This is an easy way to make DIY cake strips at home. You can use materials you already have lying around the house for this cost-effective method to bake level cakes!
I’ve had my struggles with cake layers. They always come out domed and I always trim off less dome than they really need, which means slidey cake, drooping frosting, and all around MESS.
To remedy this, I’ve read about using cake strips (strips that wrap around the pan and magically create flat layers) or baking the cake at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. I think I’ve also heard something about baking soda. But I’ve never had the patience to wait EXTRA long for a cake to bake and I’ve never been willing to shell out $12 for two strips of metallic material. This is a good thing!
Because it turns out that you can make your own cake strips for FREE! And it’s so easy. Because here’s what cake strips do: they cool the outside of the pan so the cake bakes evenly. So all you really need is wet material wrapped around the pan.
Why Cake Strips Work
Let’s talk cake science for a minute: normally when cake layers bake, the outside of the cake bakes faster than the middle. By the time the middle starts to cook through, the batter has nowhere to go but up, which creates the dome. By putting moist material around the outside of the pan, you’re helping cool the outside, allowing the cake to bake more evenly.
What You’ll Need for DIY Cake Strips
- scrap material (an old T-shirt or kitchen towel will work well)
- scissors
- safety pins
Cut the scrap material into a strips long enough to fit around your cake pan. I only used one strip, but you can use several—more coverage is not a bad thing. Safety pin the ends of the strip together. When you’re ready to bake the cake, run the material under water and squeeze out so that it’s as wet as possible without dripping. Replace the strip around the pan and bake!
Note: the first time I did this, I tied my band of cloth into a knot instead of cutting to the right length and safety-pinning the ends. I think this caused a dimple in the cake:
Not a huge deal, but if you want a perfect layer, don’t do that.
But Do They Really Work?
And now for some close ups for those of you thinking: does it really make a difference?
I also dropped my cake pans on the counter a few times before baking. This helps spread the batter evenly and get rid of air bubbles.
And here’s what my final cake looked like!
Thank you to this lovely, humble blog for sharing this fabulous trick! I will be dismembering T-shirts and baking super flat cakes for decades to come.
Sylvia
Will i obtain the same result if i use the mary bath?
erika
Would you be putting the cake pan in a water bath? I think that serves the same purpose as using the cake strips, so I probably wouldn’t do both…
Rene'
Don’t think that would be good AT ALLLL
Tiara
I never knew what bake strips are until I saw it online and read how it helps on baking until I read your site. Thank you for the info and the next time I bake I’ll definitely do this.
erika
Great, let me know how it works out for you! Thanks for the comment Tiara!
chris jolley
i use to bake and cook all the time, then the kids grew up and it was not the same. i worked on my other hobbies. sewing, quilting, crochet, scrapbook, ect ect. then my body started down hill real fast. i had a dream when retired to do all the things when ever i wanted to. body said no you will be house bound for the rest of your life sz my body and it has been that way for the last 10+ years. somehow i landed on a cooking show on youtube and they have teaching classes and every thing so i chose to get off the couch and start baking again. i made so many mistakes and could not remember how to make cakes or anything really. i am not sure why i and to share this. i found out about these strips last month after i tried to do a chocolate and white cake. they domed so i figured frost it anyway and what a mess. the top layer split in 2 and dropped down the sides. my hubby and son thought it was really funny. i put the remaining cakes in a large container and with my hands i took the butter frosting and dug in. we now call it crumble cake. everyone loves it but i still wanted to make a cake the right way. i started to find the strips and found several reviews. everyone hated the strips so i wanted to diy but hubby said the fabric would burn. thank you so much for telling me i could di all by myself. again, thanks so much for making it so simple cuz some of the ones i watched on youtube they took longer to make the fancy strips that bake 4 cakes and frost them. !!
Neli
Hi! Just wanna say thanks for posting this DIY, it literally saved me time and money trying to find a cake lever thingy to make a “perfect” cake. I will try this technique and hope for the best! 🙂
Angels
Hi quick question, would this idwa work with buying and using the cloth headbands or sweatbands???
erika
Hi Angels–as long as there’s no metal or elastic in the headbands that will melt or warp in the oven, I think that should be fine!
Rene'
Careful !!! Many of those items have rubber / elastic!!! Melt..burn….mess !
I use a towel or tea towel…finding them now @ Dollar Tree or Wal Mart for $ 1.00 or 2.00.
Longer lengths sometimes also.
Emily
A couple of tips
:
1 make them out of that old towel you have sitting in the cupboard that you can’t throw away
2 use a sewing machine to zigzag stitch the edges
3 if you cut a small hole in one end of the strip and the cut the other end in half length ways for a few inches you can slip one of the halves through the hole and tie it easier
erika
Great tips, thanks for sharing Emily!
grace
Hi erika would this method help as my cake is not even, it forms a dome and one side is more big than the other. Its not evenly baked. I would greatly appreciate your kind help.
erika
Hi Grace, so sorry for the delay in my response! It sounds like this could be a problem with the recipe you’re using (perhaps not mixing the leaveners thoroughly) or your oven (perhaps one side is hotter than the other). The cake strips may help, but I can’t be sure they’d completely solve your problem. Hope that helps!
GGBakes
Is your stove level? If what you bake is thicker on one side, that is the first thing I would check.
