Home Baker Uses Easy Foil Hack For Perfectly Even Cakes Every Time
Want to make a showroom-worthy layer cake? Cake strips will definitely help you produce a perfect final product, but what if you don't have the money for the commercially produced kind? Not to worry — this hack ensures you'll be able to make your own homemade strips without breaking a sweat.
Per instructions given by home baker Becky Barelli on TikTok, first wrap the exterior of each cake pan in foil to test its precise size. Be sure the piece you tear off is a little bit longer than the circumference of your pan by several inches. Fold it in half lengthwise, then slice the foil along this bias. Roll out two pieces of paper towel and make sure they match the range of the foil. Then fold the towels in half twice lengthwise. Soak the paper towels in ice-cold water, wring out the excess, and then lay each part at the midpoint of the foil pieces.
Fold down the surrounding portions of the foil until the paper towel is properly enclosed. Line and prepare the inside of your baking tins according to recipe directions, then wrap your strips around the exterior of the pan until the ends of the crimped foil meet. Pinch the foil strip at its base and fold it down firmly until there's no more extra material sticking out. Then fill your tins and follow your baking directions. Ultimately, you should end up with a moist cake that will be easy to separate into layers and frost.
Cake strips keep your cakes flat without letting them dry out
What do cake strips do, exactly? They make sure each layer of your cake bakes evenly, and the outside edges don't brown up more quickly than the middle, which lowers your risk of a dried-out dessert. You also won't have to cut off a puffed-up peak or use a cake leveler to make your layers ready for frosting. Even better, there'll be no wasted cake scraps when you're done putting the treat together.
When your layers are uniformly crafted you won't have to cope with trimming and sculpting and scraping until everything matches perfectly size-wise. There's no need to frown about stray crumbs ruining your icing, and no need to whip up extra frosting to cover up any excess exposed cake. You might still need a crumb coat to cover up any major sins, but much of the hard work is done for you already with cake strips as part of your baking equation. They'll ease your mind regarding all of these baking mistakes.
