Is parchment paper really needed for baking pans?

I hate cutting and lining my pans! Do I really have too? Cannot I just used wilton pan spray.

Cakes, cookies and desserts seem to bake better when using parchment paper in my opinion...They come out of the pans soo easy...I would spray my pan and dust with flour if u do not want to use parchment paper...hope that helps....

I use the flour spray. I love it! and it works great. I just spray my pans evenly and they always come out nice. I have tried parchment but I didn't notice a big enough difference to warrant doing it all the time. I say try it by doing an experiment. Parchment one pan and do a different way for the other- you'll be able to see the results under the same conditions with the same batter.

I find I need it most with chocolate cakes. I found out the hard way too!

I use the cake release recipe that is on CC and it works great. I do put a little bit of paper down when I do bigger cakes just to be safe, but when I do forget they still come out just fine.

Thanks all....I think I may try without for a while and see what happens. I just baked using wilton pan release and it came out just fine

Next step to test is the taste...best part!

But I will take LindaF144 advice and only use it for my chocolate and large cakes.

If I can save time and money on my orders and be efficient and still have great tasty cakes, in the end that all the matters.

I use it for every cake I make and I never ever worry about them sticking. Before I started doing this I'd used every other spray on the market including the homemade recipe and while most of them worked most of the time, parchment works ALL of the time. I did discover a luxury that is now a necessity in my kitchen...precut parchment rounds! I have two sizes and can trim to fit smaller pans or cut up to fit larger pans...even square pans...and I hardly ever take out my roll of parchment paper anymore. Yup, they cost more than just getting a roll of parchment but I, like you, hate cutting out the rounds! LOL! So worth the money!

Cat

I also hate cutting my parchment paper but I hate having my cake rip apart more )

@catlharper how do you handle the sides of the pans...that's the part I hate the most!

I have a fool-proof method that has yet to fail me...even on the most sticky recipes or square pans. I crisco well, flour well and then spray original Pam all over it. No problems with corners, sides or bottoms of pans. No extra taste either.
Works like a charm!

I never line the sides of my pans. Only the bottom.

No way!! This whole time I've been doing the bottom and sides!!! OMG, only the bottom....YAY! I love this place....thanks guys you are the best!

I use parchment paper and yes it can be tedious. I know that people use cake release. I have tried it but I love the paper. I don't use spray at all I just use an offset spatula to release the sides. You could always try the Bakers Joy spray or the cake release you may like them.

I am a cake hobbyist...so don't do a lot of cakes, but my no-fail way is to use cooking spray and then apply a waxed paper round to the bottom. I just use the point of the scissors to draw around the pan on a double layer of waxed paper (that makes a mark) and then cut it out...I think waxed paper is less expensive than parchment...

I use parchment precut circles and I also use the 1/2 sheet cake size. I buy my spray from the restaurant supply and I spray the sides and bottoms well and after putting the paper down I spray it also. I too hate to cut the circles so I started buying the precut ones years ago. I love them to help keep the bottom in tact and also for the fact that if I have gotten busy with another task and the cakes have sat in the pan for an hour I can still get them out in 1 piece.
evelyn

I bake deep mud cakes so need to line the base and sides. For the sides I buy a separate roll of paper and cut the whole thing in half down the middle, that way I only have to pull off the right length and not have to cut it each time.
I wish the precut rounds were available here - I hate lining tins!

I've been using pre-cut parchment circles as well, and my cakes never stick. I lightly spray the bottom of the pan with a non-stick cooking spray, then lay the parchment circle down and when I'm ready to pour in the batter, I lightly spray with Baker's Joy or any other spray that contains flour. Cakes don't stick.

BUT, yesterday I went to a kitchen supply specialty store that I visit from time to time and found silicone circles for my 8" and 10" round cake pans. I purchased them and now I won't have to buy parchment circles anymore for those two sizes! But best of all, I found a website that carries a Universal Nonstick Bake Liner that you can cut to fit your other pans and they actually include the templates to cut it with! Here's the website: http://www.chefsplanet.com/products/view/17. I plan to purchase a couple and cut out to make liners for all my cake pans and I'm good to go. I will always keep regular parchment paper around, it is just so handy to use for all kinds of things


Hope that helps

I have been using parchment paper for a while now. But ran out and the store here only had the flour spray so I thought what the heck. LOVE it! Just spray and bake. Saved me a ton of time for the same results. I'm switching for good.

I use waxed paper for the bottom of my pans only. it's waaaay cheaper than parchment. Whenever I have a spare twenty minutes, I sit and pre-cut circles in assorted sizes that I keep in stacks for future use. It's not a pain when I do it that way rather than dealing with it every time I make a cake.

Wax paper here too. And....it's not time consuming at all. I used to trace the pans until I watched this....now why I didn't I think of that..only takes a second.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but is waxed paper approved for baking use? I thought that exposure to temps required to bake a cake (325 and above) causes the wax to melt into the product. Just wondering, don't chew me up and spit me out over this, please.

a. wax is edible and food safe. Tons of foods you buy every day have wax in them.

b. The trace amount that might leach into your cake is so small that you'd never be able to detect it.

c. My box says, "safe for microwaving foods" right on it. A microwave is certainly enough to melt wax.

Good enough for Alton...good enough for me! Parchment is wayyyy too much $$$. Thanks, ladies!

Great video, travmand !!!...I will give that a try with some wax paper too.

Cheers!

I've always lined the bottom of my pans with parchment (that's how I was taught) and have never for a second worried about sticking. I spray PAM first then put the parchment over the sprayed bottom to help hold it in place. I cannot fathom NOT lining a pan.

I was always afraid of using wax paper for anything other than RIT or flowers because I was afraid the wax would make things stick when exposed to heat because of the melting wax.

Fast forward to today, I baked 15 cakes for a wedding this sat. and I ran out of parchment for my last 2 16" squares, so I used some wax paper (like I read here on cc ) and it worked perfectly! I think I may actually prefer it because it doesn't leave as many "wrinkles" on the top of the cake and it's soo much cheaper!

The only times I line the sides (and only using parchment because it's stiffer) is if I wanted the cake to rise higher than the pan sides.

I have literally been using wax paper for lining the bottom of cake pans for 50 years. Parchment is way too $$$ for me.

Both have their place. Under a cake, waxed paper and parchment do the same thing. However, bake a batch of cookies or something where the paper is exposed and you can get some significant smoking as the wax melts and burns. Completely covered by a cake not a problem.