Problem: Baking the cake was a cinch — it was the unmolding that was your undoing.

Solution: Get inventive with the frosting, suggests Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Cake Bible (Morrow, $35, www.amazon.com). When a cake comes out of the pan in pieces, glue it back together by spreading generous amounts of frosting along the edges and pressing the pieces together. If the cake emerges intact but a crumbly layer remains attached to the pan, apply a thin layer of frosting to seal in the crumbs, rinsing the blade with warm water and drying it after each swipe. Then frost as usual.

Next Time: If your cake sticks, place the bottom of the pan on a towel that has been wrung out with very hot water; the heat will loosen the cake. Beranbaum takes the preemptive measures of buttering the bottom of the pan, lining it with parchment paper cut to fit, and spraying it with a nonstick spray containing flour, such as Baker’s Joy.