Hi,

I will be making a cake for my son's birthday this weekend. I plan to put parchment paper on the bottom of the 10", 8", and 6" pans. Do I just oil and flour the sides or do I need to do something to the parchment paper also?

Thanks!
jennifer

I use this recipe. It's cheap and easy to use!

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7468/pan-coating

I normally pan grease the bottom and the sides. I then put the parchment paper down (the pan grease gives it something to stick to so it doesn't move around when I pour the batter in). I like to use parchment paper as additional security, especially in larger cakes, just in case one small part of the cake sticks to the pan with pan grease alone (that's happened to me and I lost an entire 14" square cake!). I level and torte my cakes once their cool, then reuse the parchment paper to put between the torted layers before I wrap and freeze.

I only put parchment paper in the bottom of pans that are 10" and up. Other than that, I just Pam the pans and the cakes come out great! I also use a flower nail in the center of cakes that are 8" or larger to help with even baking and use baking strips on all pans to ensure a more level cake.

I use Wax paper and I don't have to use anything else under the wax paper ;-

I've tried everything, and I've found that if the cake has to be perfect, it's worth the time to cut parchment paper to size for the bottom AND sides of the pan, even my Magic Line ones. I Crisco a bit underneath to prevent sliding and to hold the sides up so the cake will bake higher. Greasing or using Pam on the sides works for smaller cakes, but on occasion I've had chunks of cake not release on the sides. When you have the time, experiment with what works best for your pans.

I'm going to type this, and as sure as I do, Murphy will make sure that a big chunk of my next cake sticks to the side of the pan, but since using Pam I have never had a cake stick to the sides...and I'm nearing my 1000th or so decorated cake !!! Just Pam it well!!

If you put the wax paper down correctly you won't have melted wax in your cake as the wax is only on one side.

As you can tell... you will get many answers! I use parchment on all sizes of my pans, bottoms only, no sides necessary if you use a good spray (for baking) such as Pam, Crisco with Flour, or Baker's Secret. I just lightly spray the entire surface, then place the parchment in the bottom. Mind you, simply spraying or greasing without flouring usually sets you up for leaving much of your cake in the bottom of the pan. I got cocky once and thought I really was in overkill mode on a 6" and did not use parchment paper (just sprayed with the Baker's Secret type spray) --sure enough, the cake stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to perform cosmetic surgery.