Cake 101: Lesson 3: Pans, pans, and more pans

Lesson 3: Pans, pans, and more pans

I am not even going to attempt to claim to provide a comprehensive overview to every type of cake pan available. Instead, I am going to hopefully provide you with a quick reference guide for the next time you're contemplating a cake and its pan.

A note about brand -- everyone has their loyalty to a particular brand. Some people prefer Chicago Metallic, some people prefer NordicWare, some people prefer Wilton, others just whatever they can buy at their local store. The majority of my pans are either NordicWare or Wilton, but that's my personal preference. You should use whatever pans work for you.

A note about silicone pans -- I hate them. I have never had a cake come out of them successfully, so I do not use them and do not recommend them to others. However -- your mileage can and most certainly will vary.

Lastly, always be sure to only use as much batter in the pan as your recipe and/or pan calls for.

So here's the Cake Ninja's quick reference on pans:

• Round pans - your bog standard cake pan. Come in various diameters -- most commonly used are 6", 8", 9", and 10", although you will see multi-tiered wedding cakes going to 16" and beyond. The average household oven may not hold a 16" or greater pan successfully.  I like to use bake-even strips with these, especially on the 10" pans and you should use a heating core on anything greater than 10" (and some people do at 10" -- quick note, you can substitute a flower nail placed head down in the pan for a heating core).
• Rectangle pans - 9"x13" is the most common here, although you can get them up to full sheet size (which probably won't fit in the average household oven either). I have them in both glass and metal, and use them almost interchangeably. One thing to note -- you will not get perfectly square corners out of these pans as they're all slightly rounded.
• Other tier shapes -- you can get hearts, diamonds, pillow shapes, etc in tiered sets for wedding cakes. I have not used any of these personally, but do covet a funky paisley shaped one from Wilton.
• Bundt pans -- come in all sorts of styles these days. These are the pans with the hole in the center and often with some sort of fluting on the edges.
• Angel food pans -- like a bundt pan, but straight sided. These you do not use cake release on -- the cake needs to stick to the sides to rise properly.
• Shaped pans -- I have these in multiple varieties. There are the pans that are a single shape/piece (cartoon character, butterfly, castle, etc) that then gets decorated. There are pans that are in two pieces (bee hive, soccer ball, giant cupcake, etc) that are then put together and decorated. And then there are many mini-cakelet pans that come in various configurations (trains, cars, bugs, wedding cake shapes, mini bundts, etc).  These are usually of a heavier metal than the round pans, and all of mine are NordicWare.
• Springform pans -- not used for cakes, but a must if you're making a cheesecake. These pans have a side band that springs/clips into place around a bottom rim. You would not want to use these for a cake as the batter would probably run out.
• Cupcake pans - come in three sizes (mostly), the standard 12 cupcake pan, mini cupcake pans (I think mine hold 24), and the jumbo 6 cupcake pans. You can use them with papers or without, but if you do it without you need to be very good about spraying the pan.

So there you have it, a quick guide to pans. Anything I missed? Any pans you love? Any pans you hate? Want to tell me how wrong I am for hating silicone? Have at it! :)