Why would using a tall baking pan cause the top of a cake to be darker?
I'm reading a review of cake pans.
Most of the round pans in the review are 2 inches tall. However, there is one round pan in the review that is 2.5 inches tall, and the review had the following comment about it:
It baked an evenly golden cake, but it was half an inch taller than any other pan, tall enough to bake the top of the cake darker than any other.
Why would baking a cake in a tall pan make the top of the cake darker?
Best Answer
Very theoretically: if the pan is filled to the brim, the upper surface of the cake will be closer to the heating element, so the cake will be somewhat darker.
I am actually quite skeptical that this is what happened here. I looked at the review you linked and don't see any indication that they scaled the recipe for the taller pan. Also, they only baked one cake per pan. Also, I wouldn't intuitively expect only half an inch difference to create a marked change in color.
Whatever the reason for the darker cake - whether something inherent in the pan, or a random difference because of the small sample size - the attribution to the taller pan sounds like a just-so story to me.
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What happens if you use a bigger cake pan?
"If the pan is too big, the sides shield the batter and slow down the baking," says Levy Beranbaum, explaining that the resulting cake will be drier and paler than intended. "If the pan is too small, the batter will run over the sides and the cake will collapse from inadequate support."Does the baking pan affect the cake?
Did you know that the correct baking pan can make or break your recipe? The size, material and colour of a baking dish affect the baking time as well as the crust, texture and even the look of your final product.Does the depth of a cake tin matter?
Not only will the extra depth benefit any cake (more on that below), it makes the pan more versatile, so it can be used in a broader range of recipes and take the place of many specialty pans.Dark vs light Baking Pans [ Cake Decorating For Beginners ]
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Answer 2
There are two factors at play:
First, a taller pan needs longer for the higher batter to bake through, so that the top is exposed to the oven heat longer in total. Note that not the height of the pan per se is an issue, but how high the batter level is inside that pan.
Second, in some ovens the distance to the heat source will matter and if the pan (again with the batter up to a higher level) is closer to the top heating element, this can also contribute towards a darker top. Especially if combined with the first factor in the paragraph above.
That said, of course you can mitigate these, usual measures are lowering the oven heat just a bit for taller cakes and/or covering the top with foil after a while to shield it from the top heat.
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