building up cake

[ben88]

What are the best tobaccos to build up a cake? Or just spread honey on the bowl and smoke anything?

 

[aldecaker]

Depends on your take on cake. Different tobaccos build harder or softer cakes (ie: VA=harder cake, Burley=softer cake. I personally would not spread anything inside the bowl, though some swear by it. What types of tobaccos are you intending to smoke?

 

[easterntraveler]

Any tobacco. Smoke slow and make sure you you smoke everything in the bowl. It will just happen. It does take longer then you would expect.

 

[cigrmaster]

In my experience Va, Vaper and Vabur flakes build a nice hard cake faster than English and aromatic blends. I have no experience with Burley blends but there are a lot of people who swear that blends like Carter Hall are great for breaking in a pipe. Basically the higher the sugar content the better is the rule of thumb.

 

[zekest]

Why on earth would anybody deliberately set out to build up cake in their pipe?

 

[jpmcwjr]

I've done an actual sugar coating to overcoat the black coating of unknown substance on a brand new pipe. (enough coats??)
It worked a treat, but otherwise, cake build up is a natural process, one I don't need or want to hurry.

 

[danielplainview]

MMM cake.

 

[newbroom]

I don't know a lot about it, but some of my older cobs do taste better than the newer ones. Not so much that they're caked as seasoned. I think that holds true with briars as well.

 

[easterntraveler]

Cake helps protect the inside of the bowl. Think of it as a protective layer. It also will help keep your smoke dry as it will absorb some unwanted moisture.

 

[aldecaker]

+1 on the "seasoning", newbroom. I'm not going to say cake is over-rated, but I do think it is a bit misunderstood. I have noticed that a lot of new pipers are inordinately concerned with "caking" a pipe; I think somewhere along the line the myth started that caking is a de riguer part of pipe smoking. As it turns out, it, like most other things pipe related, ultimately winds up being a matter of personal preference. The rub is, your preference will only become apparent after some degree of experience. I recall seeing something on one of the forums where a new piper was asking advice on building cake; one of the responses was that basically, sooner or later, the same poster would be back inquiring as to how to get rid of all that damned cake!

 

[pruss]

Why on earth would anybody deliberately set out to build up cake in their pipe?

Because it's generally agreed that a thin layer of cake helps protect the briar from risk of burnout, and helps create a neutral smoke. An uneven cake, or exceedingly thick cake, can be dangerous as it expands at a different rate than briar does at temperature and you can crack a bowl with bad/thick cake.
Our fallen comrade, Rothnh, had a standard response on how to build cake... it went like this:

Just smoke it. The cake will take care of itself. Try to sip so the pipe doesn't get overly hot. Make sure you smoke full bowls -- the goal being developing the cake properly and evenly from close to the rim to the very bottom heel of the pipe -- not doing this and the resultant uneven cake will cause problems, so it's worth doing it right.
Use the pipe tool spoon or a dull pipe knife (I use the latter, either work well) and gently "scrape" the debris out of the bowl after every smoke, follow that with a "reaming" of the bowl with a paper towel, then clean the rest of the pipe normally. Eventually, a nice, hard (hard is important) cake develops. Using the dull pipe knife, I've been able to maintain my hard cake to the thickness of a dime, which, for me, is perfect.

I miss his (many, many) posts.
-- Pat

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

I can attest that spreading honey all over your pipe and smoking it relentlessly is a very effective cake builder.

At this point some parts of the surface are completely transformed to carbon. I'm not saying you could layer the space shuttle with it, but I don't think I have to worry about burnouts.

 

[frozenchurchwarden]

Ok, the post above was a bit of a joke. It is a coating of honey, but it was caramelized many times over with a propane torch. It is indeed very heat resistant and I think it's a neat kind of rustication.

At the very least I can say for certain that it's one of a kind.
The biggest preblem was the mortise shrank, so it won't fit standard plastic Missouri Meerschaum stems anymore. Luckily my plans were to use a custom acrylic stem anyway.

 

[easterntraveler]

The pipes I have with cake have a dryer smoke then the others.

 

[jpmcwjr]

So you have noted! But the physics of briar and carbon coating don't seem to support that notion. Is it not possible there are other factors at play?

 

[mso489]

Repeating myself for the umpteenth time, but I'm of the school that feels that a thin carbon coating suffices for "cake," so I scoop, then wipe out the bowl with a paper towel or napkin after every smoke. A thin layer of carbon will do everything that a big chunky, ash-ridden, ugly, bowl reducing cake will and probably delivers a better flavor besides. The above-honored roth and several current Forums members are of the same school. Several of my bought-new thirty year old pipes attest to this method. If you like cake, and doing the necessary reaming (and learn to do it without damaging your pipes) that's great. I prefer this alternate way.

 

[deathmetal]

If you want good thick cake, smoke an aromatic with a burley base. Should incubate some carbon for you.

 

[zekest]

Incubated Carbon, or lack thereof, is the sole reason your Borkum Riff bites the crap out of your mouth.
Schmear some bacon grease and honey inside your bowl, and you will have a cool, sweet smoke.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Schmear is a Yiddish-sounding word made up by Noah's Bagels.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There was a guy who bought a pipe and reamer at The Briary, and was so excited about building up the cake so that he could ream it. I don't get the excitement about cake. Well, I remember when I first started, I was curious about why it was taking so long to build up cake. But, as the years pass by and I smoke slower and slower, I have developed a loathing for cake. The slower you smoke the faster the cake builds, and I don't need insulation for the briar. I prefer the clean taste of tobacco with a slight aroma of the warmed briar over nasty carbon build up.

With a slow style and thin walls on the pipe, I don't worry about heat. Paradoxically, cake builds up faster, so I keep the pipe reamed with a paper towel, occasionally still having to scrape it back to wood with my pocket knife. If you want cake faster, smoke in a way that will make the cake unnecessary, ha ha. I think that if you puff and smoke faster and hotter, cake might benefit you more, but will take longer to form. This is best for those who only get to smoke a couple of times a day or less, and don't get the practice in smoking slower. Like I said, a paradox.
But, don't rush it. It's not going to be a ticker-tape parade where the pipe magically smokes better, IMO. I see it as buying a new car and being anxious about the first tune up. Just enjoy it the way it is. The cake will happen, rain or shine, for better or worse.