How many flower nails do I use in an 11x15 pan? How should I space them? Thanks so much!

I only use 2 because I only have two and I space them evenly down the centre of the length. If I had more, I'd probably use 3 or 4 and just space them evenly in the center area.

I use 4 in that size pan.

I place them along the 15" length, down the center. I evenly space them, starting about 2 inches in from the side of the pan. This make for a very flat cake that needs little to no leveling.

HTH
Rae

ok I'm confused.I bought the flower nails today and I thought that was what you use to make the flowers then you take them off to put them on your cake. You actually stick the nail down into the cake instead???

You do use them for flowers as you thought. But you can use them in larger cake pans to help with even baking. Because they are metal they help distribute the heat throught batter enabling the cake to bake more evenly and fairly level. If you don't use a something like a flower nail, then on the larger cake layers you run the risk of the outside being done before the middle and having to leave it in longer, leading to the outer part of the cake to be tougher and/or dried out.

I grease my pans and often line them with parchment. I also grease the flower nail. I place them in position before adding the batter to the pan. However, many a time I realize I've forgotten to add them, so just place them after pouring in the batter. Just be sure to grease them as well.

Wow good to know! I had no idea. I don't think I have any "Larger" pans as the biggest round pan I have is a 10 inch and the largest sheet cake pan i have is 9x13. I'll have to try when I get a larger pan

I've used the flower nails in my 10" round. I may have used it in the 9x13 if the cake is a fairly dense one too.

Great advice I found lately. If you have a convection oven, put your cakes on a jelly roll pan and you won't even need the flower nails to get your cake to bake even.

http://eggbeater.typepad.com/shuna/2008/05/baking-in-a-sti.html

I've tried it! It works!

Also the above website is fabulous!!

So if I put in the flower nails it will help stop the dome effect that I get from my cakes? My cakes swell up a lot on the centers and I have to cut a good bit off to make it level. TIA

Okay I did 3 and they are in the oven right now. I've also wrapped with a cake strip, just to be safe. The last 11x15 I did I didn't use either and the outside was crunchy and the inside was gooey. Hope this is better.

I use a flower nail in all of my cakes as well because I can't level a cake to save my life. It really helps cut down on my waste (and my waist)