8 Clever Things to Do When Your Cake Gets Stuck to the Pan
Updated: Jan. 27, 2023
It's a major bummer when a cake gets stuck to the pan, but don't let all that precious time—and cake—go to waste. Learn how to fix a broken cake.
Out of all the baking fails, cakes that get stuck to the pan is probably among the worst of them. The broken pieces, the crumbs—and don’t even get us started on cleaning off the pan. As tempting as it is to throw your homemade cake recipe in the trash, don’t. Here are ten ways to fix (or make use of) a broken cake instead.
Make cake pops
Turn even the messiest cake disaster into sweet, individually wrapped cake pop treats that look impressive and fun. Collect all your cake remains and stir them up with a little frosting and get ready to dip! You can follow our complete tutorial here!
Try a trifle
Trifles are irresistible all on their own, but adding cake into the mix is next level. Just layer a bunch of delicious ingredients together in a deep serving dish—think whipped cream, pudding and fresh fruit—and add the pieces of cake throughout as you go. We can answer the question: what is a trifle.
Glue it together with frosting
Clearly a bottle of Elmer’s won’t do the trick when it comes to a broken cake. Instead, make frosting work double duty as an adhesive to hold the pieces of cake together. Buttercream and mascarpone are the best options. Warning: This method is for cake that has broken up in two or three large chunks—not lots of crumbles (that’s what cake pops are for!)
Create a cake shake
Crazy milkshakes have become pretty popular lately. So many of these milkshakes are topped with every kind of sweet treat imaginable, from doughnuts to candy. Decorate a broken piece of cake with frosting and sprinkles, and sit it on top of your own unique milkshake creation.
Make cake truffles
Instead of throwing broken cake pieces or a heap of cake crumbs away, use them to form cake truffles instead. You’ll still need the truffle basics, like dark chocolate and liqueur, but adding cake into the recipe will definitely steal the show.
Craft cake bread pudding
Prepare bread pudding as you normally would. Sprinkle in the broken pieces of cake into the bread pudding mixture, and pop it in the oven for an extra sweet take on the vintage dessert.
Serve it with ice cream
Move over, sprinkles and hot fudge! There’s a new ice cream companion in town. Scoop out some of your favorite ice cream flavors and place them on top of a plain piece of cake. Think of it as fancy brownie sundae!
Grill it
It’s certainly not the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word grilled, but it’s true—cake can actually be grilled. Slice the chunks of broken cake until they’re more or less even in size. Grill the cake pieces on the grill for no longer than 60 seconds on each side, and serve with fruit.
Originally Published: October 29, 2018
