A Sticky Situation

It stinks when a cake sticks.  You've spent all this time mixing, pouring, baking and planning { not to mention dreaming of eating } and in a matter of moments excitement gives way to disappointment.  Boo.

My mom taught me a trick years ago that's a fail-proof way to keep a cake from sticking.  It only works on layer cakes, but it's well worth the extra thirty seconds it will take you.  All you need is wax paper or parchment and a pair of scissors.

First, cut a square of wax paper just large enough to cover your whole pan.

Then, fold corner B over to corner A along the dotted line { so you're also folding corner C over to corner D }.  It should look something like the below, where the dotted line represents a fold and the solid lines represent a loose edge.

Now, fold C up to B and D up to A along the dotted line.  You should have a little square.

Fold corner D over to corner B along the dotted line.  A little triangle is all you'll have.  Depending on how large your cake pan is, you may need to fold B over to the end of the dotted line below.  This is a lot like making those paper snowflakes in elementary school.

Now for the slightly tricky part.  Hold your paper wedge above the pan so that point C is in the center. Using the scissors, cut a slight curve along the dotted line.  You'll end up holding what looks like a triangle with a curved base.  And if you unfold it... you should have a nice circle.

See if it fits within your pan. If it's too large, fold it back up and trim off a hair more until it's just barely smaller than the bottom of your pan. { I guess you could get all scientific and use pi and such, but I'm more of a generalist than a specialist. Especially when it comes to numbers. }

Place your circle in a greased pan, fill with batter and bake.  Once cakes are inverted on to wire racks, remove wax paper and allow to finish cooling.  No dark spots, no sticking.  That's a win in my book!