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itsacake
Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 20, 2005
Posts: 542
Location: San Jose, California USA
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Thu Nov 06, 2008 8:54 pm |
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I am newly renting space from an experienced baker who has become a friend as well. We are usually in the kitchen at the same time and she is a big help because she has been doing this for 20 years and I am just out of pastry school and have only been decorating for a few years.
Today as I was greasing my pans with the pan grease recipe found here on CC it was suggested that since I use parchment on the bottom of my pans, I should just skip greasing the pans entirely. This would probably save time (although at the end there is a bit more cake stuck to the pans, so I"m not sure) but the bigger issue seems to be that there is no added grease to get caught in the grease trap, which is expensive to service every few weeks as it is. I had heard in other places that professionals often don't grease their pans, though we did in school, most of the time.
Anyway, I greased some pans and left others ungreased. The ones with pan grease seemed to be ever so slightly taller (maybe a millimeter, LOL but they shrank away from the sides of the pan more than the ungreased ones, so they were slightly smaller (maybe a 1/4 of an inch).
All the cakes came out of the pan fine. The only advantage I found was that the parchment paper was more secure as I filled the pans that were greased, and scraping out the crumbs stuck to the sides was easier, but the grease was messier, so it's about even there.....
So what do you all of you do? |
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CakeForte
Frequent Member
Joined: Oct 21, 2004
Posts: 480
Location: Internet
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Thu Nov 06, 2008 9:46 pm |
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I did both of those methods before, but now I use baker's joy, or crisco spray w/ flour. Whatever is cheapest at the time of purchase. I cut out a lot of prep time by using the sprays. |
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itsacake
Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 20, 2005
Posts: 542
Location: San Jose, California USA
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Thu Nov 06, 2008 11:01 pm |
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Thanks for answering, Cakeforte. I've used the spray in the past. The question was more whether anyone just totally doesn't use anything except the parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.
Have those of you with grease traps found that greasing your cake pans causes more build-up in the trap? How often do most of you have your grease traps cleaned?
Does anyone find their cake are improved by not greasing the pan?
When I'm asked why would you do that and waste your time, I don't have an answer beyond "because I always have" |
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Mike1394
Forum Fanatic
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 1835
Location: Michigan
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:06 am |
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| itsacake wrote: |
When I'm asked why would you do that and waste your time, I don't have an answer beyond "because I always have" |
Do you know how many things that operate on this premise? I grease, to me it's faster. I'm not going to waste parchment putting it on a cake pan. I usually use my parchment at least twice anyways. As for the grease trap thing. How much grease are you putting in the pan? That grease that is in the pan gets absorbed by the cake.
Mike |
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AsburyArt
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 09, 2008
Posts: 33
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:31 am |
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Very few cakes need both grease and flour.
Chocolate cakes are notorious stickers, so I always grease and flour those.
Nearly every other cake I make I either grease or use spray (PAM) but not flour, and they release perfectly.
I place a small square of parchment in the bottom of every pan after spraying. If a cake is going to stick anywhere, it will stick in the middle. So for an 8" round pan, I might place a 3 inch square. A 16" pan might get an 8" square of parchment. I don't measure the parchment, I just tear pieces of it to the right size. This saves time and money.
In general, you don't want to use a dry pan because it can inhibit rise and/or create more of a dome on the cake. |
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missmeg
Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 04, 2007
Posts: 526
Location: Seacoast, NH
Birthday: Nov 09
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:08 am |
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I use the cake release recipe found here (equal parts flour / Crisco / oil) AND parchment paper for the bottoms. I've found that sometimes I need to use a spatula release the sides of the cake from the pan, but the parchment on the bottom allows me to flip the cake cleanly without fear that something is going to stick on the bottom. |
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costumeczar
Forum SuperStar!
Joined: Oct 18, 2007
Posts: 2576
Location: Henrico VA
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 11:35 am |
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I use reusable silicone mats or waxed paper on the bottom of the cake pans, and I don't grease the sides of the pans at all. |
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indydebi
Forum Matriarch
Joined: Jul 07, 2006
Posts: 22137
Location: Indianapolis IN
Birthday: Jan 19
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:47 pm |
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| Mike1394 wrote: | I grease, to me it's faster. I'm not going to waste parchment putting it on a cake pan. I usually use my parchment at least twice anyways. As for the grease trap thing. How much grease are you putting in the pan? That grease that is in the pan gets absorbed by the cake.
Mike |
Agree. I've been in my current location since January and haven't had to clean the grease trap yet. In a week's baking, there are a LOT more parchment papers in my trash can (landfill) than there is grease in my grease trap. You probably wash more icing (i.e. grease) down the drain just by rinsing out bowls, rubber scrapers, beaters and icing bags than you do with the miniscule amount found in cake pans. |
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Sweet_Guys
Frequent Member
Joined: Aug 26, 2008
Posts: 471
Location: Winter Garden, FL
Birthday: Feb 20
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Fri Nov 07, 2008 5:30 pm |
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We use the spray formats, too. Occasionally sticking....however, we think it's just tempermental days of the week.
Paul & Peter |
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