Also for my oven, I set the thermostat at 350 and after the timer beeps that the oven is ready, let it continue to heat for another 10 to 15 minutes. (I have a 30-year-old stove that needs replaced)
melissa
You put the cloth in the oven as the cake bakes?
erika
Yes, just wrap the wet cloth around the cake pan before you put it in the oven (make sure it is securely fastened!)
Mary Witkowicz
Hi and thank you for the article. My question is on a 14″ square cake do I still use baking nails and the strips? And is there a way to get the strips tight enough on a square cake pan? Thank you so much
erika
Hi Mary, so sorry for the delay in my response! The great thing about DIY strips is that you can make them however long or short as you need, and you should be able to safety pin them to fit snugly around any pan. I haven’t tried these on a square pan, but I assume the method would work just about as well as on a round pan. Happy baking!
Dolly
we learned in a cake decorating class that instead of metal strips to pin a WET towel around our cakes to get that level cake top for those who may be skiddish of using fabric. The towel is usually mostly dry by the time the cake is baked. But it really work!!
erika
Yes, same idea! Love it!!
Judith Pieterse
I would like to know, would this work for fruitcakes that sink in the middle too? It’s not the fruit that sinks, the cake actually dents in in the middle.
Thank You
erika
Hi Judith–that sounds more like a case of a recipe that doesn’t have enough leavener to make it rise. This technique helps flatten the dome that usually forms when baking cakes; it won’t help lift up sunken middles, unfortunately!
Su Ling
Hi. I am going to try this tomorrow.
I have the same problem (the dome effect) when making cupcakes. Do the DIY baking strips work for cupcakes tray?
erika
Unfortunately, I’ve never tried so I can’t say for sure, but I assume it would have a similar effect, though most people generally want the dome when making cupcakes!
Safeena Islam
Hi I read the blog doesn’t the fabric around the tin burn when you put it in the oven?
erika
Hi Safeena–apologies for my late reply, but no, I’ve never had trouble with the fabric burning. Generally my cakes are in the oven for around 30-40 minutes, so I can’t speak for something that might bake for 1 hour+, but you shouldn’t have trouble with a typical cake layer!
Dawn
Hi, i have just used this method fo a 10″ round madeira that was in the oven for nearly 2 hrs and it worked wonderfully, perfectly flat sponge. I used an old teatowel cut in strips.
erika
Awesome!! Thanks for reporting back, Dawn–glad to hear this trick will work for as long as ~2 hours!
Michele Woodburn
Besides they’re wet so it wouldn’t burn.
Dena
I tried these for the first time last night and was so grateful to finally have flat cake layers! It was so easy too.
My only suggestion to everyone is to be careful about t-shirt fuzz. I grabbed a junk t shirt out of my drawer and cut it up. It was teal colored – I was making a white cake. I ended up picking teal fuzz out of my cake and my icing. It was quite a pain. Just something to keep in mind.
erika
Yay! So glad it worked well for you Dena, and thanks for sharing the helpful tip!
Nancy
Would this work for any size spring form pan as well
erika
Yes it should work! Just be careful about putting the material against the metal on the springform.
Heidi
Thank you so much but how can I keep the strips stand around the pan ? What do you mean by (safe pins) ? 🙂
erika
Hi Heidi! A safety pin looks like this: http://www.medixsupplies.com/images/Safety_Pin.jpg and that’s one way to keep the strips around the pan. Another way is to do what I did initially and tie the ends of your material into a knot (see picture 4). You could also try using a small ring of stretchy material (such as the edge of a small T-shirt) so that the material can stretch around the pan and not fall off. Hope that helps! 🙂
Heidi
Sure it helped,thank you soooooooooo much i tried it and the result is wow I can’t believe it
thank you again you are marvelous 🙂
erika
Excellent!! So happy to hear it!! :))
Elaine
Hi Erika, Well, I’ve been baking for over 40 years and I have NEVER heard of baking strips until I saw your blog today! Whenever I had baked layer cakes, I’ve always had to slice off the mound! You have saved the day! I went on google to find out the prices of cake strips and was dismayed at the prices! WOW! I will use your suggestions for DIY cake strips from now on! LOVE your blog! Keep up the good work! Elaine
erika
Elaine, I’m so glad to hear it! I hope these work out well for you. Happy baking and thanks so much for the kind words! 🙂
Linda
Would those stretchy thick terrycloth headbands work?
erika
Yes, they should be the perfect size! Just make sure there’s no elastic/funky stuff on the inside that will melt in the oven 🙂
Dawn
I used string
Sharon
How long can these cloth strips stay in the oven? I’m skittish about this and don’t want them to burn…
erika
Hi Sharon–that’s a great question! I usually use these to bake 8-9″ layer cakes, which takes ~35-45 minutes. I haven’t tested longer than that, but probably would not want to leave them in for longer than an hour. Hope that helps–let me know how they work out for you! 🙂
Tommy
We bake cheesecakes sitting in a larger pan (water bath) to prevent cracking – same principle is probably involved. So I wonder if we could just set our filled and ready cake pans in a larger pan with a water bath and get even layer baking; comments? Anyone tried it?
erika
Interesting thought! I’m definitely giving this a try the next time I make a cake–thanks Tommy!
stacy
Will these strips work on my 9 x 13” glass cake pan?
erika
Hi Stacy! I’ve never tried these on a 9×13, but the concept work similarly, though it may not be quite as effective given the different shape of the pan. If you can get the strips to stay (which may be tricky since the sides of my 9×13 are slanted vs. the straight sides of my round cake pans), go for it! Just take care that they won’t fall off.