Cake Stencils: Amazing Cakes Made Easy

Last Christmas, I mentioned these wonderful cake stencils from ModCloth. I enjoy baking, and I actually took cake decorating classes for several years. However, these stencils always looked lovely, so I purchased them a while back, but I never got a chance to actually use them until recently.

I was going to spend the evening alone, so I decided to make a one layer chocolate cake from scratch (which nearly turned out disastrously--but I survived). The stencil kit contains recipes, too, so I tried out the chocolate ganache. Incidentally, I cheated and make it in the microwave rather than on the stovetop, but that is neither here nor there. The ganache was quite tasty, and I simply poured it over the top of the cake, let it cool somewhat, and then applied the stencil and powdered sugar. When I took the stencil off, I actually had a bit of trouble trying to convince myself to cut it, just because I was so proud of it.

There are, of course, a few catches to using the stencils. For one, you want the cake to be flat, or else the stencil isn't going to be able to lay flat and the image is going to be distorted. This wasn't a huge issue at all for me, as I'm used to trying to make my cakes as flat as possible. However, I guess not that many people know how to do that, so here are a few options:

1. Pound your cake. This is actually pretty simple. After you pour the batter into the pan, put a hand on either side of the pan and essentially pound it against the counter. I usually throw a towel between the pan and the counter, just in case. You should see little air bubbles coming up through the top of the cake. You're technically supposed to do this until air bubbles stop coming up, but you can pound forever. I usually stop when my arms get tired. By getting rid of the air bubbles, your cake will be denser and should rise more evenly and not as high.

2. Cut the top off the cake. Before you take it out of the pan, grab a large sharp knife (serrated works best) and cut off the top of the cake. This also allows for the cook to have something to snack on while finishing cooking. Mind your fingers, though!

3. Flip the cake. As soon as you pull the cake out of the oven, flip it over onto a plate/platter. I usually leave it in the pan when I do this, so that the shape actually flattens, rather than inverting.

Once the cake is rather cool, ice and then apply the stencil. The book has instructions for how to use the stencils, and as long as you follow the step by step, it is rather easy. I've used it several times so far, and I'm quite happy with it. I'm still working on my technique for using it on cupcakes, though....