How to evenly cut a delicate sponge cake into cake layers: 5 simple techniques

The easiest way to divide chiffon sponge cakes into layers. The baked goods are prepared using butter and are moist, smooth, weighty, and dense. Doesn't crumble, dries quickly.

The butter pie has a cake-like texture, so it cuts neatly. And the classic version is the most difficult. Dry and porous crumb requires skill and cunning.

Cutting the biscuit with a bread knife

The higher the baked dough, the easier it is to cut. For beautiful and easy slicing, the optimal height of the product should start from 9 cm. This pie will make three even layers.

What you will need:

• A thin, long, sharp knife.

Instructions:

1. Before slicing, the pie should stand in the refrigerator for 10 hours, and then in the freezer for 2 hours;
2. We make notches along the circumference at the required height;
3. Clockwise with the right hand, i.e. towards ourselves, draw the knife;
4. Hold the cake with your left hand and rotate counterclockwise;
5. Don’t forget: keep the knife parallel to the table surface.

A small cake is cut with a kitchen knife. To divide large baked goods, special equipment is required.

Answers:

Cutting the biscuit using a baking dish

You can cut the biscuit evenly into cake layers using a springform pan and a sharp blade.

What you will need:

• Detachable round shape;
• Several plates;
• Long sharp knife.

Instructions:

1. Place the plates into a springform pan;
2. Place the pie on plates;
3. Using a long bread cleaver, cut off the top of the pie;
4. We increase the number of plates, raise the cake above the mold;
5. We repeat the procedure, cutting the required number of layers.

It is easier to maintain the shape of a thick pie. Thin - can be broken by clumsy actions.

What should you consider when cutting a biscuit?

A fluffy, tall, perfect sponge cake that just came out of the oven is not a guarantee that the cake will turn out as beautiful. Firstly, it can come out dry, making it very difficult to cut. Secondly, the cake may fall off due to temperature changes. Therefore, during the cooking process, it is important to take into account all the points: how and when to take out the biscuit, how to cut it.

The basis of any sponge cake is eggs, sugar and flour. Additionally, other ingredients can be added to the dough: milk, vegetable or butter, baking powder, etc. The most difficult to cut is the classic biscuit, which has a porous texture inside. If you make an inept attempt to divide it into cakes, it crumbles or pulls together in lumps. At the same time, butter and chiffon biscuits (based on butter and vegetable oils, respectively) are easier to cut.

In addition, the quality of the finished cakes depends on the diameter and height of the base, as well as their desired thickness. For comparison, cutting a sponge cake with a diameter of 20 cm and a height of 7 cm into three layers is much easier than a product baked in a mold measuring 26 cm. How well the sponge cake has cooled is also important. Before cutting it into cakes, it must “rest”.

Divide the biscuit with a toothpick and thread

Cutting with a thread is very simple, but if the filling contains nuts, candied fruits, dried fruits, then it is better to cut not with a thread, but with a knife. Solid additives will cling and tear the thread.

See also: How to make marshmallows/marshmallows

What you will need:

• Toothpicks or skewers;
• Nylon, silk or nylon thread or fishing line;
• Sharp knife.

Instructions:

1. Mark the height with toothpicks in a circle;
2. Place the thread on top of the toothpicks around the circumference;
3. Pull the ends of the thread together and cut.

Do not try to cut into the warm crust. The dough will form lumps and crumble. Let it sit for at least 6-12 hours.

Video tip on how to separate a sponge cake using a thread

You might be wondering how to glue a sugar picture onto a cake without having to redo it.

How to cut a biscuit with thread/line

This is probably the most common and recommended method.
Not every biscuit can be cut this way. If you baked a classic sponge cake with the addition of baking powder, the product will turn out too tender, airy and soft. And even after resting, the thread will tear the pulp into pieces. The method is suitable for a classic sponge cake with three components (eggs, flour, sugar), chiffon sponge cake, and sponge cake with added liquid. Visually divide the biscuit into equal cake layers, approximately 1 cm thick. Lines can be marked with a knife or toothpicks.

The biscuit crust can be quite dense, so it is convenient to make a small cut with a knife in a circle where the border of the first cake layer should go.

Then we take a strong thread, fishing line or dental floss, insert it into the cut and begin to cross the ends, pulling them in different directions.

Gradually the thread will cut the biscuit. The cut will be perfectly smooth and neat.

For greater clarity, I have selected a video for you using this method.

Cutting the biscuit with a knife

What you will need:

• Knife string - a device similar to a frame in which several jagged strings are installed. The position of the strings varies depending on the desired thickness.

Instructions:

1. Place the biscuit on a flat surface. Take the string and set it to the desired height. Cut the pastry starting from the bottom. We hold it from above, but do not press, so as not to crush the product;
2. We cut with sawing movements without lifting the legs from the table surface.

Special string cutters allow you to cut baked goods into layers with a thickness of 1 cm. From a base of 3 cm, housewives manage to get three layers!

Preparing the biscuit for slicing

When planning to bake cakes, consider the following points:

• Cutting a butter (chiffon) sponge cake will not be difficult.
• The most difficult thing to cut is a classic sponge cake - it is airy, dry and crumbles easily. Therefore, it is necessary to be patient and careful in your work.
• Only a well-cooled sponge cake can be easily cut.
• It is easier to cut a product with a small diameter than a large one.
• Round cakes are easier to cut than rectangular or square ones.

Sponge cakes prepared according to the classic recipe consist of flour, sugar and eggs. This species has a characteristic porous structure. Without special skills, when cutting it, the dough begins to crumble or gather into lumps.

If additional products are used in the recipe (such as milk, vegetable oil/butter, baking powder), these are already butter cakes (another name is “chiffon”). They turn out moister and cut much easier.

The height and diameter of the baked sponge cake are of great importance. Usually the minimum height is 5–6 cm; it is cut into 1 cm cakes.

Sometimes the top of the sponge cake ends up uneven. In this case, it is recommended to cut off the convex part. It can be crushed and used as decoration for your cake.

Cutting the biscuit with a slicer

If you often cook cakes, then buy such a tool. With its help, you get perfectly even cakes without any unnecessary problems.

A slicer is a special tool that resembles a baking dish with slits in the ring. The distance between the slots is 1 cm. The tool allows you to easily and quickly cut baked goods. The ring is adjustable and adapts to any size of baked goods.

What you will need:

• Long sharp knife;
• Slicer.

Instructions:

1. The cake is placed inside the mold;
2. Adjusting the diameter. Cut the pastry along the slits. Tip: choose a blade longer than the shape;
3. If the cake is large, cut it twice, rotating the pan.

Biscuit is considered a capricious dessert. The oven is filled with fluffy and even baked goods. And when you get it, it instantly turns into a withered cake. In order not to spoil your mood, after baking, let the cake stand in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Chiffon sponge cake recipe

This biscuit is ideally cut into several even layers. It turns out tender and moist inside, so it does not require additional impregnation. Vanilla-lemon chiffon sponge cake is prepared in the following sequence:

1. The oven is heated to a temperature of 160 °C.
2. Flour (130 g) is sifted several times with sugar (80 g), a pinch of salt and baking powder (1 ½ teaspoons).
3. Yolks at room temperature (2 pcs.) are combined with vanilla and lemon zest (on the tip of a knife), slightly warm milk (30 ml) and vegetable oil (65 ml). The resulting mass is whipped with a mixer until it becomes a fluffy and light foam.
4. The yolk part of the dough is mixed with sifted dry ingredients.
5. Egg whites (4 pcs.) are combined with sugar (25 g) and whipped with a mixer until stiff peaks form.
6. Some of the proteins are introduced into the yolk-butter mixture and gently mixed with a spatula.
7. The remaining proteins are added to the dough and combined with it in a similar way.
8. The prepared dough is transferred to a springform pan with a diameter of 26 cm.
9. The biscuit is baked in a well-heated oven for 30 minutes.

Nutritional and energy value:

When to remove the biscuit from the oven

Under no circumstances should you remove baked goods from the oven immediately after turning it off. Otherwise, all your work will go to waste. The oven door must be opened slightly and waited for about 15 minutes, only after which the mold can be removed.

Many confectioners generally recommend letting the sponge cake cool completely in the oven, but this can threaten the cake drying out and, accordingly, losing its taste. So our advice is to look for a middle ground in everything!

If you baked a sponge cake for a roll, then this product should leave the “broiler” 10 minutes after switching off, and what is important, it should be very warm, since the cooled cake will break and crack when twisted.

How thick should the cake be?

If the height of the sponge cake is 8–9 cm, it is more convenient to cut it into 3 even layers. The minimum height is 5–6 cm. There are situations when a cake with a height of only 2–3 centimeters must be divided in half so as to obtain very thin cakes, but even and neat. This is possible, but quite difficult to do using thread or a knife. For such experiments, confectionery string is more suitable.

The most convenient height of a sponge cake for slicing is 8–9 cm

How to remove the crust for a roll

In order for your confectionery miracle to turn out perfect, you must first remove it correctly after cooking. Looking back a little, it is worth noting that such a biscuit layer must be baked on parchment.

1. Now, when it has already completely baked and cooled for about 10 minutes in the oven turned off with the door open, it needs to be removed from the baking sheet, but not torn off the paper. Having coated the entire cake with jam, we begin to carefully wrap it into a roll, gradually separating it from the parchment layer.

However, rolls are often made with cream, which you certainly cannot apply to a hot cake. Then you can use the second method.

1. Having turned the baking paper with the biscuit onto oiled loose parchment, we need to remove the baked sheet from the cake as carefully as possible, which we then roll into a roll and leave to cool (we are talking about the biscuit, not the paper). This is done so that after cooling and decorating with cream, our product can be rolled up without, so to speak, losses in the form of cracks and breaks.

How to use a pastry string correctly

The tool for creating smooth cakes is quite simple to use, but requires certain skills and dexterity. If you're new to pastry, practice on a crust that's not intended for a formal cake in case you get a shaky hand or an unfortunate, ragged edge.

A pastry cutter is a convenient and versatile tool that allows you to create perfect cakes of any shape. They are usually made of stainless steel, which ensures a long service life, and are also equipped with a comfortable wide handle.

The confectionery string has several levels (up to 9-10), allowing you to create cakes of any height.

To use this device, you must:

• Can opener

• set the required level (different manufacturers have different markings, but the principle of operation is the same);
• Place the knife near the completely cooled biscuit and cut the cake using cutting movements, as if moving a saw.

An important advantage of using string is that it minimizes crumbling of the biscuit, such as when slicing with a knife.