Baking a level cake

All professional cakes are flat. The cake is level without the dreaded dome sitting on top. So what are the tricks to baking a flat cake? Here are some tips…

How to bake a level cake

This may sound simple but if you are trying your hand at making professional looking cakes, there are some hurdles that you will find along the way…

I wanted to share my learnings and I hope to assist you in getting beyond these hurdles. Here are some tips that I can offer based on my experiences.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that all professional cakes are nice and flat. Even cheap ones bought from franchised cake stores are smooth and flat.

But that’s not how a normal cake bakes right??! Cakes always bake with a bulging top or dome shape in the middle.

Well, I learnt a couple of tips to avoid this dome. Achieving a flat cake is not as hard as it seems!

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Home-made Baking Strip

• Choose your recipe and make sure you have enough cake to pretty much fill your tin almost to the top… this will ensure you get a nice tall cake. See my FREE e-book for more tips on how to achieve this. It also means that if you have to slice the dome off the top, you will still have a tall cake. Win! Cutting the cake to flat is probably the most quick and effective method I’ve found but it also leads to wasted cake (or me eating it!!!!)
• Use baking strips to ensure the cake can rise really tall. You can use home-made ones like this sample I have here. I have included more information in my FREE e-book about this too… or Wilton make baking strips available but I have to admit I have not tried them… Check out Amazon if you are interested Wilton Large Bake Even Strips Set
• Squash the top down. I’m not making this up! I’ve done this a lot. I let the cake cool in the tin for about 5-10 mins, then grab a small plate and press it down on the top of the cake. It might change the cake from being a light, fluffy texture to a bit more dense but I’m usually making mud cake so it doesn’t hurt to have the texture a bit heavier. And no guest has EVER said my cake is too dense…

Once you have your nice level, flat cake you will instantly have a more professional looking cake ready for the decorations.