For basic pan preparation you want to cute a circle of parchment for the bottom of your pan. You can either put the pan on the parchment, and using a pen mark around the bottom. But I never have a pen handy, and even when I do the circle is always a bit too big. I press the parchment into the pan, using my fingers to really crease the edges. 
See? When I pull it out I can clearly see where to cut. 
There it is, the perfectly sized circle. Now you can stop here if you want, spray the sides with PAM and press in the cake circle. BUT I like my cake’s taller than average. It’s great for carving my topsy turvy cakes. so I add parchement to the outsides of the pan too. 
You can just cut a strip, but it won’t be very strong. I want strong tall sides. So I pull out the parchment paper and wrap it around my pan to get the right sizes. 
Then I fold it into thirds, fold up the bottom…
Then fold down the top. 
To prepare it for the pan, I curl it. Then put it into the pan and let it uncurl. 
I spray a bit of PAM onto the bottom corners of the pan, it holds in the bottom circle and sides of the pan. 
All ready for batter! I like to pour the batter up the sides of the real pan, in this case a 3 inch tall pan. Then as it bakes it rises up taller. It’s nice for the carving I do. But you can also cut off the top and cut it into 2-4 layers, fill it and create an extra tall cake (I like my wedding cake layers to be taller, more elegant).
Baker family- Yup, not too hard! Enjoy the tip and I hope it works for you!
Maria- Well it's how I do it! There might be a better way out there, but it works for me!
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Thank you so much for this tip! I came across your site trying to find a tutorial on topsy turvy cakes and I loved it! Thanks again! ~ Kara F.
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Ashlee Reply:
September 28th, 2011 at 9:58 am
I hope the topsy turvy cake carving is as helpful for you!
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