Greasing and flouring bakeware

So I'm going to bake a coffee cake using a tube pan, but I'm wondering. The recipe (which has been in the family for decades, clipped out of a newspaper, but which is common on the Web) doesn't mention either greasing or flouring the insides of the pan. Does this mean they assume I already know what I should do, or can I simply assume there's no need?

A side issue: Some of my bakeware is nonstick, ostensibly to get it out without cracking, tearing, etc. Would those baked goods need flouring to help rise? Or do baked goods rise equally well in regular and nonstick pans?

Hi Bob!

You know better than I whether to trust your non-stick surfaces will release your baked goods. I would at a minimum grease it. If there is a flat bottom on your tube pan, then I use parchment paper to line the bottom. I've never had a parchment paper lined pan stick, though I have occasionally had a greased one stick.

I recently picked up a new trick, via Cook's I believe, if you are delayed in removing a cake from a pan and it is sticking. Gently heat the bottom to warm the fat causing the sticking and it will release. I advised this trick to my cousin on Christmas day and it worked.

I prefer just greasing over greasing and flouring. I found the flour left a little residue, which annoyed me. Whether you flour or not, your batter will rise as well as on your non-stick surfaces.

I see little downside to greasing in a situation like this, and a high likelihood without it that something fairly soft like a coffee cake will fall apart as you try to remove it.

Flouring is, as far as I know, only an additional way (along with greasing) to give the cake a good release. It has nothing to do with how much the cake rises. I've never noticed a difference in rises between nonstick and regular pans.

I usually grease nonstick cookware for cakes, but not as much as I would my older aluminum stuff. A little spray of Pam does it for me.

I prefer to use an ungreased aluminum tube pan with removable insert for many kinds of cakes. Even if it sticks, it is easy to unmold using an icing spatula. Greasing can actually inhibit the rise. Angel food cake is the best example.

Cooks Illustrated Jan 1993 wrote: An angel food cake pan is never greased - you want the batter to climb up the sides, something which will not happen with a greased surface.

Bill/SFNM

Thanks -- that's not quite a consensus, but I was half-remembering what Bill quoted Cook's saying about angel food cakes, and unsure whether it applied across the board. Fortunately, I've got enough of the ingredients for two cakes, so I'll hope their observations apply mostly to very light cakes like angel food, go with a light spray of Pam on the first shot, and let experience be my guide (and crumbs my solace) if I need to bake another.

Again, thanks everyone!

Bob