Does The GBBO Sheet Pan Trick Really Cool Off Baked Goods Faster?

Great Britain's beloved amateur bakers are back in the tent. Collection 12 of the "Great British Baking Show" ( aka "Great British Bake Off" in the United Kingdom) is now on Netflix, and the stakes — and the baked goods — are higher than ever. So far, we've seen Cake Week, Biscuit Week, and Bread Week, and the contestants (for the most part) are doing their best to impress judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith with their creative culinary concoctions.

As we've seen in previous seasons, there's always at least one challenge that comes down to the wire, which means the contestants take drastic measures to ensure their cake is cool enough to frost or decorate without melting into a puddle at their designated workstations before the judges can taste it. One of the most dramatic, Hail Mary-esque techniques — which seasoned viewers readily anticipate — is wildly fanning a sheet pan back and forth near the cake as it sits on a cooling rack.

But does this strategy truly work or is it just a gimmick? Eater reports that yes, in fact, GBBO's famous wave-your-sheet-pan-to-cool-your-cake trick really does have magic cooling powers.

On GBBO, bakers don't have enough time to allow a cake to completely cool. Desperate times call for desperate measures — and readily available tools. When a sheet pan is waved back and forth about a foot or so away from a warm cake on a cooling rack, it creates a chilly breeze that hits the cake from all sides and slowly decreases the temperature. As GBBO contestants have demonstrated, the sheet pan must be waived fairly vigorously to have the most impact, which requires sweat equity and time. 

But, it works if you're in a hurry — or racing against the clock. Eater reports that their test cake dropped 66 degrees in 10 minutes using the sheet pan waving technique, which is a heck of a lot faster than if the cake were left alone. Keep this tip in mind the next time you need to cool a baked good quickly.