I had heard a long time ago that you could make your own bake even strips by wrapping wet paper towel in tin foil and wrapping around the outside of your cake pan, but I didn't think it would work. I am in the midst of making a 2-layer 11 x 15 chocolate cake for my sons christening and so I thought I would give it a try. OMG!!! It really worked!!! I have never had such a level cake!!! I am floored! I don't even need to level it at all!! Just thought I would mention it to others that may not know! All you do is moisten paper towels (I used the heavy Scott paper towels but I don't think it matters) and then fold them into a 1 1/2" strip. Then wrap it up in heavy duty tin foil (again, I don't know that it has to be heavy duty, but that is what I used) Then I just wrapped them around the outside of my cake pan and folded the top of the foil just around the top of my pan to secure it. No pins needed!!! AMAZING!!!

GREAT!! Thanks for sharing. I will have to give it a try.

I am definately going to try that. I know my mom used to use bath towels ripped into strips, wet down and then pinned on the pans.

Thank you so much for sharing

WOW Thanks that will work on all those odd shaped cake pans .

Thanks for sharing, got a couple of cakes for this weekend and am definately going to give it a try

Gla dit worked for you. I would be a tad leery of putting paper towels in the oven. I know they were wet, and you wrapped them. I just use wet hand towels.

Mike

Hmmmmm, interesting.

I have never used real bake even strips, just the wet towel strips affixed with safety pins. It works so well for my rounds, but not so well for my 13x9 - the strips just wanted to sag and fall off. I'll have to try this because it seems that the foil would help it all stand up and stay put!

Thanks!
Stacy

I'm puzzled now, because I thought it was the moist heat that helped the cake bake more level, but when you wrap the towels in foil, you no longer have the moisture, right?

I've used wet towels and I've used Wilton strips. They both work well.

The bake even strips work very well. I also place one or two greased and floured flower nails upside down and evenly spaced in the pan if I'm baking a very large amount of batter.

When doing a sheet size, 9x13" for example, when I remove the cake from the oven I place a folded clean kitchen towel over the cake and gently press down to remove the hump. So far it has worked well.

I will try this trick on rounds though....when I press the steam out of them I'm afraid I'll gum up the body of the cake, since they are less thick as a sheet cake.

Thanks for the tip!!!

I have often had trouble pinning the Wilton strips to my pans and then having them stay. I am going to have to try the foil method! Thanks for sharing the tip.

I havent had much luck with the bake-even strips. Still get a dome. Cant wait to try this!

Oooh, good to know. I will have to try this on my sheet cakes. I feel like I'm always wasting so much cake through leveling. Thanks for the tip!

Coooool. I wonder - when using the damp towels (fabric, not paper), would it work to use the metal clasp thingies used for ace bandages?

i must try wrapping the wet paper towels around my pans and see how it works!

great tip!

oh...when using the wet strips, do you bake at your regular temperature or do you lower it?

That is so wonderful to know.. I have been using the strips and it works fine ,, but I will definitely try this.. thank you very much for posting and sharing this very useful information.

I have used this recently for smaller pans that the bake even strips were too large for...it does work like a charm!

I was just having the dome problem yesterday with a 9x13. This is a timely post for me. thanks!

I'm going to try the paper towel/foil method because my family is tired of all the extra cake

When you use wet towel strips are they soaking wet or just damp?

hmmm...i've never heard of this. i just might give it a try.
thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the tip. I have 2 11X15 cakes to do this week.... I am definitely going to try this.

Thanks again! I just love this site!!