Cake Decorating - How to Make Sure Your Cake is Done

Sandy Sheppard: Hi! I am Sandy Sheppard, a master cake decorator, and I am here to give you a baking hint today on how to tell when your cake is done, and then how to take it out of the pans and let it cool.

Now, my cakes generally take 35 to 45 minutes to bake in the oven that will depend upon your oven and how hot it is. You dont want to a cake to bake faster than 30 minutes because it would mean that your oven is too high of a temperature and the cake would be harder and not as tasty and not as moist as you would like it to be. When the timer buzzes and you want to go check your cake, I reach my skewer into the oven and just gently poke it into the cake, and pull it out again. It should come out with maybe a couple of dry crumbs on it or nice and clean like this just has.

If it comes out with a moist gooiness on this, you know that your cake needs at least 10-15 minutes longer, and thats okay to let it bake longer. Once I have got my cakes out of the oven, and I let them set and rest for 10 to 20 minutes to let them cool off a little bit just in the pan. It also helps finish the baking in the inside of the cake if it needs to be baked at all. Let the cake firm out just a little. Then I take my cakes and normally just use a sheet of wax paper, and lay it on my counter top. I grab a hold of my pan, if the pan is still warm, use some hot pads with my towel in around it, normally I can touch it with my fingertips and take a hold of my cake, and flip it and then lift. There you go, your cake is out of the pan, it did not stick into my pan at all.

You can also use a baking rack, if you happen to have them. I prefer putting a piece of wax paper on there first, the same technique. Take your pan, flip it, and there you go, you have got your cakes. Thats how you get your cakes out of the pan.