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You don't need a lot of tools to bake
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professionallooking cakes, but baking
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strips are one thing I do really
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recommend. They'll turn your cakes from
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this short and domed to this tall with a
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perfectly flat top. The texture is
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better when the cake rises to be this
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tall, and you don't need to trim and
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level these beautiful flat tops to stack
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to make a layer cake. So, how do you use
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baking strips? There are a few important
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steps to get the best results. First,
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fit your strip around your pan. Tuck the
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end through the loops and pull the strip
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tight. Make sure you use both loops. The
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second one will keep the end of the
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baking strip up so it doesn't touch the
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hot metal in your oven. If it hangs
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down, it could actually catch a light.
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Speaking from experience. So, make sure
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the strip is pulled through both loops
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and that you slide the second loop all
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the way to the end. As you can see, it's
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a bit fiddly, which is why it's best to
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do this now before the next step, which
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is to soak the strip in water. I like to
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use an extra cake pan for this, any
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size, filled with water. And you'll need
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to press your baking strips down so that
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the water covers them. Leave them like
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this for 5 minutes while you grease your
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pans and divide your batter between
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them. And in this time, the water will
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soak the baking strips so that they
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don't dry out in the oven. Now, squeeze
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the strips so that they're damp, not
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dripping wet, because that would create
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lots of steam in your oven. And then
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slide the strips up around your pans. It
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would be much more difficult to resize
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the strips now when they're wet, which
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is why you do it before soaking. Check
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your recipe time. And since the batter
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will take longer to bake when you're
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using baking strips, add 5 to 10
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minutes. I'm going to bake these first
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two layers with baking strips and my
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final layer without to show you the
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difference with the same batter and same
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oven. The cakes baked with baking strips
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are tall and completely flat. And the
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cake baked without strips is noticeably
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shorter. Let's look at the tops. Without
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baking strips, the cake is domed. But
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with baking strips, it's perfectly flat.
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No need to trim or level it. Look at the
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difference in the height of these
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layers. After trimming off the dome on
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the shorter cake baked without baking
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strips, the layer will be almost half
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the height of the cake baked with baking
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strips. In my tutorials, I teach how to
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decorate cakes with minimal tools, but
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baking strips are one tool I think makes
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a really big difference to your cakes.
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I'm sure there are lots of types out
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there. I'll share the link for these in
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case you want the same ones. And this is
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what it looks like when you cut into a
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cake baked with baking strips. I hope
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this was helpful. To learn hundreds of
2:18
cake decorating techniques and designs,
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visit my cake school on
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where you'll find online courses and
2:24
memberships. See you there.
