How to Keep Cake from Sticking to the Pan
No more crumbly cakes! I’ll show you how to keep cake from sticking to the pan.
There are few baking disasters worse than a cake that sticks to the pan. You put in the time and effort, you’re excited as you pull it from the oven, but when you go to remove it from the pan it sticks and comes out in pieces. I’ve been there, and it is sooo frustrating.
But it’s been a long time since I shed tears over crumbled cake, and I’m here to pass my knowledge on to you! Here’s how to make sure your cakes come out clean and in one piece every time.
Table of Contents
- How to Keep Cake from Sticking to the Pan
- Always line cake pans with parchment paper
- Grease with butter and flour
- Grease with Nonstick Baking Spray
- How to Remove Cake from the Pan
- How to Prevent Bundt Cakes from Sticking to the Pan
- More Cake Help
How to Keep Cake from Sticking to the Pan
Always line cake pans with parchment paper
The most important preparation you can make when baking a cake is to line the pans (these are the pans that I use) with parchment paper. This ensures that the bottom of the cake will not stick to the pan, and that it will all come out in one piece. I never bake a cake without parchment paper! Thinking about skipping this step? Don’t do it.
You can buy parchment rounds that will fit inside your pan, or you can trace around the outside of your pan onto a sheet of parchment paper with a pencil and cut it out. As you line your pan, place them pencil side-down.
Next up, we need to grease the pan. You can either use butter and flour or baking spray.
Grease with butter and flour
One way to grease your pan is with butter and flour. These two combine to form a barrier between the pan and your cake. Here’s how to butter and flour your pans:
- Coat the entire inside of your pan with butter (or margarine or shortening). Tip: Use the paper liners from the butter used in your cake batter. These liners usually have enough residual butter to adequately grease your pans, and they’re a great vehicle too. But room temperature butter and a paper towel will work as well.
- Line the bottom with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper with more butter.
- Sprinkle your greased pan with flour.
- Shake and rotate the pan until it is completely dusted with flour. Dump the excess flour into the next pan or back into the flour container.
This is how I lined all of my cake pans for years and it worked beautifully. Then I discovered that nonstick baking spray works just as well and is even easier!
Grease with Nonstick Baking Spray
Parchment paper and a generous spritz of baking spray is all you need to ensure your cakes cleanly come out of their pans. Just be sure that the spray contains flour, as flour + grease is the magic combination here. Look for brands like Baker’s Joy (sold in all grocery stores) or White Cap (sold at specialty stores or online and lasts forever).
Spray the entire inside of the pan. Lay the parchment paper in the bottom, and then spray the parchment paper with the non-stick spray. And that’s it!
Whether you use butter and flour or baking spray, as you pour the cake batter into the prepared pan you can feel confident that it will all come out clean and in one piece.
How to Remove Cake from the Pan
Once your cake is baked, let it cool in the pans for 10-15 minutes. If any of the edges of the cake appear stuck, run a knife around the cake to loosen. Then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely. I usually flip the cake out onto my hand and then quickly flip it back down onto the rack so that it cools parchment side-down, but that’s just my preference.
Ready to bake a cake? This chocolate sour cream cake is one of my favorites, so is this lemon blueberry cake.
How to Prevent Bundt Cakes from Sticking to the Pan
You’ll see I have plenty of comments below asking “what about bundt cakes?” My biggest piece of advice is to use a quality nonstick bundt pan. It will make your life so much easier! I’ve used this one for years and have never had a bundt cake stick, regardless of how I grease it.
Next, grease it well with either of the methods above. Just make sure you get every nook and cranny all the way to the top. Then after it’s baked and you’ve let it cool for a few minutes, give the pan and gentle shake up and down and see that it bounces lightly inside the pan. That way you know it’ll come out clean when you flip it out of the pan.
More Cake Help
Building a layer cake? I’ve got lots more tips and tutorials that can help!
- How to Bake Flat Cake Layers
- How to Store and Freeze Cake Layers
- How to Split Cake into Even Layers
- How to Build a Layer Cake
- How to Frost a Cake
This post was originally published June 2014.
All excellent tips! Thank you for sharing!
I want to marry you for this. I am always SO afraid when my cake comes out of the oven, and I have to take it out – it causes a mini anxiety attack for reals.
You just saved my life. Pinning!
Ha! Oh, Taylor you make me laugh. So happy I could help out! 🙂
Love these tips! A failed cake pan removal is always a disaster after putting in the time.
