Preparing cake tins

Q: Is it better to use a spray oil or baking paper when preparing cake tins?

A: There are a few things to consider when deciding how to prepare your cake tins:

1. Firstly, check what the recipe suggests – different recipes require the tins to be prepared in different ways and usually the optimum method will be mentioned in the recipe.
2. Also, whilst oil sprays are a convenient way to prepare your tins, it is easy to miss a patch accidentally creating an area where your cake will stick. Lining your tins with non-stick baking paper is usually the most fail-safe way of preparing your tins so that your cakes don’t stick.
3. And finally, oil sprays, when used over time, can create a sticky residue on your tins that is very hard to remove. I actually prefer to use melted butter when greasing my tins as it is easy to clean away once the cake is baked.

The majority of my recipes will ask you to first grease a tin with melted butter and then line your tin with non-stick baking paper. And what I mean by baking paper is the kind that has the fine silicone coating which acts as a non-stick surface so that your cake doesn’t stick to the paper. If you use what is known as greaseproof paper this is not a non-stick paper and you will have to grease the paper itself once you line the tins, which kind of defeats the purpose of lining the tin in the first place!

Watch the video of Anneka's answer to this Q&A below: