I have tried to find some threads on greasing your cake pan vs. using parchment paper or wax paper, but I can't find any. I use parchment orwax paper depending on what I have on hand, but I haven't seen that anyone else does. What does everyone else use? Pro's and Con's?

Your safest bet is to wipe with crisco, then flour, then parchment. This is pretty much a no-fail method, but kind of a pain in the butt. I do, however, always use this method when I use contour pans.

For the most part, I use spray Pam (alone, no flour) and ALWAYS use parchment circles, etc. on the very bottom of the pan. Even the 6" cakes - I just don't feel like having to re-bake a cake because a corner or edge stuck. HTH

I do the same. Grease sides and bottom with Crisco, flour them, shake off excess flour and cover the bottom with parchment (traced from the outside bottom of the pan to fit to size).

It's a total pain adding the parchment step but I have had some cakes stick and then have to spend so much time patching them that it's not worth it. With the parchment they pop out nice and clean every time!

Here on CC someone posted how to make home made cake release....equal parts crisco, flour and vegetable oil. I will NEVER go back. I mixed it up in a small food processor (could use a mixer or blender I'm sure) I put it in one of those plastic bottles with the long tip on top and I can not believe how fabulous this stuff is. I don't do a lot of cakes so I did 1/2 cup of each and it filled about 1 plastic squeeze bottle.

Use a pastry brush to brush on to the pan. No parchment, no sprays all over my kitchen, inexpensive and best of all NO crumbs. The sides of my cake now look like SugarShacks in her DVD.I was so proud. This stuff is perfect for shaped pans with lots of details. It keeps for several months.

If I could shout this from the rooftops...I would ...make your own cake release Just try it ...you already have all the ingredients on hand Good luck.

I prefer parchment. It's so nice not to worry when you flip the cake over and it comes out perfect. No more having to rebake.

I cover the bottom of the pan with parchment as well, then spray it with Baker's Joy. They come out perfect every time. It really only takes a second to add the parchment, and it's so worth it. They pop right out of the pan with no resistance.

Wow, thanks so much for posting the cake-release recipe, I can't wait to try it. I'm tired of cleaning up 'spray' marks from my kitchen, and even worse, off my glasses. Nothing like doing cakes working in a fog! LOL

artscallion , I used parchment before because of all the recommendations as well and then I had a non-priority cake (for a cake class) and thought I would try the cake release. I hope you find a chance to use it. So far I've never had one stick. What I love about it is the lack of crumbs and texture of the sides and bottom of the cake.

If you try, let me know what you think.

Where do you store your bottle of the homemade cake release? In the refrigerator or just in your kitchen cabinet?

I think the sprays, with or without flour added, have a particular smell/taste that hangs on the cake. It's not necessarily a bad smell/taste. But it's distinct and covers the smell/taste that I intended the cake to have.

I always butter the whole pan, then lay in the parchment circle.

Amymnn, You are going to be floored how happy you are with this stuff. I had never bought the wilton cake release because I thought "what a pain it wasn't in a spray can"...now I know why..it's so much cleaner and easier to work with and the homemade stuff is so cheap. I use a silicon pastry brush also recommend from the other thread to avoid bristles in the cake. The first time I did it, I was scared It seemed to leave streaks in the pan and I thought,, crap that's going to stick...not at all..the cakes come out perfect every time

Since it's just flour, oil and crisco, I leave it in the cabinet. Someone on the other thread said you could refridgerate it if you wanted to but leaving it out they said it should last up to 3 months. I can't imagine what would go bad in it but most of us go through a lot more than that in 3 months I always wondered if the person who figured it out just figuerd out what was in wilton's and left out the chemicals

Sillywabbitz (cute name!): I have used the cake release and really liked it, but it cost more than the big can of spray I was able to get at GFS. The recipe you posted will be a lot cheaper than any other alternatives and if it works as well as the cake release by Wilton, I will be thrilled! Thanks for posting another great way for me to keep my costs down.