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Pan

How to Grease a Pan: A Step-By-Step Guide

Jacky Chou

There are many different types of cakes, but baked goods always bring something different. With just a baking pan, you can make a variety of delicious cakes. And to do that, first, when the cake is finished baking, it needs to be removed from the mold easily and intact. Non-stick for cake pans is an extremely important step. This will make it easier to remove the cake from the pan and prevent it from deforming. There are different ways to non-stick cake pans. Today we will show you how to grease a pan! Find out in the article below!

Why do You need to Grease a Pan?

Baking experts have recommended that we should grease a pan even if your pan is non-stick
Baking experts have recommended that we should grease a pan even if your pan is non-stick

For those who love baking, in addition to how to mix the perfect cake batter. They also worry about not being able to get the cake out of the pan perfectly. In fact, people have produced many different types of non-stick pans to overcome this problem. There are even some pans with special construction to make it easier to remove the cake such as springform pan. However, there will still be cases where it is not possible to get the cake out of the mold perfectly!

Baking experts have recommended that we should grease a pan even if your pan is non-stick. The layers of grease on a pan will make it easier for the cake to separate from the pan. You can keep the look and shape of the cake perfectly.

If you are having trouble getting the cake out of the pan, the grease on the pan tips below will definitely make you feel satisfied.

How to Grease a Pan? A Step-By-Step Guide

There are many different ways to grease a pan and make it non-stick. You can use butter, vegetable oil, shortening or parchment paper. There’s more than one thing that makes your pan non-stick and easier to remove. However, how to do it in detail?

How to grease a pan with butter, vegetable oil and shortening

If you’ve ever made a cake, you’ll surely be familiar with these ingredients (butter, margarine, shortening). They are fats that have the effect of moistening the cake when baking or also have a very effective non-stick effect. So how to grease the pan? Follow the simple steps below:

  • Step 1: You use butter, shortening or vegetable oil to apply to the pan. You should use a silicone brush or paper towel to spread the mixture into the bottom of the pan. Make sure to apply them evenly all over the inner surface of the pan. Many types of pans will have grooves in the bottom, you should pay attention to apply carefully and do not miss. You can use your fingers to grease the pan as your fingers will probably feel better.
  • Step 2: Apply oil on the mold walls and corners. When applying oil or shortening to the sides and corners of the pan, you can rotate the pan for easier application. You only apply the side of the pan about 2. 5cm from the bottom, not the whole wall.
  • Step 3: Carefully sprinkle the dry powder into the pan. After thoroughly oiling or shortening, sprinkle the bottom of the pan with flour. If making chocolate cakes, you can use cocoa powder to sprinkle the inside of the pan. Adding these powders will help prevent the cake from sticking to the pan better!
  • Step 4: Shake the dough to adhere evenly to the inner surface of the pan. Turn the pan evenly and pat the dough to adhere to the sides and bottom. Once the dough is evenly coated, turn the mold upside down to remove any excess dough.

Finishing the process of greasing the pan, now you just need to pour in the flour mixture to bake the cake as you like. Whether baked or steamed, this method should be applied to ensure the desired shape of the cake. From there, you can be creative in decorating and shaping cakes to give to relatives, friends or someone.

When applying oil or shortening to the sides and corners of the pan, you can rotate the pan for easier application
When applying oil or shortening to the sides and corners of the pan, you can rotate the pan for easier application

How to grease a pan with a spray bottle

It is easier to use a spray bottle to grease a pan. You don’t need to prepare a brush or use your hands, just a spray bottle. If you don’t have a dedicated sprayer, you can use a regular cleaned spray bottle. Then you pour the melted vegetable oil or butter/shortening inside. And spray in the pan.

  • Step 1: Use a spray bottle to spray shortening into the pan. Spray the bottom of the pan first and then spray the joints between the bottom of the pan and the sides of the pan. Finally, spray the sides of the pan. Spray a sufficient amount and make sure that all surfaces inside the pan are sprayed.
  • Step 2: Carefully sprinkle the dry powder into the pan. After oiling or shortening, sprinkle the bottom of the pan with flour. If making chocolate cakes, you can use cocoa powder to sprinkle the inside of the pan. Adding these powders will help prevent the cake from sticking to the pan better!
  • Step 3: Shake the dough to adhere evenly to the inner surface of the pan. Turn the pan evenly and pat the dough to adhere to the sides and bottom. Once the dough is evenly coated, turn the mold upside down to remove any excess dough.

You can also prevent the pan from sticking by just spraying or applying butter, vegetable oil, shortening without adding flour. However, if you sprinkle flour on it, it will be a lot easier to remove the cake.

Spray a sufficient amount and make sure that all surfaces inside the pan are sprayed
Spray a sufficient amount and make sure that all surfaces inside the pan are sprayed

How to grease a pan with stencils

Instead of having to apply butter and sprinkle with baking powder, sometimes you can use non-stick paper to line the mold without worrying about affecting the quality of the finished cakes.

