Flower Nail to Prevent Doming - Baking Tip #2

Flower nails are used to pipe icing flowers. For me, I use it in baking to prevent doming and unbaked cake center. Cake domed on top because the sides cook faster than the middle. So, when the middle portion cooks, there’s nowhere for it to go but up.

Flower nail helps to conduct heat to the middle of the cake to bake it evenly, preventing the edges from cracking before the center is done. This is particularly helpful when baking larger cakes (8” and above).

Here’s how to use a flower nail to prevent doming:

1. Spray flower nail with cooking spray.
2. Place it upside down (head of nail touches pan bottom) in the middle of cake pan.
3. Pour in cake batter gently. If flower nail moves, adjust back to middle position. The flower nail will be submerged by batter. Bake as usual.
4. Cool cake for 5 – 10 minutes. Invert cake to wired racks. Remove the flower nail gently as it will be very hot. Invert cake back so that the tops are up. Flower nail may leave a small hole in the cake, but it would be covered once the cake is frosted.

Here, I placed the flower nail right at the centre of the pan

Summary & Tips
See my other tips to prevent doming:
1. Use home-made cake strips
2. Before putting in oven, gently swirl the pan so that the batter rise slightly at the side, and not the center.
3. Bake at slightly lower temperature for longer time to prevent cake from rising rapidly and cracking.

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