You Really Don’t Need a Knife to Cut Cake

This story is a part of Strive This, CNET’s assortment of easy suggestions to enhance your life, quick.

When you have got a beautiful cake sitting in entrance of you, nobody needs to chop the primary slice and finally smear the fragile piping with a knife. However there is a surprisingly efficient means you may minimize the cake whereas preserving its magnificence. Simply put down the mess-causing knife and seize some dental floss as a substitute.

A spool of dental floss tucks simply right into a kitchen or desk drawer, or a piece bag, and is all the time on the prepared. I just lately examined 5 forms of dental floss to chop three forms of cake. The consequence: a number of the cleanest slices that may make any skilled bakery proud. I am not kidding. This technique works fantastically properly, and it is surprisingly simple to do. 

The one downside: Utilizing floss is probably not essentially the most elegant approach to minimize cake slices and chances are you’ll get icing in your fingers. However the outcomes are value it. This is learn how to minimize your cake with floss, which kind of floss works finest and a few pitfalls you must completely keep away from. For extra cool methods, here is learn how to make distilled water at no cost and learn how to cease spam for good.

@cnetdotcom Your #cake could style a bit #minty relying on the floss you select. #lifehack#dentalfloss#trythis#didyouknow#cookinghacks#baking#howtotok♬ son authentic – SHIMMYA

Why use dental floss to chop a cake?

There could also be various causes you attain for the dental floss as a substitute of a knife for chopping cake. Perhaps you are within the workplace or at a birthday celebration within the park and the one accessible chopping utensil is a 6-inch compostable knife. Maybe you are uninterested in buttercream buildup and need to attempt one thing new. One colleague saved the day at a celebration when a large dice cake appeared at a bar that did not have utensils for company to make use of. Fortunately, the container of floss she had available did the job.

This is why it really works: A strand of floss is mostly thinner than the typical kitchen knife blade, and it is designed to slip simply by tight areas (that’s, between your enamel). When you’ve ever flossed too aggressively, sore gums are all of the proof you want that the floss “edge” may be sharp. 

Add them collectively and you’ve got a reasonably supreme instrument that may get you neat, clear slices after chopping. Whereas slicing by one cake, I may barely see the place the floss sliced by the frosting as a result of the cuts had been so neat. 

In my expertise, utilizing dental floss to chop cake additionally did a greater job of preserving the fragile decorations. As an example, the carrot cake I used for this check had a piped carrot design on prime of the cake. Slicing by it with the floss stored that design intact. In my expertise, utilizing a butcher knife to chop by decorations usually spoils the look, leaving a smeared design — but it surely depends upon the sharpness, width and size of the knife blade.

And that downside of accrued frosting on the sting of the knife? Principally gone — except for buildup in your fingers.

Easy methods to minimize any cake utilizing dental floss

First, be sure your cake is on a flat floor so you have got room to drag the floss all the way in which to the cake’s backside. You would put it on a cake stand to provide you extra room as you slice down. Subsequent, spool out a size of floss larger than the widest a part of the cake. I left a number of inches on every finish to wrap the floss round my fingers comfortably. While you wrap the floss round your fingers, do not make it tremendous tight: You are attempting to chop cake, not your fingers. 

When you’re attempting to make every slice the identical measurement, chances are you’ll need to use the floss to flippantly mark information strains earlier than chopping by the cake. 

Prepared? This is what to do.

Sq. or rectangular cake: If the cake is formed like a sq. or rectangle, it could be simpler to chop as a result of these desserts are typically shorter than spherical desserts. Utilizing your floss, make your cuts throughout the cake lengthwise, urgent firmly into the cake to chop right through. Now make your cuts widthwise, slicing to the underside of the cake. 

Spherical cake: In case your cake is formed like a circle, it is presumably a layer cake so chances are you’ll want to use a bit extra strain to make all of it the way in which to the underside of the cake. Utilizing your floss, firmly minimize by the middle of the cake to create two halves — chances are you’ll want to maneuver the floss in a sawing movement to completely minimize it. 

Then, make a perpendicular minimize to the one you simply made — you must now have 4 triangles. Proceed making cuts, transferring across the cake, till you have got the variety of slices you want. Be aware that the thinner you need your slices, the tougher will probably be to chop as a result of the slices start falling aside.

Are you able to additionally use dental floss to serve cake slices?

To see if it was potential, I tried to select up a slice of cake with floss. It was tough and sort of labored, however the floss slowly minimize by the spongy texture as I attempted to take away the slice. I recommend utilizing a fork or serving knife to ship slices to a plate, as a substitute.

My professional tip for chopping cake with floss

While you’re making cuts, as soon as you have sliced to the underside, do not pull the floss again up. First, doing that may make your floss messier, which suggests you will have to get a brand new strand every time you make a minimize. However extra essential, pulling the slice again up brings crumbs to the highest of your cake and pulls up a little bit of the frosting too, so you aren’t getting the clear, tidy look you are after. 

As a substitute, as soon as you have sliced right through to the underside of the cake, let go of 1 finish and pull the floss out. Many of the icing and crumbs on the floss shall be swept off as you slip the floss out, and you will be left with a clear strand you could reuse to chop the following slice. 

This is the place the floss did not do its job

When slicing the bigger desserts, I seen the floss typically did not simply minimize all the way in which to the underside, perhaps due to the elevated resistance. If this occurs to you, I recommend chopping the cake in half first after which working with every half so there’s much less cake — and resistance — to chop by. It may also assist to place the cake on a stand that will help you slice right through.

One other word: When you’re baking a cake at house, this technique will not work except you take away the cake from the baking dish or cake pan first. 

Which kind of floss labored finest

For my assessments, I used waxed floss from Kroger, two sorts from Oral-B Glide (one mint flavored, the opposite unflavored), and two types from CVS’ retailer model: a thicker, waxed dental tape and an everyday, unwaxed floss. I attempted the floss sorts on three desserts: A layer carrot cake containing bits of grated carrot, one taller and lighter texture sheet cake, and one shorter and denser sheet cake (virtually like brownies).

All of the floss labored nice and made neat cuts, even with the bits of carrot from the extra textured pattern cake. The Glide authentic floss sliced by the desserts a bit simpler than the Kroger waxed floss. I believe it is as a result of the Glide floss felt smoother to the contact and really did glide by the cake. 

Regardless of my worrying that it will snag, the unwaxed floss labored surprisingly properly and made neat slices.

The one one which smeared a bit when making a minimize was the dental tape — which seems extra like a ribbon than a thread of nylon floss. It made a clear slice, although, and I might use it in a pinch. 

Flavored vs. unflavored floss: Will it change the style of your cake?

I used to be nervous about whether or not utilizing flavored floss would additionally switch taste to the cake slices, however we minimize items of a chocolate sheet cake utilizing mint-flavored floss and not one of the 4 taste-testers may detect a minty taste. To be protected, I might stick to plain, unflavored floss in case you can, and steer away from cinnamon or coconut or bubblegum flavors. 

So the following time you are chopping cake, attain for the dental floss or one thing comparable — like fishing line, stitching string or a skinny wire.