Is it normal for a baked cake to be smaller than the cake board after it is baked? My cakes are very good and moist, after they have cooled, I always have to trim the cake board not a little bit but a lot. Should I be using a smaller cake board? For instance should I use a 7 inch board for a 8 inch cake?
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1I don't know about others, but most of my cakes shrink to some degree. often before I even get them out of the oven. For me, the culprit seems to be the use of butter. If I need a cake to stay at lest reasonably close to a certain set of dimensions, I sub out half of the butter with grapeseed oil. There is still some minor shrinkage, but it is slight enough that I don't have to worry about remedial measures. Alternatively, invest in a paper cutter with a long, liftable, heavy blade. Expensive, but it gets the job done for trimming just about anything and you'll likely never have to replace it.– ShalrynOct 14, 2016 at 16:38
1 Answer
Often times the cake boards are a little larger. The reason is to allow room for icing and a border of decorated piped icing along the base. Otherwise use undersized rounds. Also plain cake rounds are right at the same size as the pan so unless you have mass shrinkage they should be fine and allow you to handle the cake without actually touching the cake.