Tip for Cooling your Cakes

Letting your cake cool is one of the most important aspects of decorating a cake, yet most of us are impatient and want to ice the cake before the cake has cooled completely. Thus, the icing starts to melt and you can't decorate it how you really wanted to and the cake starts to look droopy.

A quick tip on how to cool your cake: once you take it out of the oven, leave it in the pan (place on a wire rack to allow air to flow under the pan) for 10-15 minutes and then remove it from the pan. Don't let it stay in the pan the whole time while it cools- that continues to cook the cake and thus makes it drier. Taking the cake out of the pan after 10-15 minutes allows the cake to cool faster too! So it's a win-win!

Here is the cake cooling on a wire rack (the lines on the top are from flipping it over onto another wire rack- they are ok to be there because you will be leveling the cake and thus getting rid of the lines.)

Taking the cake out of the pan can be tricky too, especially if it's still hot (which it should be if you're taking it out at the appropriate time :) ). First, you need to make sure that BEFORE you put the batter in the pan you prep the pan. To prep the pan you can use pam, butter, flour, etc. I use something called Cake Release that you can get in cake sections at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc. That helps prevent the cake from sticking to the pan and breaking when you try to get it out. Second, once you take the cake out of the oven and put it on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes to cool, then you need to get some wax paper and another wire rack. You will place the other wire rack on top of the cake (so the cake, in the pan, is sandwiched between the two wire racks). Then grab the two wire racks and turn the cake over. Pull up on the bottom of the cake pan to allow the cake to release onto the second wire rack(the cake will be upside down). Take your first wire rack and place a piece of wax paper on top of it. Then place that wire rack with the wax paper on it on top of the cake and do the same thing again. This will allow the cake to be turned right side up and the wax paper helps to prevent the lines from the wire rack from indenting the cake. Your cake should be turned right side up, on a wire rack and will be able to cool completely from there! It sounds like a lot, but it's quite simple. Please let me know if you have any questions!