Two Different Baking Pans

[eeamarshall]

Hi!

I recently purchased a Wilton 6x3 decorator preferred pan but am also looking at buying a Fat Daddio's 5x3 or 4x3 cake pan. I was curious if I could bake the same cake batter in two different companies cake pans? Would one pan bake differently than the other?

Thanks for the responses!

 

[DenLach]

The Wilton 6x3 decorator preferred pan is a steel pan and the Fat Daddio's 5x3 or 4x3 cake pans are aluminum. I always Use the Wilton products for baking evenly and try to stay away from aluminum pans. For me, aluminum always seems to bake a bit slower, not sure why, probably because the aluminum dissipates the heat more I am not sure but my baking items never seem to turn out right in aluminum pans. Most the time they over bake on the edges even using baking strips. I make all kinds of cakes, rolls and cheesecakes using Wilton products and always have successful results. And they never warp on me.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Fat Daddio is anodized aluminum. It conducts heat extremely well – – in fact TOO well. Attached is a photo of two cakes I baked at the beginning of June.

The cakes were made from:
the same batter
mixed in the same bowl
baked in the same oven
baked at the,same time
baked on the same rack at 325°

The variable was the pan brands: Fat Daddio and a Chicago Metallic Commercial II UNCOATED

The Fat Daddio cake browned too fast. I pulled it 5 minutes before the Chicago Metallic cake.

That brown dried up cake on top is the Fat Daddio cake. Brown crust is a telltale sign of a cake that is going to be dry. It's also very unsightly especially for a white or colored cake. You want the plated slice of cake to look beautiful and appetizing. Brown crust creates a brown line between the layers. It's just ugly. And if you are doing an event cake that is going to be colored, you don't want anything distracting from the color. Attached is a photo of a test cake I did last month. The white icing makes the colors pop. You will not achieve that kind of color with a Fat Daddio because Fat Daddio produces such a brown crust.

I'm not a fan of Wilton pans either. I don't think they perform exceptionally well and they're expensive for the level of performance. But I know a lot of bakers like them.

My preference for a cake pan is natural UNCOATED metal. I use a lot of Chicago Metallic Commercial II UNCOATED. But it is getting to be scarce.

Parrish Magic Line makes an incredible pan. Magic Line has a cult-like following among cake bakers, especially those who make a lot of wedding cakes. The reason being is Magic Line will not over brown a crust. They are also known for their square pans. Their square pans make sharp corners and edges. My square pans are Magic Line.

But magic line is not readily available retail most bakers buy them on line.

https://www.globalsugarart.com/ssearch?q=magic line cake pan

 

[ChesterV]

I've never liked Wilton pans, they seem cheap to me. Aluminum can be mixed with so many different metals also, so you really don't know what you are getting. I've had the browning and crusting problem with Wiltons that were used in some of the bakeries I worked in.

The other pans mentioned, I've never heard of. They must be new, since I quit 'the biz'.

My favorite pans are NordicWare for metal, and Pyrex for tempered glass. Kitchenaid used to make some pretty good bakeware, but over the past few years they have gotten cheaper and cheaper made, as well as cheap metals/thinner metals.

I don't know what kind of pans we used in the bakeries I worked in for wedding cakes, but they were thick aluminum pans with no markings on them. They worked very well for aluminum.

From what I've worked with over the years, if you get down to basics of pans.....it's not what it's made out of, it's how thick or thin it is. I found the thicker made metal pans bake a LOT better than the thin ones. The thin ones seem to burn edges, bake the sides too brown, and also really bad about that gawd awful peaking in the middle of the cake. The thick metal pans seemed to bake more evenly and I don't remember having any extreme peaking from them....not so much that it was necessary to slice it off, as with the cakes baked in the thin pans.