Best 9 X 13 Inch Cake Pans of 2026

This is the least expensive pan in the group, and nothing about baking in it feels like a compromise. The steel body is lighter than the USA Pan's at about a pound and a half, the nonstick surface lets a sheet cake out without greasing, and the 2-inch sides are standard for the size. If you're stocking a kitchen from scratch or adding a second pan for brownies, the savings are real.

What we didn't expect at this price is how well it handles the jobs that matter. It's rated to 450 °F like the pans that cost more, it resists warping, and the surface wipes clean under warm water in seconds, which is the one place this pan might be the best of the lot. Against the rest of the set it's mid-pack on heft, but on release and cleanup it gives up nothing.

One thing to know before you order: despite the dishwasher-safe billing, hand washing is what the maker recommends for best performance. It takes about as long as loading the machine and keeps the surface clear of the film that dulls a nonstick coating. Rinse it, set it in the rack, and the pan stays slick.

There is no nonstick coating on this pan, and for a certain kind of baker that's the entire appeal. The 16-gauge anodized aluminum is thick and straight-sided, with square corners that make bar cookies cut evenly, and it's rated to 550 °F, a hundred degrees above every coated pan in this group. Nothing on it can peel, flake, or lift at the corners, which takes the biggest long-term worry off the table before you ever preheat the oven.

What you trade for that is release. Bare aluminum grips a cake, so you'll grease and flour it or cut a parchment sling every single time; that convenience is exactly what a coating buys you. In exchange, the metal heats and cools fast and spreads heat with no hot spots, and our batches came out level and evenly browned rather than domed in the middle.

At 1.2 pounds it's the lightest full-size pan here, which you appreciate when you're carrying something hot and heavy to the counter, and nothing about it limits it to dessert. A 9-by-13 lasagna or a tray of roast vegetables is exactly what this pan was built for.

A frosted cake leaving the house is the reason this pan exists. The plastic lid snaps down over the rim and seals tightly enough to carry a sheet cake to a potluck without a second container, and the silicone inserts on the handles give you something to hold when the pan is coming out of a 450 °F oven with mitts on.

The pan underneath is a solid baker on its own: heavy steel with a latte-colored nonstick inside and out, rolled rims, and even heating that turns out a level cake. Our layers came out flat enough to stack without trimming, and the pan feels steady in the hand when you're moving a full batch across the kitchen. It's also dishwasher safe, which is rare in this group, and its handles are the widest here, the easiest to hold with bulky oven mitts.

The lid is where it asks for patience. It seals hard, and getting it off takes a firm tug at a corner rather than a straight pull; if your hands aren't strong, that's a real annoyance, and the Nordic Ware's looser lid may suit you better. Everything else about this pan, the grips, the even bake, the dishwasher, justifies the highest price in this set.

The label says 9 by 13, but the baking surface inside this pan measures about 12.1 by 8.8 inches. That's the number to plan around: a recipe written for a full 13-by-9 pan bakes a slightly thicker cake here, so give it a few extra minutes and check with a skewer. The compensations are 2.5-inch sides, the deepest in this group, and a domed lid tall enough to clear a frosted cake without touching it.

Pure aluminum is the draw. It conducts heat better than the coated steel pans here, it will never rust, and the reinforced rim keeps it from warping when it hits a hot rack. At 1.6 pounds it's light enough to handle one-handed, and because there's no coating, there's nothing to chip or lift at a corner.

Our verdict: it's the pick for a baker who wants even heat and a lid without a coating to babysit, and who can live with a pan that runs smaller than its name. Check the lid the day it arrives, since a lid that catches the corners will hold and one that sits loose will lift when you carry the pan from one side.

The raised circles on this pan's surface do the same job as the ridges on the USA Pan, cutting the contact between metal and batter, but they do it in the coating rather than the steel. The result is a surface that lets a brownie out without a greased pan, wrapped in a chocolate-brown finish that looks better in a cabinet than the usual gray.

The bones are good too: heavy-gauge steel with rolled rims, a 450 °F rating, wide handles that stay comfortable under oven mitts, and a dishwasher-safe claim most of this group won't make. At 2 inches deep it's a standard-depth pan, right for brownies, bar cookies, and a single-layer sheet cake, not for a tall lasagna.

Our take is that it's the pan for someone who wants release above everything and doesn't want to hand wash. It's the slickest surface here, and the fact that it can go in the dishwasher makes it the easiest to live with day to day. Keep metal utensils out of it and the surface will hold much longer.

If your brownies come out with a scorched base and an underdone middle, this is the pan built for you. Farberware traps a layer of air between two walls of heavy-gauge steel, so heat reaches the bottom of the batter gradually instead of all at once, the same principle as a water bath minus the water.

The trade-off is a gentler bake overall. Cakes come out pale and tender rather than golden, edges stay soft instead of crisp, and a recipe may need longer in the oven than it does in a single-wall pan. It's the wrong choice if you want chewy brownie edges; it's the right one for delicate sponge, blondies, and anything with a history of burning.

The lid is the practical bonus. It seals well enough to keep a tray of brownies fresh on the counter, which is more than most pans here offer, and it's the reason this one doubles as a take-along dish. Underneath it all is the same easy-release Farberware nonstick as our budget pick, so cleanup is a quick hand wash.

We rate it as a specialist rather than an only pan. Buy it if burnt bottoms have been your recurring problem, or if you bake a lot of delicate cakes and bar cookies; if you want one pan that also turns out crisp-edged brownies and a deep casserole, the USA Pan covers more ground.

The Fat Daddio's above solves the coating question by not having one. This pan takes the other route: a PFOA- and PTFE-free nonstick over carbon steel, with a diamond-patterned surface that lifts food a hair off the base so air and steam can escape underneath. For anyone who wants easy release without the fluoropolymer chemistry, that's a sensible answer.

It bakes evenly and it's rated to 500 °F, fifty degrees beyond the coated steel pans here, which is enough range to move it from dessert duty to roast chicken and sheet-pan dinners. The interior runs about 13.1 by 9.1 inches with 2.2-inch sides, so a standard 13-by-9 recipe fills it properly, and the rolled edges keep the pan from flexing when it's hot.

It's a hand-wash pan, and water can sit in the rolled rim after washing. Dry it upside down on a towel rather than leaving it in the sink, because rust starting at the rim is the one failure worth guarding against. Do that and the champagne finish stays as it came.

We like it for anyone who wants PTFE-free release and higher heat than a coated steel pan allows. It's the closest thing here to a do-everything pan that never needs greasing, and it handles both a boxed cake mix and a tray of roast vegetables without complaint.