Putting together a cake might seem straightforward, but it’s so much harder than it looks. Making the “bones” of the cake sturdy is just as important as making the outside look good, and having layers that are domed or topsy-turvy can mess up your cake from the jump. I’ve been a professional cake decorator for 14 years and there’s one tool that makes cake baking so much easier that I no longer bake without them: cake strips.
Wilton Bake Even Cake Strips $9.87 at Amazon Shop Now Shop Now $9.87 at AmazonCake strips ensure your cakes rise and cook evenly. They reduce irregular humps in your cakes, which means you don’t have to cut anything off and waste it. At roughly five dollars each and with (potentially) years of use, cake strips can save you money and put more cake in your belly.
If you’ve ever baked cake, muffins, or even cookies, you’ve witnessed the phenomenon of a domed center and browned, short edges. This is to be expected. The batter or dough on the edges, directly in contact with the metal cake pan, heats up and cooks first. With cake, these areas cook and solidify before the leavening agent reaches its maximum potential—thus, shorter edges. The center of the cake takes longer to heat up and so the baking powder or baking soda has a chance to fully activate, rising fully. There’s nothing wrong with this most of the time—muffins get beautiful cracks and pointy tops, and cookies get soft, chewy centers. Cakes, however, with a tall domed top and shorter edges, can complicate things.
Cake strips make better cakes
Credit: Allie Chanthorn ReinmannHow to use cake strips
I usually drop my cake strips into a bowl of water in the sink and let them soak while I’m preparing the cake batter. Once everything is in the pan and the oven is preheated, I’ll wring out the cake strips (they should be wet but not dripping everywhere) and wrap the cake pans. I take a moment to ensure the strip is pushed all the way up toward the top of the rim. If the cotton touches the oven racks under the pan then you can get a little toasty spot on the cotton. (Light browning over time is to be expected, but rest assured, these cake strips are perfectly safe to use inside of gas or electric ovens.)
While cake strips aren't efficient for large-scale cake operations—wrapping hundreds of cake pans would be too much of a time-suck—they’re excellent for home use or small independent bakery situations. Yes, I’ve replaced working in production bakeries for writing food hacks for you fine folks, but I do make wedding cakes and celebration cakes on a low-production scale. I can honestly say that there’s not one cake that goes in my oven without a cake strip around it.
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