baking paper which our bakers cut themselves. A loose-bottomed or springform tin is preferable to help release the sponges easily.

Specialist cake shops have disposable foil tins, which are perfect for tray bakes as they can be sliced easily without scratching the tin base and they also make it easy to remove the bars by peeling away the foil corners. As far as materials for your pie dish goes, you can use whatever you like, so long as it is a sloping sided American-style pie dish. Love baking? Why not join The Hummingbird Bakery mailing list for updates and news. By entering your email address here you understand and agree that The Hummingbird Bakery Limited may use your personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy see link below.

Close search. Group 2 Created with Sketch. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. On a dessert table, little impresses more than height. Towering trifles , tiered pavlovas , looming cupcake stands, a croquembouche : Tall sweets are the stuff of tea party dreams and birthday fantasies.

But to the average home baker, all that dazzle can be intimidating too. It can feel like anything taller than a basic cake is out of your league. According to cook and writer Odette Williams , however, one kitchen tool can provide all the benefit of height without any extra effort.