Advice Cooling An 15X11 Sheet Cake
Decorating By GraceDidIt Updated 28 Jul 2010 , 5:53am by auntiecake
Hello, all!
This is my first time baking a half-sheet cake (15" x 11"). So overwhelmed on how to flip the cake over to cool off WITHOUT breaking it.
Any suggestions on best/practical way of doing so without breaking the cake in half or a million pieces?
Would one use full size cooling rack, a cake board or something else?
Thanks so much!
Is it still in the pan? If so, just place a cake board over it and flip the pan. If it's already out the pan, again just place another cake board and flip. You should be fine.
Thanks for the quick response. No, it is cooling off right now. 10 minutes has passed since it's been out of the oven.
BTW, I DO NOT have any cake boards that size.
Should I just use 2 cooling racks (approx. size is 11" x 8") over the cake and then flip?
Thanks in advance.
Yes the cooling racks are fine as well
Thanks, GL79 for the advice.
I chickened out using the cooling racks --- afraid one of them might slip out while flipping the cake.
I used the underside bottom of an 11" x 17" jelly roll pan with a sheet of wax paper over the cake. I was extremely nervous flipping it over since the cake felt like 20 lbs. It is now cooling off. Thanks once again for your advice.
No cardboards this size? what were you going to put it on?
No cooling racks this size? How were you going to cool the cake?
You should invest in some. You can always use a large cooling rack for small cakes, but it's pretty hard to use a small cooling rack for large cakes. I had cooling racks that were bigger than my 12x18 cake.
The first rule about ANY job is making sure you have the right tools to be able to actually DO the job. You invested in the 11x15 pan to make the cake ..... you need to invest in ALL of the tools needed to work with an 11x15 cake.
When cooling a large cake like this, make sure you either cut the dome off or flip the cake back onto it's 'bottom' right away. If you try to leave it upside down with a domed top, gravity will pull down on those unsupported corners and your cake will crack/break.
No cardboards this size? what were you going to put it on?
I haven't bought the cake boards at the time when I made the cake. What was I thinking??!!??.
No cooling racks this size? How were you going to cool the cake?
I had planned on using 2 - 16"x10" cooling racks but was afraid that by using both of them at the same time when flipping the cake, I would end up with a disaster. If I had used only one cooling rack, the short side might've separated from the cake.
You should invest in some. You can always use a large cooling rack for small cakes, but it's pretty hard to use a small cooling rack for large cakes. I had cooling racks that were bigger than my 12x18 cake.
Yes, I agree. I should invest in larger cooling racks. I wasn't planning on making sheet cakes except for this one occasion.
The first rule about ANY job is making sure you have the right tools to be able to actually DO the job. You invested in the 11x15 pan to make the cake ..... you need to invest in ALL of the tools needed to work with an 11x15 cake.
You're right.
When cooling a large cake like this, make sure you either cut the dome off or flip the cake back onto it's 'bottom' right away. If you try to leave it upside down with a domed top,
That's EXACTLY what I did! And it stayed that way till the very end.
gravity will pull down on those unsupported corners and your cake will crack/break.
I guess I was lucky the corners did not crack/break.
This was actually a "practice" cake. I wanted to see how I would do handling this size of a cake for I haven't made anything this BIG. Even though it was a practice run, I sweated because I knew I had to do this again for the "real" thing. The cake was torted, filled, crumb-coated, iced in BC, Viva smoothed, swirls on top and dots along the bottom -- all in 2 hours (see attached). It ended up being donated to a church for their annual spaghetti dinner.
As of 7/25, the "real" cake was presented to my nephew for his 5th b-day. I think my sister and brother-in-law and other family members were more "wowed" than my nephew. This time I did cut the dome off the cake while it was still in the pan, flipped it and cooled it using the underside of my 17" x 11" cookie sheet. Will definitely get the bigger cooling racks using my 40% off coupon at either Michaels or HobbyLobby for my next sheet cake.
Thank you so much for the tips, indydebi.
BTW - you're BC recipe (I subbed hi-ratio shortening) was used for this cake and the final cake (see Semi-finished cake). Love the recipe!
Gracedidit
Your cake looks great! You can always use a cardboard cut from a box and cover it w/freezer paper using the waxed side. Your cookie sheet w/waxed paper under it is fine also. It doesn't hurt to improvise till you can get everything you need or want. Indydebi is correct about cutting off the dome and so much easier while it is in the pan. Happy cake decorating! Enjoy, your family will appreciate them.
Gracedidit
Your cake looks great! You can always use a cardboard cut from a box and cover it w/freezer paper using the waxed side. Your cookie sheet w/waxed paper under it is fine also. It doesn't hurt to improvise till you can get everything you need or want. Indydebi is correct about cutting off the dome and so much easier while it is in the pan. Happy cake decorating! Enjoy, your family will appreciate them.
Thanks for the tip. Always a joy to have fellow CC'ers experts give advice to us newbies. 
The "final" cake actually had color flow designs but 2 of 3 broke (even after doing a duplicate). I ended up doing a FBCT at the last minute (first time ever and my niece thought it was fondant), which made me feel good about the job I did doing a FBCT for the first time.
Color flow is fragile! You have to be so careful when taking it off the wax paper. Make sure your color flow is thick enough and dries thoroughly, FBCT is easier and tastes better too! There are so many ways to do things in cake decorating! There are also so many more opportunities and tools than when I started back in the 60's when the Wilton yearbooks and encyclopedias (as they called them) were mostly in black and white. No online help or forums like we have now. I started young and still love the art! CC is an awesome way to get information and solve problems. Enjoy and keep it fun! LOL You are off to a great start.
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