The 3-Ingredient Paste That Keeps Cake From Sticking To Pans

When you spend an hour baking a cake to surprise your partner on your anniversary, bring to your nephew's graduation party, or celebrate your dog's birthday, the last thing you want is to take it out of the oven and find that it's stuck to the bottom of the pan. Or worse, that you used too much baking spray and now the top of the cake is burned in strange patches.

Baking spray can be a blessing in the kitchen, but it can also be unreliable and difficult to use when trying to coat unevenly shaped pans. Plus, the spray can run out pretty quickly, leaving you to spend extra money every few times you want to toss a cake in the oven. Non-stick parchment is an option, but that can be a pain to cut and maneuver when you're in a hurry. Luckily, there's an easy alternative to baking spray that you can whip up with ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen. Bakers affectionately refer to it as "pan goop" or "cake goop."

It may sound like something out of a child's wildest baking imagination, but cake goop– also known as homemade "pan release"– is real and preferred by many bakers over store-bought sprays. Made up of equal parts flour, vegetable oil, and shortening, this three-ingredient baking spray alternative is easy to use and can save even your most complex baking projects from getting stuck in hard-to-reach places.

To make your own cake goop, mix together ½ cup of flour, ½ cup of vegetable oil, and ½ cup of shortening in a large bowl. Whisk the ingredients until smooth, then apply the mixture to your baking pans. Spread in a thin, even layer with a brush or napkin, pour in your cake mix, and bake according to your cake's directions. 

When your masterpiece is ready to come out of the oven, you should be able to flip your cake out of the pan easily and evenly. You can store your goop in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one month and bake to your heart's content!