"Goomba" > wrote in message
...
> For you cake baking pros out there- do you cool the cake in the pans
> entirely or turn out onto a cooling rack to finish cooling?
>
> I just baked a banana cake and let the two layers cool in the pan aprox 20
> min, then turned out onto a rack. Now I find the tops have stuck to the
> rack and left a nice gouge in each one. I can handle that since I'm going
> to assemble with some sort of filling before frosting. I think I can hide
> the gouges. But it got me to wondering if I'd forgotten some rule of cake
> cooling....?
>
> (and I know I goofed leaving them upside down on the rack as perhaps the
> bottoms were sturdier)
>

I've never had that happen! Not sure what I'd do, but as you said, you'd
put the tops together and the bottoms would be the flat edges to the bottom
of the layer cake and the top. You can always trim to make them fit flat.

One thing I learned when I used to do cakes was to turn the cakes onto a
baking sheet after the first half hour of cooling and freeze them while
still a little warm. This led to very moist cakes and easier to trim the
layers and put together. Also held back some of the crumbs to make for a
smooth frosted cake.

I don't think you plan to decorate the banana cake, but piping icing borders
really cleans up any "mistakes".