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Unmoulding cakes while hot

When you make a cake, pound cake or whatever (what bakers call a "travel cake" because it's easy to carry around) you've most likely made a batter, either by hand or in a food processor, which you then pour into a buttered pan.

It's a classic, and I've already talked to you about 2 or 3 tips on cold dough, or how to have a nice opening on the top etc.

That was all about the pre-bake period, but let's look at the post-bake period.

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Keywords for this post:Baking Cooking Cake Unmoulding Tips

Last modified on: February 6^th 2021

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First of all, the control of the baking process

First of all, the most important thing is the control of the baking process, let's be clear: a baking time indicated for a cake in a recipe is most of the time very approximate. This baking time depends on your oven, the temperature of the oven, the oven itself, the temperature of the batter, the type of pan etc. etc. The only thing missing is the age of the captain...

So the only good way to check if a cake is cooked properly is to stick a knife in the middle, if it comes out dry, the cake is cooked, and if not (trace of raw dough) it needs more time.

Undercooked

Cooked through

The unmoulding

Imagine that it is well cooked => you turn off the oven, put on the gloves and take the mould out of the oven to put it on a heatproof surface.
And then you wait for it to cool down.

Well no, that would be a mistake, if you do that, the cake will cool in its tin, and badly or rather unevenly, the tin acting as a heat preserver. Worse, it will form on the edges of the mold some kind of steam bubbles that will deform your cake, which gives this kind of defect:

Note that the defect will be accentuated with metal or glass molds, which conduct heat better, and a little mitigated with those made of silicone or paper.

What to do?

It's quite simple, you have to unmould your hot cake, very hot even, and put it immediately on a rack.
The easiest way to do this is :
- Once the mold is removed from the oven, wait 1 or 2 minutes for the cake to begin to cool and shrink a little, it facilitates the removal
- Keep the gloves on, tip the pan with one hand, put your other hand underneath and shake lightly until the cake falls into your hand
- Turn it over and put it on a rack to cool down calmly
- Bonus: Put the pan to soak right away, to make cleaning easier, and leave the door of the switched-off oven open so that it cools down faster (and the internal fan stops)

cake sur grille

It's all very simple, but this way your beautiful cake will cool down faster, and above all without warping.

In summary: You must unmould a cake as soon as it comes out of the oven, otherwise it will warp.

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