The Basics: Part 3 or Why I'm Anti-Cooking Spray

With so many "modern convenience" items on the shelves these days it can be easy to believe that these products are somehow superior to the "old" ways of doing things. While some products definitely are better, cooking sprays for baking are not. In fact, they stink.

Take a look at the photo below.

Do you notice the difference in the two cakes? The pan on the left was buttered and floured and represents the traditional method. The pan on the right was prepared using cooking spray.

The buttered an floured version is cooking properly: rising evenly and cooking through in the middle. The cooking spray version is rising faster on the edges than in the middle. It cooked so unevenly that the edges were completely cooked before the middle ever had a chance to rise.

Don't believe me? Here is the finished product:

I was able to take the buttered and floured version out of the oven well before the other cake. The cooking spray version not only cooked unevenly and took longer to cook completely but when I checked it at the time I removed the other cake, it was still runny in the center.

This uneven cooking got even worse when I turned the cakes out of the pan. The longer cook time caused the sprayed version to burn!

This little experiment caused me to wonder how much of a "convenience" products like this really are.

In my opinion, stick to the butter. Use the real butter, too. Think of it this way: you're about to eat a big slice of something that will add to your waistline, how much more could a little butter possibly add?