It stinks when a cake sticks. You've spent all this time mixing, pouring, baking and planning { not to mention dreaming of eating } and in a matter of moments excitement gives way to disappointment. Boo.
My mom taught me a trick years ago that's a fail-proof way to keep a cake from sticking. It only works on layer cakes, but it's well worth the extra thirty seconds it will take you. All you need is wax paper or parchment and a pair of scissors.
First, cut a square of wax paper just large enough to cover your whole pan.
Then, fold corner B over to corner A along the dotted line { so you're also folding corner C over to corner D }. It should look something like the below, where the dotted line represents a fold and the solid lines represent a loose edge.
Now, fold C up to B and D up to A along the dotted line. You should have a little square.
Fold corner D over to corner B along the dotted line. A little triangle is all you'll have. Depending on how large your cake pan is, you may need to fold B over to the end of the dotted line below. This is a lot like making those paper snowflakes in elementary school.
Now for the slightly tricky part. Hold your paper wedge above the pan so that point C is in the center. Using the scissors, cut a slight curve along the dotted line. You'll end up holding what looks like a triangle with a curved base. And if you unfold it... you should have a nice circle.
See if it fits within your pan. If it's too large, fold it back up and trim off a hair more until it's just barely smaller than the bottom of your pan. { I guess you could get all scientific and use pi and such, but I'm more of a generalist than a specialist. Especially when it comes to numbers. }
Place your circle in a greased pan, fill with batter and bake. Once cakes are inverted on to wire racks, remove wax paper and allow to finish cooling. No dark spots, no sticking. That's a win in my book!
