I'm reading a review of cake pans.
Most of the round pans in the review are 2 inches tall. However, there is one round pan in the review that is 2.5 inches tall, and the review had the following comment about it:
It baked an evenly golden cake, but it was half an inch taller than any other pan, tall enough to bake the top of the cake darker than any other.
Why would baking a cake in a tall pan make the top of the cake darker?
Best Answer
Very theoretically: if the pan is filled to the brim, the upper surface of the cake will be closer to the heating element, so the cake will be somewhat darker.
I am actually quite skeptical that this is what happened here. I looked at the review you linked and don't see any indication that they scaled the recipe for the taller pan. Also, they only baked one cake per pan. Also, I wouldn't intuitively expect only half an inch difference to create a marked change in color.
Whatever the reason for the darker cake - whether something inherent in the pan, or a random difference because of the small sample size - the attribution to the taller pan sounds like a just-so story to me.