Do not Use a Knife to Slice Cake. This Device Is Speedier and Cleaner

This story is aspect of Try This, CNET’s collection of uncomplicated strategies to strengthen your lifestyle, fast.

No a single likes to make the initially cut on a cake that took several hours to embellish. For starters, it is hard to hold the sensitive piping in position when slicing it with a knife, leaving you with smeared frosting and crumbs stacked on best of what utilized to be a properly iced cake. Luckily, there is certainly a remarkably powerful way you can slice the cake while preserving its beauty. Just place down the mess-causing knife and grab some dental floss as an alternative.

A spool of dental floss tucks effortlessly into a kitchen or desk drawer, or a work bag, and is often at the all set. I recently examined 5 kinds of dental floss to reduce 3 styles of cake. The consequence: Some of the cleanest slices that would make any skilled bakery proud. I’m not kidding. This method functions fantastically well, and it is really shockingly easy to do. 

The only drawback: Working with floss might not be the most exquisite way to minimize cake slices and you may perhaps get icing on your fingers. But the outcomes are value it. Here’s how to slash your cake with floss, which sort of floss works greatest and some pitfalls you should completely stay clear of. For more awesome tricks, this is how to make distilled drinking water for free and how to cease junk mail for good.

@cnetdotcom Your #cake could flavor a little bit #minty depending on the floss you opt for. #lifehack#dentalfloss#trythis#didyouknow#cookinghacks#baking#howtotok♬ son primary – SHIMMYA

Why use dental floss to cut a cake?

There may be a quantity of explanations you attain for the dental floss as a substitute of a knife for reducing cake. Probably you happen to be in the office environment or at a birthday occasion in the park and the only obtainable chopping utensil is a 6-inch compostable knife. Maybe you are fatigued of buttercream buildup and want to test a little something new. 1 colleague saved the day at a celebration when a big dice cake appeared at a bar that did not have utensils for friends to use. The good thing is, the container of floss she had on hand did the job.

Here is why it functions: A strand of floss is usually thinner than the regular kitchen area knife blade, and it’s designed to slide effortlessly through limited spaces (that is, amongst your tooth). If you have at any time flossed too aggressively, sore gums are all the proof you need that the floss “edge” can be sharp. 

Increase them collectively and you have a fairly perfect instrument that can get you neat, cleanse slices soon after reducing. When slicing by way of a person cake, I could barely see where by the floss sliced via the frosting for the reason that the cuts were so neat. 

In my practical experience, applying dental floss to minimize cake also did a greater job of preserving the delicate decorations. For instance, the carrot cake I used for this check experienced a piped carrot style and design on prime of the cake. Slicing through it with the floss retained that design intact. In my knowledge, using a butcher knife to lower by means of decorations usually spoils the appear, leaving a smeared style and design — but it is dependent on the sharpness, width and length of the knife blade.

And that dilemma of accrued frosting on the edge of the knife? Generally absent — with the exception of buildup on your fingers.

How to cut any cake utilizing dental floss

Very first, make positive your cake is on a flat surface so you have home to pull the floss all the way to the cake’s bottom. You could place it on a cake stand to give you far more room as you slice down. Next, spool out a length of floss greater than the widest component of the cake. I remaining several inches on every single conclude to wrap the floss close to my fingers easily. When you wrap the floss about your fingers, really don’t make it super tight: You might be attempting to reduce cake, not your fingers. 

If you might be making an attempt to make just about every slice the very same dimensions, you may well want to use the floss to lightly mark guidebook strains before slicing by way of the cake. 

All set? This is what to do.

Sq. or rectangular cake: If the cake is shaped like a sq. or rectangle, it may possibly be easier to cut simply because all those cakes are frequently shorter than spherical cakes. Making use of your floss, make your cuts across the cake lengthwise, pressing firmly into the cake to slash all the way by means of. Now make your cuts widthwise, slicing to the bottom of the cake. 

Round cake: If your cake is formed like a circle, it can be quite possibly a layer cake so you may well need to have to apply a bit far more stress to make it all the way to the bottom of the cake. Using your floss, firmly reduce via the center of the cake to produce two halves — you may need to have to move the floss in a sawing movement to thoroughly lower it. 

Then, make a cut which is perpendicular to the 1 you just made — you ought to now have 4 triangles. Continue creating cuts, shifting all-around the cake, until finally you have the quantity of slices you have to have. Observe that the thinner you want your slices, the tougher it will be to slice mainly because the slices start off slipping aside.

Can you also use dental floss to serve cake slices?

To see if it was achievable, I tried to decide up a slice of cake with floss. It was tricky and variety of worked, but the floss slowly and gradually lower through the spongy texture as I experimented with to eliminate the slice. I counsel working with a fork or serving knife to supply slices to a plate, alternatively.

My pro suggestion for reducing cake with floss

When you might be producing cuts, at the time you’ve sliced to the base, do not pull the floss again up. Initial, accomplishing that will make your floss messier, which signifies you are going to will need to get a new strand every single time you make a slice. But far more significant, pulling the slice back up delivers crumbs to the best of your cake and pulls up a little bit of the frosting as well, so you you should not get the clean up, tidy search you are after. 

Instead, after you’ve got sliced all the way through to the base of the cake, enable go of just one finish and pull the floss out. Most of the icing and crumbs on the floss will be swept off as you slip the floss out, and you can expect to be still left with a cleanse strand that you can reuse to minimize the next slice. 

Here’s where the floss didn’t do its task

When slicing the bigger cakes, I observed the floss at times didn’t conveniently slice all the way to the base, it’s possible mainly because of the improved resistance. If this occurs to you, I recommend chopping the cake in 50 percent 1st and then operating with each individual fifty percent so there is a lot less cake — and resistance — to reduce by way of. It could also assistance to set the cake on a stand to enable you slice all the way by.

One more observe: If you’re baking a cake at residence, this system will not likely get the job done unless of course you clear away the cake from the baking dish or cake pan first. 

Which style of floss worked finest

For my assessments, I employed waxed floss from Kroger, two styles from Oral-B Glide (one particular mint flavored, the other unflavored), and two models from CVS’ retail outlet brand: a thicker, waxed dental tape and a common, unwaxed floss. I attempted the floss kinds on a few cakes: A layer carrot cake that contains bits of grated carrot, 1 taller and lighter texture sheet cake, and a single shorter and denser sheet cake (pretty much like brownies).

All the floss worked wonderful and produced neat cuts, even with the bits of carrot from the extra textured sample cake. The Glide first floss sliced as a result of the cakes a bit easier than the Kroger waxed floss. I feel it can be simply because the Glide floss felt smoother to the contact and essentially did glide by means of the cake. 

Despite my becoming anxious that it would snag, the unwaxed floss worked surprisingly well and manufactured neat slices.

The only one that smeared a little bit when earning a reduce was the dental tape — which looks extra like a ribbon than a thread of nylon floss. It designed a clean slice, however, and I would use it in a pinch. 

Flavored vs. unflavored floss: Will it adjust the taste of your cake?

I was anxious about no matter if employing flavored floss would also transfer flavor to the cake slices, but we lower parts of a chocolate sheet cake employing mint-flavored floss and none of the 4 taste-testers could detect a minty taste. To be harmless, I might stick with plain, unflavored floss if you can, and steer away from cinnamon or coconut or bubblegum flavors. 

So the future time you are slicing cake, get to for the dental floss or some thing comparable — like fishing line, stitching string or a slender wire.