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Springform Pans

A Springform Pan is a straight-sided cake pan whose sides and bottom come away from each other. With a Springform Pan, the mechanics are reversed: you don't remove the cake from the pan, you remove the pan from the cake.

The pans are used a great deal for cakes such as cheesecake and mousse cakes that are very hard to remove intact from a regular pan.

Springform Pans are generally round, but you can get square ones and even heart-shaped ones; you can also get tube pans made as springforms.

They can be made of tinned steel, aluminum, stainless steel, or non-stick coated metal.

A clamp (or "buckle") on the side holds the pan together during baking, then releases the cake when it's all baked.

Common sizes are 9 and 10 inches wide (22 and 25 cm), and about 2 3/4" (7 cm) tall.

If the cake batter is thin, it is not uncommon for even the best of Springform Pans to leak. Some have a rim on the bottom on the sides on the inside to help prevent this. If yours doesn't have such a rim, wrap the outside in tin foil.

If Springform Pans are bent at all, they are even more prone to leak, so inspect carefully any bargains you find at yard sales or boot sales. Store them in a manner that they won't get bashed around in your cupboards.

Some recipes call for you to put Springform Pans in a water bath while baking, because the kinds of cakes being cooked in them often need moderated heat from the water. But the problem is that leaks can go both ways: not only can batter leak out, but water can seep in and ruin the cake. You can find another recipe that doesn't call for such a tricky scenario, or cover the outside with a very large piece of tin foil that doesn't have openings beneath the water level, or double-wrap the bottom in tin foil.

A common problem is that even after baking, the cakes are delicate. Consequently, people often leave the cakes on the cake bottom for support, and take them that way to a party or a dinner, leave the leftovers behind of course for the host or hostess -- and then the bottoms never get returned. If you line the bottom with parchment paper, you'll be able to slide the cake more easily off onto a plate (or a piece of cardboard, if where you're going has a reputation for never returning anything.) Or even better, cut a cardboard circle to fit the bottom of the pan, cover it completely with tin foil, join side down, then bake, and the cardboard platform is ready to go as your support. Besides, if your pan has a non-stick bottom, then you definitely want it off the bottom anyway: you don't want people cutting the cake with a knife on that, or even on plated steel for that matter. Some Springform Pans now have heatproof glass bottoms, which solves the problem of ruining the bottom by cutting cake on it with a knife.

If you line the bottom with parchment paper or wax paper, chill the cake thoroughly before attempting to lift it away from the bottom of the pan.

Why use a springform pan?

A springform pan is a type of cake pan that has removable sides. The strip of metal that makes up the sides of the pan is shaped into a ring and is held together with an adjustable latch or buckle. It can be tightened by snapping the latch into place, tightening the ring and creating a tight seal with the pan’s base. When unlatched, the ring expands and can easily be removed from the cake and/or the cake base.

A springform pan can be used in place or a regular cake pan in any recipe. When the ring is closed, they bake cakes (or other baked goods) in exactly the same way as a standard one-piece pan. The difference comes when you want to remove the cake that is inside the pan. With most pans, the cake must be inverted to remove it from the pan. This isn’t a good idea with all cakes, like delicate cheesecakes or cakes with toppings on them, such as streusel-heavy coffee cakes, because the cakes would never survive being flipped upside down out of a regular pan in one piece! With a springform, you can essentially remove the pan from the cake with great ease. Typically, cakes baked in springform pans are cooled right in the pan and the ring is removed before serving. The cake can be served directly on the pan’s base or carefully slid off onto a cake plate or othe serving platter.