Stencil paper, also known as wax paper, is a type of paper coated with a layer of silicon, making it resistant to sticking and resistant to high temperatures, so it is commonly used in the baking process. In particular, stencils are sold in rolls, large sheets or pre-cut to fit each size of each mold. Depending on the manufacturer, stencils will be divided into many different colors, to suit all user requirements.

Take a pair of scissors to cut a circle with the same diameter as the bottom of the baking pan
Take a pair of scissors to cut a circle with the same diameter as the bottom of the baking pan

Here we will show you simple ways to help you grease a pan with stencils.

  • Step 1: To make using paper to line the cake mold, first take a pair of scissors to cut a circle with the same diameter as the bottom of the baking pan.
  • Step 2: Next, you cut another rectangular strip of sufficient length to wrap around the wall of the pan. However, it will be better if this rectangular strip is 2cm longer, it will help you in the process of separating the cake from the non-stick paper. The width of this rectangular strip should be about 4cm higher than the wall of the mold.
  • Step 3: You let the non-stick paper strip horizontally and proceed to fold the edge of the paper to about 2cm. Then you cut diagonally to the edge of the cup. Make a rectangular strip with one long side cut off by 2cm.
  • Step 4: Use a little water to spray around the sides and bottom of the baking pan. Line the cake pan with parchment paper around the front wall. Note the tassel trim for the bottom of the pan.
  • Step 5: Finally, you put a circular cake liner on the bottom of the pan and you’re done.

Note: You should use scissors to cut the non-stick paper around the mold so that when folded, the paper is still redundant and slightly higher than the mold wall. This makes it easier for you to peel off the baking paper after baking without poking your fingers into the cake.
Pour in the cake batter that you mixed earlier and you will have a perfect cake.

However, this grease pan method cannot be applied to cake pans with many different folds and edges like the Bundt pan. With these types of pans with many folds, the best method to grease a pan is to brush with butter or spray with vegetable oil and shortening. Only those methods can grease all sides of the pan and provide the best non-stick coating.

What is the Best Way to Grease a Pan? Butter, Vegetable Oil or Shortening?

This question is often asked by many new bakers. They really don’t know which type to choose to grease a pan.

Put more butter in a grease pan because butter is not very good at anti-sticking
Put more butter in a grease pan because butter is not very good at anti-sticking

Talking about butter, its main ingredients are water and milk. Therefore, it also cannot be completely non-stick. However, butter can help make your crust more even and fragrant. If you love a golden crust then you can choose butter. But please put more butter in a grease pan because butter is not very good at anti-sticking.

When it comes to the best nonstick agent, shortening or vegetable oil. Vegetable oil is probably too familiar so I won’t talk much about it.
Shortening is a type of solid fat produced from vegetable oils such as soybean, cottonseed oil. Like some other greases, Shortening has plasticity, milky white color, porous, glossy surface, non-cracking and high melting point. In the molten form, Shortening is transparent, light yellow in color, without the characteristic taste of the starting material. The best type of Shortening has a free fatty acid content of less than 0.1%, saponification less than 1%, PoV = 0, almost no water, opaque white color.

The composition of Shortening only has a mixture of thick oils and preservatives, without adding any additives. Shortening is a common ingredient, used by bakers and bakers to create porosity and softness for cakes. In addition to creating a soft sponge for the cake, Shortening also helps to keep the cake shape longer, the cake will be less likely to collapse and melt.

The amount of fat in Shortening is similar to butter, but it has the effect of increasing the feeling of sweetness when eating cakes, and the shelf life is longer, so Shortening is very popular in industrial cake production. The best way to store Shortening is at room temperature, cool, if refrigerated, Shortening will harden. Shortening storage time is relatively long, about 2 years from the date of manufacture, 6 months after opening the packaging.

Remove the Cake from the Mold with a Knife

Even if the pan you use is a non-stick pan and has a grease, the difficulty of separating the cake from the mold is still unavoidable. Although it will rarely appear, you should still have a way to fix it in the worst case.

Use a sharp, thin knife and gently rotate it around the side of the mold
Use a sharp, thin knife and gently rotate it around the side of the mold

If the cake sticks to the sides of the pan, to ensure easier removal of the cake. Use a sharp, thin knife and gently rotate it around the side of the mold (the side in contact with the cake). When you see that the cake has completely separated from the mold, no longer sticking, use a plate of the right size, push it on the top of the mold and then gently turn the cake mold upside down. The cake will gradually fall from the mold to the plate perfectly and beautifully.

Conclusion

There are many ways to make your pan non-stick. This makes your cake more beautiful and especially, it is easier to remove the cake from the mold. In this article we have shown how to grease a pan! Hopefully, your grease pan will become easier!

Jacky Chou