What to Do if Your Cake Gets Stuck in the Pan

It happens to the best of bakers. Sometimes a cake sticks in the pan, and just won't drop out easily. Many times, this will crack a cake or actually even break it into pieces. This doesn't have to ruin a cake though, and it can still be saved and frosted. I've learned a number of tricks over the years about what to do when a cake gets stuck in the pan.

I've been baking and layering and frosting and decorating cakes for years. I started when I was young, but really learned a lot of cake baking about ten years ago when I was preparing to make my own wedding cake. Since then, I've done a number of everyday, just to eat cakes, lots of fancier birthday or holiday cakes, and a few special, all out tiered and very decorated special occasion cakes. You'd think that this experience would have made me able to turn out a perfect cake, but just last week, I had a cake get stuck in the pans. I'll tell you how I dealt with this later, but first some strategy.

The best defense is a good offense when it comes to cakes getting stuck in the pan. First, make sure to grease and flour the pans very thoroughly, and use the highest quality pans you can afford. Smooth surfaces will release the cake much more easily. If you are baking a cake that has given you trouble with getting stuck in the pan before, or one that is especially delicate, line the bottom of the greased pan with a greased round of parchment paper as well for extra insurance.

Technique is important as well, for removing a cake from the pan. Do not let the cake cool very much before flipping it out. If it becomes too cool, the greased bottom will glue the cake in instead of sliding it out. I like to allow my cakes to cool in the pan for five minutes at most to ensure that they won't become too cool to fall out of the pan easily. Use a thin spatula or knife to slide between the pan and the cake to make sure no edges are stuck. Then lay a wire rack over the pan, and using a swift, continuous motion, flip the pan and the cake upside down, so the cake will fall to the rack. Use another rack and the same procedure to allow the cake to cool right side up.

What if you've done everything correctly and the cake still refuses to come out of the pan? There are a number of things that you can do to save a cake that is stubbornly stuck inside the pan.

In case the cake has cooled too much, you can try reheating it slightly to re-liquefy the grease holding it in. I would recommend dipping the bottom of the cake pan into very hot water, or returning it to the oven just long enough to warm it through. This may help to save a stuck cake.

If the cake still won't come out on its own, you may try cutting it into three or four large pieces, lifting them out with a spatula, and then placing them back together again before frosting the whole thing, treating the layer like it is actually one piece. I did this once with a heart shaped layer cake that I made with a recipe that was actually meant to stay in the pan (only I didn't know that at the time). Since it refused to flip out on its own, I cut each layer of the cake into big pieces, making sure to cut each one differently so the cut lines wouldn't line up with each other when I stacked the layers together. This worked really well, and wasn't really even that noticeable when the cake was sliced and eaten.

So what happened with my cake last week? I guess I was in a hurry and I didn't grease and flour the pan as well as I should have. When I turned the cakes over, most of them came out, but each left a very large chuck in the pan, stuck to the center of the bottom. I was disheartened by this, but figured any patching job I did to fix it would be better than eating a pile of broken up cake pieces instead of slices. So, I allowed them to cool as they were, and then used a large flat spatula to lift the middle chunks out of the pan. These I just set into place on the layers, and frosted the cake as I'd planned to in the first place. There were slightly more crumbs to contend with than usual, but since it was a "family" cake, not a cake for a big party, I just piled a bit more icing on, and didn't worry if it wasn't quite as neat as usual.