Some recipes, such as those for cake rolls, specify call for turning the cake out of the pan immediately after baking. Other cake recipes specify setting the pans on a cooling rack and cooling the cake in the pans for a short time (usually in the 10-minute range) before removing the cake.
It's important to pay attention to the specifics called for in a recipe, but in general, most cakes are best removed from the pan after cooling for 10 to 20 minutes. Try it too soon, and it may fall apart. Wait too long, and it may stick.
Let the cake cool.
It should spend at least twenty to thirty minutes on your cooling rack or countertop before you even attempt to remove it from its pan. Place the cake in your refrigerator to speed up the cooling process if necessary.
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.
As the cake cools, so does the butter, meaning it solidifies and doesn't work quite as well as a lubricant to slide the cake out as it does when warm and still liquid. Ideally, you should let the cake cool for 20 to 30 minutes in the pan, and then remove it while it's still warm.
How to prevent a crack: Make sure your oven isn't too hot. And if you're concerned about cracking a sheet cake while removing it from the pan, a cold cake is always easier to remove than a warm one.
Recipes will usually give instructions for cooling but as a general rule, most sponge cakes are best left for a few minutes and then turned onto a cooling rack to avoid soggy edges. Rich fruit cakes are better cooled in the tin.
A cold cake is less likely to fall apart when you start to pry it out of the pan. Once chilled, slide the butter knife around the rim of the pan once more. Then flip the pan over and tap an edge on a board while holding the pan at a 45-degree angle to pop the entire cake out.
How Long to Cool a Cake Before Icing It? Our recommendation on how long to cool a cake before icing it is to wait 2-3 hours for your cake to cool completely.
You must do this as soon as they are out of the oven, otherwise your cakes will definitely get soggy. Immediately following, cover the cakes tightly with plastic wrap and put aside to cool.
If you're using a recipe, it will usually say. Otherwise, give it 10–15 minutes. It's still baking when you take it out of the oven; if you mess with it now, it'll be underbaked. There's this concept called thermal moment, which is thankfully pretty self-explanatory, so that's all I'm gonna say about it.
Cooling cake layers on a cake rack, allows air to circulate and prevents the layers from being “wet” on the bottom. Turning a warm or hot cake out of a baking pan too quickly, will crack and fall apart. Cake layers that cool in the pan too long will stick unless lined with parchment paper.
When the cake first comes out of the oven, it's cooked through but the hot "crumb" — the mass of the cake — is delicate. If you try to get it out of the pan too soon it can stick to the pan, break, or both. For most cakes, allow around 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature for cooling (per MasterClass).
It'll be fine. That's what people have always done before fridges were common. I leave them to cool overnight all the time. I just chuck a clean teatowel over them.
Water encourages the cake batter to stick to the pan, and butter is about 20% water. If you grease the inside of the pan with a generous amount of butter, the water content will likely not be a problem for you. But, most of the time, I don't want to risk it.
Attempting to spread frosting onto warm cake layers is a recipe for sloppy disaster. Chill your cake layers for at least 2 hours, or better, overnight. If you've made your frosting ahead, make sure it's at room temperature before you start.
It won't come out quite right
So, in your attempt to remove the cake from the pan the cake will struggle to come out, which will often result in the crumb tearing or falling to pieces.
You greased your pan, but you didn't do a thorough job.
When prepping your bakeware, don't cut corners. Take care to ensure you've covered all the nooks and crannies when greasing your pan. Rotate your pan and give it a quick inspection to make sure the surface is sufficiently slicked.
Patterson also suggests simply lowering the temperature by 10 degrees if you notice your cakes significantly doming all the time. “This may be enough to equilibrate the temperature difference between the center and perimeter so that the cake rises at the same level,” she says.
If the oven temperature is set too low, the outer layers of the cake will cook faster than the center, leaving the middle raw. What is this? Additionally, if the cake is placed too high in the oven, the middle will not receive enough heat to cook. This can also lead to an underdone middle.
Make sure you follow the recipe's instructions carefully. Cakes typically bake between 325 to 450 degrees F (see chart with Tip #9). Most convection ovens require lowering the temperature by 25 to 50 degrees F, as well as turning off the fan.