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How to properly grease a baking pan in 3 different ways.

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Any household baker knows how important it is to make sure their baking pan is properly greased before using it. But it’s not always clear what the best way is to do it, or what would be the best thing to use for greasing the pan. This is especially true with difficult, or more intricate pans like a bundt cake pan for example.

As someone who loves baking bundt cakes for every occasion imaginable, it actually took me several attempts to find the perfect greasing method for my bundt cake pan. At first, I ran into trouble with the cakes either crumbling to bits when I tried to remove them from the pan, or the cakes stuck to the pan completely and refused to come out at all. Growing up in Russia, my mother made us mini bundt cakes all the time so the trouble I kept running into was absolutely maddening!

Finally, after several attempts of trying out countless greasing methods, and after making my husband temporarily sick of bundt cakes, I found the answer I had been searching for! Now I’m going to share this golden nugget of knowledge with you! I’m going to break down 3 easy methods on How to (properly) Grease a Baking Pan, and which one is my personal favorite!

Tools to Keep Hands Clean

Before I get started breaking down the greasing methods, I want to quickly go over a couple of kitchen tools that make this process easier on your hands. It’s so easy to dry your hands out when you constantly have to wash them while cooking, especially when you get something really oily on them.

It can feel almost impossible to completely get rid of that icky, slimy feel no matter how many times you wash. To prevent this from happening at all, you can use one of these 2 protective measures to keep your hands from getting greased in the process:

Disposable gloves –
- I much prefer to use these since they are made to fit hands perfectly and I don’t have to worry about them slipping off. They also make it much easier to use a single finger to grease tight corners.
Ziplock bag –
- Alternatively, you can just use one of these to protect your hand but make sure to keep a tight grip on it if possible.

Method #1: How to Grease a Baking Pan with Butter

Butter is one of the most common greasing go-to’s because it’s usually already on hand in the kitchen. However, it usually is not the most effective method, especially when it comes to baking cakes or cupcakes. But don’t get me wrong, while the contents of butter may not be the best for a non-stick option, it usually provides a nice golden-brown crust on baked treats.

How to Grease a Baking Pan with Butter:

First, cover your hands with either some disposable gloves or a Ziploc bag.

Then, use your covered hands to spread some room temperature butter generously along the entire inside of the baking pan. Make sure to coat all the corners and sides.
1. You should achieve an even coating with no chunks of fat leftover.
If desired, use a small sifter to evenly distribute a small amount of flour across the inside of the coated pan. Then turn the pan over and tap out any excess flour.

Finally, pour your prepared batter into the greased pan and bake away!

How to Grease a Baking Pan with Butter

Arina Habich

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 3

Total Time 3

Course baking

Cuisine American

Servings baking pan

Equipment

Ziploc Sandwich Bags

Ingredients

1 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature
2 tbsp all-purpose flour

Instructions

First, cover your hands with either some disposable gloves or a Ziploc bag.
Then, use your covered hands to spread some room temperature butter generously along the entire inside of the baking pan. Make sure to coat all the corners and sides.
You should achieve an even coating with no chunks of fat leftover.
If desired, use a small sifter to evenly distribute a small amount of flour across the inside of the coated pan. Then turn the pan over and tap out any excess flour.

Finally, pour your prepared batter into the greased pan and bake away!

Keyword baking, kitchen hacks

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Method #2: How to Grease a Baking Pan with Vegetable Shortening – My Winner!

The vegetable shortening and flour methods are, by far, my preferred method! This is my fool-proof secret when it comes to baking perfect bundt cakes. Bundt cake pans usually have a more intricate design that involves a lot of corners and sharp angles which can make it really difficult to remove the baked cake in one piece.

Let me tell you, this method never fails me! If a bundt cake pan is greased properly, and then the baked cake is cooled properly after baking, it’s so much easier to get the cake out in one solid, beautiful piece.

How to Grease a Baking Pan with Vegetable Shortening:

First, cover your hands with either some disposable gloves or a Ziploc bag.

Then, use your covered hands to spread some vegetable shortening generously along the entire inside of the baking pan. Make sure to coat all the corners and sides.
1. Remember, you should have an even coating with no chunks of fat leftover.
Next, use a small sifter to evenly distribute a small amount of flour across the entire inside of the coated pan. Then turn the pan over and tap out any excess flour.

Finally, pour your prepared batter into the greased pan and bake away!