Ina Garten's Go-To Methods For Preventing Broken Cakes

You most likely know Ina Garten as the host of Food Network's Barefoot Contessa. The chef often graces our television screens with her recipes, utilizing high-quality ingredients — many of which are grown right in her sprawling backyard garden (via Instagram). Garten's recipes are typically perfect for a party, from cocktails to appetizers to cakes. Check out her recipes for Devil's Food Cake and Beatty's Chocolate Cake the next time your sweet tooth is craving some chocolate.

While Garten never seems to struggle with her cakes, we mere mortals aren't so perfect. It can be devastating to spend time and ingredients baking the perfect cake, only to struggle with getting it out of the pan. If you use too much force trying to get it out, you run the risk of cracking or breaking the cake before it comes out. Sometimes cakes can even crack from the too-dry batter, according to Bake Club. Before you give up and grab a fork to turn your crumbs into cake pops, Ina Garten has a few tricks that might prevent your cake from cracking in the first place.

To save her cakes from cracking, the Barefoot Contessa takes extra care when transferring them out of the pan. In Ina Garten's lemon poppyseed cake video on her YouTube channel, she shares that she lets her cakes sit to cool for around 10 minutes after coming out of the oven. This allows time for the cake to separate from the edges of the pan for easier removal. She also notes that you should be able to visibly see it pulling away from the pan slightly.

Once the cake has cooled, Garten takes her cooling rack and places it on top of the pan. She holds the cake pan and cooling rack together before flipping both at the same time, allowing the cake to slide out. The shorter distance the cake has to go, the less of a chance it has to fall out and break. Once the cooling rack is on the counter, Garten says that so long as your cake pan has been properly greased, it should slide right off. 

We can't promise this will save all your future cakes, but, if this method has Garten's stamp of approval, then it's got to be worth a try.