I Am not exactly. Sure what I am doing wrong…but I always use oil and rub it all over the pan ,then sprinkle flour and still it sticks what am I Doing
Wrong..its very frustrating
Have you tried lining the pans with parchment paper? That’s the #1 thing I would recommend! 🙂
I used your butter & flour trick back at Easter when I made a layered Easter cake. It worked beautifully & I will definitely be using it again!!
Yay! So happy to hear to that, thanks for the comment!
always love you tips!
Your baking tips are always spot-on and so helpful. I’ve been prepping my baking pans like this for several years now and it’s seriously the only way to get the cake out successfully without having a kitchen meltdown.
Thanks for the comment Flavia! Same here. And every time I hear of someone’s cake-sticking-baking-meltdown I want to scream at them “there’s a better way!” Once you know it, you never go back. 🙂
Another way to prevent your cake from sticking is to make a small batch of homemade pan release. I use it all the time and it is amazing!! Here’s the recipe:
Mix together equal parts of shortening,vegetable oil and regular flour. After mixing well,simply “paint” the sides and bottom of your pan – I use a silicone pastry brush-with a light to moderate coat of the pan release and no more sticking – yay! I keep my leftover mix in a lidded container in the refrigerator.
Thanks for such a great blog and so many wonderful recipes. 🙂
I have heard of homemade baking releases but have yet to give them a try myself, which is why it’s not included in this post. But thank you so much for sharing! I’m sure many of my other readers will find it helpful! 🙂
Hi Sandra!
I just want to say that I was in a bind this morning as i did not have parchment paper and i needed to bake a cake for one of the youth i work with today for her birthday and i tried your homemade pan release and it worked beautifully!! Thank you
Yay! I’m so happy that worked out for you! I’ll have to try Sandra’s method too. 🙂
I wish I could HUG you! This worked perfectly! I am an old fashioned cook and have never even used parchment paper – I’m a fan now. My cake came out perfectly. Thank you!
So happy to hear this tip was so helpful! Discovering parchment paper is such a life saver!
Thanks for the tip. Don’t know if humidity has anything to do with sticking. I’ve used the grease, parchment paper and flour in preparing pans.
This is news? I’m 62 years old and have been baking cakes FOREVER. I’ve ALWAYS used the butter/flour method and have never had a problem with cakes sticking! My GRANDMOTHER taught me this over 50 years ago. It worked then and it still works together.
Come on people, baking a cake is NOT rocket science. My 16 year old granddaughter regularly bakes cakes and she’s never had a problem. Special baking/cooking spray? Get out of here!!!!!
Why are you people making a mountain out of a molehill?
I meant still works “TODAY”.
I did grease my pan with butter and flour, but it still sticks to the pan.. can you please tell me what else could be wrong?
Have you lined the bottoms with parchment?
I’m happy to hear this trick isn’t news to you! Unfortunately, not all of us have grandmothers who teach us this kind of stuff, so we look to friends and the internet to help us out. Lots of people have problems making cakes (I hear about it all the time), I’m just trying to help out.
Great response. I’m on here looking for tips because my Grandmother taught me how to make pie and amazing cookies, not cake. My cakes always stick so I went to the Internet searching for help. Thank you for taking your time to help those of us amateur cake bakers in need :). I’ll be trying your tips today. Wish me luck and Happy Easter!
Why leave such a Rude comment? Not all of us are baking “experts” like You. And parchment Is a great way to prevent disasters, too. Grow up, Miss Attitude!
Wow! Not everyone was taught by relatives. Be nice
I have never used parchment paper either. It’s totally unnecessary.
Good for you.
“Look at me, everything works fine for me so any new method is obviously a waste of time. If it works perfect for me, obviously it will work the same for everyone else and anyone who doesn’t is an idiot!”
Gotta love the mentality of the old. *rolls eyes*
Keep your negative comments to yourself grandma. You’re the type of person that ruins things for people who are just trying to be happy.
And baking IS a science. Might not be rocket science, but it is a science. Be more helpful and not put others down. Our world is bad enough without people like you.
From my personal experience, I have found that different recipes tend to stick while others don’t. My homemade cakes tend to always stick even with the butter/flour method. When I make boxed cakes, I have zero problems. Weird but true.
It is odd how that happens. Which is why I also always line my pans with parchment paper just to be sure.
Same here. No problem with boxed mix cake sticking to pans. Homemade cakes always stick.
I have read your replays, but I,m looking for a answer to why my 7-up cake sticks to the side of the pan. I use spray, butter and flour
on my tube pan. it still sticks. help!!!!!!!!!!!.
Yes, this is the problem that I have. The sides of the cake usually stay in the pan. I thought maybe I didn’t let it cool long enough. But I’m looking forward to using these tips to see which may work best for me. The Homemade Baking Release sounds amazing. Thanks for your “Helpful” comments.
