“While you’d typically make a layer cake using “normal” circular aluminum baking pans, isn’t it nice to know you don’t need them? That you can do it with a single cast-iron skillet? A tribute to baker Liz Lorber in Atlanta, who introduced me to Hot Milk Cake and got my wheels turning, this recipe also reminds me of my father. He’s almost always on a diet, and whichever one it is, it usually forbids cereal. Sometimes he’ll say, with such longing, that all he wants is a simple bowl of cornflakes and milk—or even better, cornflakes and cream. Poor Dad! If only he wasn’t on a diet, again, I’d cut him a square of this crunchy-coated, fluffy cake.” -Charlotte Druckman
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The Upside-Down Plate Trick
Why does it seem like getting stuff out of your skillet is harder than cooking anything in it? Maybe because it’s a hot, heavy pan and there’s potential for your food to stick to it. Here’s how I do it:
- Make sure the edges of your baked good are completely detached from the cast iron. If needed, run a butter knife around the interior wall of the pan to loosen them.
- Place a plate the same size as the pan (or even slightly larger) over the skillet and, with pot holders, grab hold of both the plate and the pan handle, and turn the duo upside down so the skillet is on top. The cooked item should drop onto the plate.
- If it won’t budge, flip it again so the plate is back on top. Set the plate aside and try gently slipping a spatula under the outer rim of the crust to slightly lift the item from the pan.
- Put the plate back over the skillet and try the trick again.
- The same principle applies if you need to flip a facedown baked good from one plate to another to present the finished product right-side up.
- If you have flipped something to cook its other side and need to return it to the pan, carefully slide the item off the plate and into the skillet on the uncooked side and proceed as directed.
