成人快手

Non-stick sprays

You can get, in pump bottle or aerosol, a liquid that contains vegetable oil and typically an emulsifier like lecithin that forms a layer between the mixture and the tin and helps stop the cake from sticking. Really good if you鈥檙e short of time, though I have weaned myself off a dependence on them. They can leave a build-up on aluminium trays if exposed to direct heat without a covering of mixture or dough.

Pros: very easy and quick to use, and fairly dependable for cake mixtures.

Cons: A bit expensive. You鈥檙e left with a fair amount of packaging to dispose of so there are environmental concerns too.

Brown, greaseproof and siliconised baking paper

Though plain trays could be coated the same way, sometimes oiled paper was used for small cakes, meringues and biscuits. The big hassle in my home growing up was washing the tin with cake stuck to it, so my mum just used brown paper 鈥� this was the time when groceries were packed into brown paper bags 鈥� rubbed with sunflower oil so it turned translucent. This would be cut and folded into the tin and, even though the cake stuck to it and the paper has to be torn off, the mixture wouldn鈥檛 stick to the tin.

Greaseproof or straight baking paper works the same way, and will grip onto food in fiercest way. However, if your baking paper is described as 鈥渘on-stick鈥� or has the word 鈥渟iliconised鈥� written on the box, then this usually won鈥檛 stick. It is more expensive, but it can be used at least 3-4 times before it starts to tear. Just remove the paper after baking, let it cool, the place it carefully away until next time.

Pros: so cheap to do so long as you collect your paper bags, or reuse your baking paper; and avoids washing up.

Cons: Unless the paper is coated with silicone, the food will stick to it.

Silicone bakeware and sheets

In small commercial bakeries you鈥檒l usually find a silicone baking mat lurking somewhere. Flexible and strong, reinforced with threads of fiberglass, it forms a non-stick surface that works very well with tricky high-sugar mixtures. You can bake directly on it, and it鈥檚 food safe and easy to clean. They鈥檙e expensive, but one to buy if you want a reusable long-lasting solution for flat baking sheets.

Lately you will have seen, or own, 鈥渢ins鈥� made entirely of silicone moulded like rubber. This should provide a complete non-stick surface but when turning out hot foods, like a molten chocolate cake, the steam can cause a suction effect and cause the mixture to stick. These moulds typically have soft rounded edges, are flexible, and lightweight but slightly unstable when filled.

Pros: excellent durability if looked after, light to hold and easy to clean. Provides a very good non-stick surface

Cons: Can be unstable when moving into or out of oven

Teflon and other non-stick surfaces

Nearly all metal bakeware is now available with a non-stick coating. There鈥檚 a multi-billion pound coatings industry behind these quick-release surfaces and given the potential money to be made there鈥檚 competition in providing the best result.

New ceramic surfaces are starting to appear on the market, but predominantly non-stick bakeware uses one or more coats of tough fluoropolymers locked 鈥減ermanently鈥� into place through further chemical and temperature treatments.

The most well-known of these coatings is Teflon, which uses a chemical called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) to create a very low-friction surface that should, in theory, cause many food to slide right off during baking. But though Teflon has become a generic term for non-stick it should correctly be used for the type Dupont make, as there are many other types of non-stick coating, using various chemicals to achieve a similar effect: like perfluoroalkoxy (PFA) and fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP).

I always end up scratching the surface in some way, don鈥檛 always clean in the corners properly, so very soon into use my food begins to stick. And when that happens I end up lining the non-stick bakeware with non-stick paper. So to be frank I鈥檓 often just as happy with the old-fashioned tins, either spankingly new or just vintage ones from car boot sales, and with paper or the butter/flour combination ensure that my cakes don鈥檛 stick. It鈥檚 what my mum did, and her mum too, and sometimes that鈥檚 reason enough.

How important is non-stick bakeware for you? What approach do you take?