Hi Cheryl! Sounds like maybe you should try greasing the pan more or differently? The sides of the cake should pull away from the pan when it’s fully baked, not stick to the pan. Let me know if I can help troubleshoot some more!
Thank you! I’m looking forward to baking puzzle-pieces-free CAKES!
haha!
Grew up watching Mom use wax paper instead of parchment paper and works great! Has work for decades – she is 95!
Honestly, I have tried all these methods (and more) and I even use brand new, non-stick cake pans. They still stick like crazy! And the cake often has to be removed from the pan with a knife.
Now I’m wondering if it has to do with the type of cake that I make, what kind of ingredients are in it and how much, and the oven that I am using.
I’m sorry to hear you’re having so much trouble! You still have issues when you line the bottoms of the pan with parchment paper? When combined with butter + flour or non-stick baking spray, that’s the definite, end-all way to get cakes to come clean out of the pan. And I do not use non-stick pans.
i guess you can’t line a bunt pan with parchment so I’ll try the butter.flour method. Question for my fellow bakers: how long do you allow the cake to cool before you turn it over onto the rack?
Yes, butter and flour or use a really good non-stick spray on a bundt pan, making sure to get every cranny. I usually let the cake cool in the pan 10-15 minutes before turning out the cake. I also do this thing before I flip it where I hold the pan with both hands and give it a few good shakes to see that the cake bounces inside of the pan. That way I know it’s not going to stick and if there are any little problem spots they hopefully get jostled free. Hope this helps!
Thank you for the advice here -gosh I needed it!!!
I just made a failed cake 🙁 again and tried to put it together like a cake puzzle and ice the messiness thinking the icing would be like glue lol – needless to say my icing is now cake crumb icing and a big lumpy mess. My husband and kids being so kind as they are said it still tastes really good. I blamed my pan for my always sticking cake pieces. I will try the butter and flour and parchment and post how my next cake comes out 🙂
Oh dear, I have SO been there! I hope this tutorial will help prevent those headaches in the future!
Hi Dawn! I remember how my mother used to get a hot glass of water and a cake spatula to spread the frosting. She would set the spatula in the hot water for a few seconds and spread the frosting (thicker where the cake had stuck in the pan to cover the crumbs) This prevented getting cake crumbs in the frosting. She would immerse the knife every so often making it easier
to spread. Hope this helps
Those are great tips! An easier way to get the parchment into the pan is to fold it into quarters first, then see where the center of the pan is and eyeball the center. Fold the parchment again, into eighths, then into sixteenths. Cut off the excess, unfold and the circle will fit in your pan! Easy peasy!
How would this apply when using a fluted or special pan like a bundt or a character pan?
My best advice for fluted bundt pans, etc. is to use a nonstick pan and coat very generously with baking spray or butter and flour.
I have made a lot of cakes when my kids were growing up and even before I was married. I never used parchment paper just the butter and flour and never had a problem with the cakes sticking. Even years later no problem. The last 2 cakes stuck using Betty Crocker and or Duncan Hines cake mixes. They both stuck…(grrr). The one cake fell apart so bad I just clumped it evenly on top of the other one and drizzled homemade icing over it. It was not wasted and tasted great. It must be covered sit tight so it won’t dry out
Hi. I don’t know if you will get this email. I am a very old grandma who has only ever made 1, yes 1, successful sponge cake in my life. M<y question: I have stupidly agreed to make my 30 year old granddaughter a "guitar" shaped birthday cake. (My daughter-in-law doesn't think before she ropes me in for jobs/projects) So, guitar-shaped cake tin ordered. Questio1: do I somehow line the bottom with parchment paper? Question2: Do I need to somehow line the sides? Question 3, do I coat the bottom and sides in butter/flour?
I loved reading your blog, even though it is out of date. The tips remind me of my beloved mum and how she tried so many times to get me to make a successful Victoria sponge cake.
Regards Hilary
Hi Hilary! If the cake pan has a flat bottom, yes you should line with parchment. If not, just make sure you grease it really well. I would recommend a baking specific non-stick spray like Baker’s Joy that has flour in it. And then just grease the sides and bottom really well. I hope this helps!
Thank you for all your advice on this subject. ♥️
I can’t than you enough for your tips! I wish I would have read them before my beautiful cake stuck!?. I used spray from the grocery store, and it was a complete disaster. Next cake bake I will use the parchment paper, butter, and flour!
I am making a rich steamed pudding for a competition. All the recipes seem to say to grease the pan, but every time I’ve tried (thickly coating it with butter) it still catches on the sides a bit, which spoils the look. That’s okay for home eating, but not for a competition. I always put a round of baking paper (what you call parchment paper, I think) in the bottom. Can I also flour it do you think?
