Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Someone gave me some cake strips a while ago and I have never used them until today. I made a Devil's Food Cake that I have been making regularly for over 30 years (yikes!). It has ALWAYS turned out perfectly. Until today. The sides are totally crumbly and I just can't tell you how awful it looks after icing it. It is for a friend's birthday and I don't have time today to do it over...I'm really bummed since it has always looked beautiful and tasted fantastic.
So, for future reference can anyone give me any tips on how to use these strips in the future....or should I just toss them? I'm really disappointed right now....

How did you use them? I've had some that you soaked and then wrapped around the tins. they worked great but were fiddly so I stopped using them.
Sucks about the cake but I'm sure it will be great regardless!

I soaked them for 15 minutes and then wrapped around the tins....I just don't think they worked so great, so I must have missed something somewhere in the process.

How large was your cake? I've used cake strips for years, but rarely on a cake of 8 inches or less, and almost never on a chocolate cake.

I used to make wedding cakes and they were necessary on large cakes to prevent the edges from cooking before the center. It prevented the dome in the center and gave me a more level cake. I didn't have to do much trimming off the dome, and got less waste. I found that on smaller layers they didn't make much of a difference.

I never really knew why, but chocolate cakes acted differently. I only used the insulation on 14 inch cakes or larger. Maybe someone here knows why chocolate cakes were different.

It was just a normal sized 2 layer cake. I guess I will try the strip next on a larger white cake I make and forget the chocolate. Cake still tasted great, but didn't look so good!

FWIW, I bought cake strips years ago and had the exact same experience. A PITA with disappointing results. Haven't used them since and my cakes typically do fine. I agree that they're probably useful for larger cakes.

Emilie

We make several cakes that require that the rounds be cut in half so we use cake strips to help make the cake flatter. While they do succeed in preventing too much doming, there is a bit of a learning curve to avoid a disappointing edge. The answer may be a longer cooking time or increased oven temperature to compensate for strips. I am not sure that there is even a single bit of advise a procedure change that will guarantee success and likely has to be found by trial and error.

Thanks, everyone. I just don't think I'll be using them any more!

Thanks, everyone. I just don't think I'll be using them any more!

Bumpity -

Looking at Todd's recent photo of WW zucchini loaf got me going back to this thread and wondering if commercial cake strips or home-made techniques like this
http://acozykitchen.com/how-to-bake-flat-cake-layers/
would work with bread and meat loafs. CI tested 4 products and 2 home-made techniques for the Jan./2011 issue and really liked their own creation of wet newspaper or paper toweling wrapped in aluminum foil.

From CI and comments on this and other sites it is very obvious that more time is required - to be determined through experimentation (instant-read thermometers - we love you )

I'm not against domed results in bread and meat loaf, just curious. I also know about Pullman pans for bread but if a strip technique works one would not have to spend $50 and have yet another pan in the cupboard. (BTW, I have filled the kitchen and pantry with 'stuff' and now have a 6'x3'x18" shelving unit in the basement to handle the lesser used items...I'm hopeless )