A few months ago, I came across one of those clever baking hacks, the kind you find when you're browsing social media late at night, the ones that make you wonder, “Why didn't I think of that?”
Dedicated cake bakers know that a turntable, which is basically an elevated cake stand that rotates, is a handy tool for frosting cakes. It gives you a level surface to work on, raises the height so you don't have to lean over the counter, and allows you to easily roll the cake with one hand while you're frosting or decorating with the other, resulting in a smooth finish of the freeze or an uninterrupted line of pipes.
But heavy-duty countertops can be expensive and take up valuable real estate in your kitchen, both of which are hard to justify if you're just a casual cake baker.
Hack to the rescue! Cookbook author Richard Makin (aka @schoolnightvegan) recently posted this trick on his Instagram: Instead of using a cake plate, he removes the wheel ring from his microwave (you know, the one where the microwave plate spins, aka the microwave turntable ring), place a plate on top of the ring and then place the cake on top of the plate, where it rolls easily. Voilà! A DIY cake table.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Even though I own a suitable cake table, I was eager to try this trick. Plus, it gave me a reason to bake our new one Blueberry Lemon Tart, a towering tiered cake that has attractive blueberry flecked frosting, best achieved using a rotating cake stand. And … it worked perfectly!
While a microwave ring doesn't lift your cake as high off the counter as some turntables, it rotates easily, allowing you to rotate your cake while you smooth the frosting. A offset shoulder OR paring knife is another useful tool; hold the spatula or bench knife at a 45-degree angle against the side of the cake, then turn the makeshift plate over to smooth the frosting. (For more tips on how to frost your cakes like a pro, check out this video, How to frost a cake.)
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
If you own a microwave but don't want to invest in a turntable, this is a great solution. And if you don't even have a microwave, you can buy microwave plate rings for cheap, and they're small and light enough to store easily.
Give it a spin and let us know what you think!
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