Hi annalise I always use the butter/flour trick when lining my pans and also line them with parchment paper but when getting the cakes out they sometimes still stick to the sides a bit, I have to use a small knife to pull them away from the time and sometimes it tears the cake a bit. Please can you tell me where I’m going wrong with the sides
I’ve done the parchment and Ive done the greasing and I’ve even done the greasing and flouring but never all 3. I’m definitely trying this as I’ve also had those heart breaking moments as part of the cake sticks. I also noticed you didn’t mention lining the sides of the cake tin but you get excellent results every time. Sounds wonderful to me. ❤
My big question is how do you do this for a bundt tin. They are a nightmare. Many a chocolate cake in bundt tin has brought me to tears as parts of the cake stay behind. Any tips would be really appreciated?
My main tip for bundt cake is to use a non-stick pan! It will save you so much heartache. Also, coat it generously with a non-stick baking spray (it should have flour in it). Baker’s Joy is my current favorite and you can find it in any grocery store.
I bake cakes at Thanksgiving and Im stressing becausemy pound cakes always stick. I typed in “how to keep cake from sticking to the pan”…this post popped up. I read all the posts and I thought I got my answer , well…my pans are bundt pans non stick, I spray with Pam, I even put flour because it always stick 🙁 I even bought new pans, still the same thing…PLEASE HELP ME!!
Have you tried a baking specific non-stick spray (which has flour in it), like Baker’s Joy or White Cap? If so and you’ve followed all of my other suggestions, then perhaps it’s the recipe? Sorry I cannot be of more help!
Thank you for the advice here -gosh I needed it!!!
HI I was wondering if you have any ideas on how to make the cake batter stick to the non stick angel cake pan? I know this is the opposite of what has been discussed here.
Hi! Angel food cake needs to be able to stick to the sides of the pan as it bakes, that’s how it rises so high and achieves such a light and airy texture. Angel food cake recipes specifically say to not grease the pan before baking. I didn’t even know they made nonstick ring pans, and I would suggest buying a traditional pan for angel food cakes. I hope this helps!
Thank you. I recently baked a sweet potato pound cake the cake was delicious I grease the pan with a little olive oil and flour half of the bottom of the cake was sticking to the pan after letting the cake cool for 30 minutes
I make a certain chocolate cake that I’ve been making for years! Its very moist- but sometimes I wonder if its too moist? Its cooked all the way though.
I have been using the shortening and flour technique for quite a while, but my cake still sticks and falls to peices!! I’m looking forward to trying your parchemnt paper trick and finally having a great cake!!! 😀
I bake for my family, so they dont mind a mess- as long as its good- but I want it to be my best 🙂
Definitely try parchment paper rounds on the bottom – I bet that fixes it!
I know this may sound like a silly question, but at what point do you remove the parchment paper from the done cake? Do I wait until it has cooled completely or while it’s still warm?
Thank you.
I wait until assembly. So I’ll cool and chill, and even freeze with the paper on, then peel it off as I stack the cake.
But what about sponge cakes. I don’t have any problems cleaning up pans from other cakes, but I didn’t think you were supposed to grease a sponge cake pan. Doesn’t it need to stick to the sides in order to stay up?
Outstanding recipe and one of my all time favorites!
Thank you for your info on how to keep cake from sticking to pan I recently started making pound cake can you offer a really good recipe
Thanks for sharing a nice post. From: https://www.yourkitchenist.com
I have a christmas tree cake pan with all kinds of designs in it it is so hard to get every little detail buttered and floured any tips
Maybe don’t use that pan? I’m sorry, but pans with lots of nooks and crannies will be harder to use!
Your method is really effective, it helped me to make beautiful and delicious cakes. Thank you for sharing
Your method is really effective, it helped me to make beautiful and delicious cakes. Thank you very much
ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW IDEAS TO HELP ME MAKE THINGS EASIER. I HAD TO LEARN EVERYTHING MYSELF AND WILL TAKE ALL THE HELPI CAN GET. IF DONT KNOW I LOOK ON GOOGLE FOR HELP FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS AN WILLING TO HELP OTHERS .THANK YOU.
Thanks for your tips! Appreciate it very much!
If you have a very delicate cake can you leave it in the cake pan over night in the refrigerate to be easier to handle?
You can leave it in the pan if you want, but I’d make sure it’s loose in the pan and not at all sticking, or chilling it that way will only make the sticking worse. You definitely need to be more careful with delicate cakes, and chilling them in the fridge before assembling a layer cake will help a lot.