Be Cruel With Cake Dough
Baking is meditative. It is methodical, deliberate, and positively rewards you in the end. In addition, there is periodic cracking, kneading, punching and beating. If you are baking a cake or pastries, you can also smack your lips. The quickest way to spread a thick batter evenly across the pan is not with a spoon or spatula, but with a vigorous slap and swirl.
The dough can vary in consistency from thin and watery devil’s food to a thick and sticky carrot cake. Thin batters need less persuasiveness, but anything semi-thick needs maneuvering, spreading, and smoothing to make sure it doesn’t end up as a mound in the center. You can smooth it out with a spoon or spatula, but you may have to deal with an awkward slope, especially with something narrow like a bread pan, or irregular like a decorative frying pan. And then there is always irritation from washing another spatula. (Yes, I’ll find a workaround if it means I have one less thing to wash.)
Smack-and-spin is a time-saving method used in bakeries and is ideal for making large batches of cakes for the oven. (It’s not really meant to save you from washing up, but it’s an absolute bonus.) Instead of carefully smoothing out the batter with a tiny four-inch spatula, grab the cake pan securely with both hands and bang it against the countertop. . I’m not suggesting the WWE move, just slap him flat on the counter from about an inch or two away. Now give the whole pan a furious spin. A couple of rotations are enough, but if the dough is especially thick, you can hit it again and spin it. The initial slap spreads the dough down from its central mound, and the forces created by the rotation push the dough away from the center towards the edges of the pan. It’s one quick, smooth motion and in about two seconds, you’ll have the cake batter evenly distributed.
I usually use this technique for quick leveling when I’m baking multiple layers of cake, but it can become a habit after a while. Not to mention it’s fun. You can hit and spin any medium-sized cake pan, but be careful with glass and ceramic utensils. Avoid large sheet cakes, which are quite clumsy and require a lot of table space to make them work. American-style cakes are ideal for dough because they use chemical leavening agents, so this rough handling won’t prevent them from rising. Do not use this method on tender biscuits that use beaten eggs as the leavening agent, as this can cause bubbles to form. After a successful spin, place the cupcakes in the oven and bake as usual.