Notes from Ashley’s Test Kitchen: Insulated Cake Strips

Have you seen these little guys before? I hadn’t until I came across them in a little bakery supply store. Creating perfectly flat cake layers has always been something I have tried to master. I thought I had it all figured out by measuring out equal amounts of cake batter into each cake pan using a kitchen scale, then slicing off the top bump of the cake with a bread knife once they were cooled. Even after all of that busy work, I still had curved, browned edges along the sides of the cake. Sure, once covered in frosting, it doesn’t really matter, does it? For all of us OCD bakers out there…maybe it does.

I decided to give these insulated cake strips a try one afternoon. I mixed up a quick yellow cake batter from Bakerella and prepared my pans. I saturated one strip with cold water per the instructions. I used the strip on one cake pan (Cake A) and left the other one without (Cake B). I put them in a 350 degree oven right next to each other and awaited the results.

A couple questions I had while waiting for the cakes to bake:

1) Will the texture be different since it appears to compress the cake into a flat layer? The texture of both cakes was exactly the same; nice and fluffy!

2) Does the baking time increase or decrease with the use of the strip? Both cakes finished at the same time. The only difference that I noticed, is that on the non-insulated cake, the edges browned a bit. The insulated cake was blemish free.

To my surprise, the insulated cake strip worked! Out of the oven came Cake A. A perfectly baked, perfectly flat cake layer without a domed center and no crispy edges! Where have these been all my life? And for $8 for two, it’s well worth the small investment. You can find the Wilton Bake Even Cake Strips here.