A Simple Trick for Making Picture-Perfect Loaf Cakes and Quick Breads

With summer in full swing, you’ve probably got your go-to zucchini bread recipe working overtime. Or maybe you’re still caught in the banana bread craze of 2020. Either way, loaf breads and cakes are not always the most eye-catching items on the breakfast buffet. Sure, adding a slice of banana to the top might get you a few extra Instagram hits, but if you’re looking for a simple, easy trick to make any quick loaf bread look better, Edd Kimber — winner of the first season of the Great British Bake Off — has a little tip for you on his Instagram. 

Kimber, who posts on social media as The Boy Who Bakes, asks in his post, “How to get your loaf to split perfectly down the middle?” He then answers his own question in the video, revealing a trick he describes as a “super-simple tip to up the look of your loaf cakes with the use of a little butter and a dough scraper.”

In the video, he demonstrates the technique. He shows adding the raw batter to a prepared loaf pan (Kimber clips the parchment paper to the side with metal binder clips — so smart!). Then, he explains, you brush a dough scraper or knife with melted butter and dip or drag that down the center of the loaf in a straight line. “That creates a weak point so as the cake bakes it naturally splits at that point.” Then he shows the puffed-up baked loaf with a lovely straight split down the center. In Kimber’s own words, a “stupid easy” trick that works wonderfully.

Have you tried this before? Let us know in the comments!