I promise I'm not into Valentine's Day as much as it appears. Though, over the years I have grown to appreciate a celebration in the middle of February. As much as it looks like this cake is for the February holiday, I actually made it for some friend's birthdays. But, neither of those are the point of this post. I have been working on my cake baking skills while still using boxed cake mix, of course, and learned the best cake baking trick to date yet and I am so excited to share it with you.
I had some candies from my target run this week (remember, last post when I caved and got a Valentine to Jordan from Ruby, ha!) that I needed to get rid of before I ate the entire bag, so I used them to decorate the cake. So, I guess it did turn into a Valentine's Day cake. If that's what we want it to be.
Enough of this pretty cake, onto the trick I was talking about...
I know that this has been done before and I can't remember where I saw it first years ago. All I did was tie a wet cloth around the pan and THE CAKE COOKED EVENLY AND FLAT. It's a miracle. I still can't believe it worked. Even Jordan, the science guy, was amazed.
At first I didn't think that this would be worth the extra effort to do this... and is it really worth ruining a towel? Yes. Yes, it is. Trust me, your towel will serve a much, much greater purpose.
It actually ended up saving me so much time and energy. Since, the top of the cake was mostly flat I didn't need to trim the top of the cake, where usually it's rounded. Icing the cake was a breeze since, it didn't need to be trimmed, there weren't and crumbs to get in the way. I was able to stack the layers together, and it looked way better.
I was able to use a large square washcloth to fit both pans. I cut it out in a zig zag like pattern, so that the square cloth turned into a long strand. I wanted it to be long enough to tie at the end and not have to use safety pins.
Also, a quick talk about Funfetti. I can't believe that I forgot about it's goodness. I haven't had it in way too long. I always say it's my favorite, and a coworker even knew on my birthday a couple years ago, but I always forget about it when at the store. But, never again.
Also, I love how Natalie spotted the box in this picture on instagram. Haha.
Here are some tips:
1. Don't use an old cleaning cloth - as much as you will want to use an old towel or washcloth, don't use one that has been used with any type of cleaning solution. I almost did this, but realized I didn't want to ruin my cake with yucky chemicals, natural or not. (I settled and used a cheap washcloth we bought for Ruby at mealtimes.)
2. Soak the towel before use and then ring out - You can see where my towel got a little charred. I'm not sure if this would help, but I think I think it may be the safest bet instead of just quickly wetting the cloth.
3. You can also use safety pins if your cloth isn't long enough, but I think tying the ends is the easiest option, so try to make your cloth long enough!
4. You can use a square cloth for this! Just start cutting a strip off the end of the cloth, but before getting to the end, leave about an inch and start cutting at the opposite side to make a zig zag to make a continuous strip. Here's an image to help with that.
5. Because it helps the cake cook so evenly, it may cook a little faster. Luckily I checked the cake before the timer went off and took it out a few minutes early. So, just set the timer for 5 minutes less than the recipe calls for and begin checking to see if it's cooked all the way.
I will definitely be using this trick for now on. I am saving the cloth pieces I used, so it will even be easier the next time.
Have you done this before? I encourage you to try it if you haven't! Also, my next goal is to make a taller cake. Has anyone added more layers? or used more smaller pans? I would love to hear your thoughts if so.
I'm Katelyn, a creative who finds beauty in the little things. I like the windows open and vases filled with flowers. I photograph and write about the mostly small but sometimes big adventures we find in our daily lives.
