my cake just finished. Here's what i did. It was a BC cake mix butter recipe yellow. I did milk instead of water and i added 1 vallilla pudding cup and everything else as directed. I baked at 325 and its been going from 6:28 and just finished and 7:43 so 1 hr and 15 mins. Its an 8'' x 3'' pan and i have a flower nail in the middle. Why does it look like this? This has happened to me before but this is the 1st time i've used the flower nail so i haavent solved my problem as to why my cakes come out like this. The ends are always curled like in the photo and its always domed and cracked. Any help would be appreciated. BTW i used the bake even strips before and the 1st time the cake came out perfect and when i used it again the cake came out like this one and also my 3rd use it came out like this. Its getting really frustrating. Thanks

Ok i'm editing i just took the cake out of the pan now i'm really going to cry. This is the 3rd time the cake has come out exactly like this. What is going on. I'm am soooo gonna scream. I dont know what to do, should i bake another following the box exactly? Its just a practice cake but what practice do i get if it comes out like this?

ok also the cake tester came out clean but the bottom of the cake is not fully cooked. Any help and i would be so greatful.

ok also the cake tester came out clean but the bottom of the cake is not fully cooked. Any help and i would be so greatful.

I am thinking it is the pudding cup. I have never heard of adding ready made pudding to cakes.

I have had luck with using 1 box instant pudding mix(powder only) per 2 cake mixes.

I am thinking the ready made pudding is making the cake too dense and moist and affecting how it bakes.

Hopefully someone else can have some more info.

I am just trying to think of something because i see no one has responded. I have heard on here that when you add a liquid to a cake mix you have to add a dry ingredient. Like an extra egg and powder pudding mix. Don't quote me on this but I think that is how I remember it. If you used milk in lieu of water PLUS added a pudding pack that is a lot of extra liquid going into the mix. I would try baking it without adding anything and see what happens.

Another thought came to mind is about your oven....have you baked in it before? Has it baked evenly in the past? Sorry I do not have the answers..........just trying to brainstorm with you. I am sure someone on here will help.

bj

Out of the 3 this is the 1st that i used the pudding cup so its not that, but thank you and whats so aggravating is that they all come out exactly the same even though i do different things. I'm off to bake a cake with the box directions.

that is what i think the problem is also. the ready made pudding is adding to much moisture to it and keeping it from baking. i use one packet of instant pudding per cake mix box. my cakes have been turning out great using that method. i also add a little bit more oil. where the recipe calls for 1/3 cup i use 1/2. everyone says they are so moist and good. i have baked several cakes and taken them into work and this method is everyones favorite. not to mention with the instant pudding they hold up for quite a while without the cake getting hard. hope this is some help. i know its pretty much a repeat, but thought if you had several comments of using the same method it would help out.

Personally, I prefer Duncan Hines cake mix to any of the others. My daughter did a sceince project on the best rising cake mix and DH won. I always mix the eggs, water and oil before adding the cake mix. When making a white cake, I increase the egg whites to 4. I found when I used three, my cakes although most crumbled. I always flavor my white cakes with almond. I use an almond emulsion rather than an abstract. The emulsion is cheaper and stronger so less is needed per box of cake mix.

I follow Wilton's recommend amount of cake batter for each size pan I use. I bake all cakes at 325 and remove them from the oven the minute they leave the sides of the pan.

I have never had a cake look like yours. Wish I could be of more help.

Are you sure your oven temp is correct? I could be waaaay off here because I don't use mixes, but if that were a scratch cake, I'd say your oven is too high. Try www.baking911.com, click on cakes and then "what went wrong?"

I live above the high altitude level--3500 feet--so I always follow the directions for that. I have never added pudding mix and mine turn out fine. I use DH and BC mixes and both bake great. I don't know if you live in a humid area, I am in the desert!! lol Maybe that is affecting it. Try baking one just for the heck of it following the directions on the box and not adding anything else. If it bakes good, you know it is the extras. HTH Good luck....Donna

sorry about that. you might want to also check your oven settings. make sure that the oven selector is on bake and not on broil. you have the temperature right but sounds like something else might be wrong. and check your oven rack, your cake might be to close to the heating element. hope this one helps.

If you baked that cake for 1 hr and 15 min, It has way to much moisture or else it would be burned. Either that or your oven temp is way off. I would check my oven temp before waisting any more money. You can get oven thermometers at stores like Wal-Mart, they are not very expensive.
Hope you get everything figured out. You can't get to the decorating part ( the fun part), if you can't get your cakes baked ( the not so fun part) Good luck.

wow - talk about deja vu - I had the same thing happen to me this week and I have NEVER had a cake do that odd drapey thing on the side - like it had risen then slid back down on itself. But I have never added milk to a cake in place of water before and I did with that mix. The basic cake recipe that I use is a box of cake mix, add 1 1/2 cups of water, 1/2 cup oil, 1 small box of pudding mix, and four eggs. Like I said, when I modified and used milk instead water all of the cakes came out of the pans looking basically like yours. My next attempt was subbing 1/2 cup of flavored coffee creamer (Hazelnut) for 1/2 cup of water (1 cup of water, 1/2 cup creamer) with all the other ingriedents listed above and everything went well.

So my newbie suggested is (as stated in a prior post) ditch the pudding cup and try the pudding mix instead. and try altering your water/milk ratio.

Please let us know about your success!!

Joan

I checked out the Baking911 website and "what went wrong" but its contradicting. When i click on peaked cracked top it says 1 thing and then on heavy layer on bottom it says the opposite and also uneven layers. Thanks for the website though.

Wow. I have to say I never saw a cake that looked like that before. But I have found a way to correct the cakes that hump. I have replaced all of my old pans with new ones from Wilton. I had old alum. ones. Also, I learned a trick on another board that works really well when you have a big hump in the cake. When it comes out of the oven, place pan on cooling rack. Immediately take a folded over terry towel, place on top of the entire cake, & press down all over the top. This really works.
Also, I have never heard of adding milk instead of water. Might you just try using the exact ingredients? I don't use any extras in my box mixes & my customers rave about my cakes. When I turn them out of the pans, I immediately cover the entire cake with plastic wrap. It seals in all the moisture.

i wonder if the bottom element in your oven isn't working?
strange...

My new cake baking right now is almost done. i did it exactly as the box directed and i'm using a bake even strip but the top looks the same as the pic posted, not sure what the side looks like yet. Will find out soon. If the side is smooth i'll be fine, ill just cut out the top but we'll see.

Hi, i have had this problem, you need another egg and 1 box of powered pudding not the liquid cups of pudding, try one of the cake extender recipes on here. I personaly find that the "durable cake for 3d and wedding cakes" is very simple and turns out great everytime. I also bake mine at 350 for an hour, it just seems to work the best for me. You might want to try letting your cake set for a while in the pan say 15 mins or so- so it sets up and "rests" then pop it out of the pan. I hope this helps. Goodluck

I let my cake sit in the pan for about 10 mins before removing and then i put it onto a cooling rack until fully cooled.

Ok my 2nd cake the top came out pretty much the same, 1 side rose higher then the other also. The sides are pretty ok, nothing like the pic. on 1 side there are some dents, not totally smooth but its workable if i remove the dome on top.

the 1st cake, as much problems as it was it is sooo delicious. Not eating the undone bottom of course. I can really taste the pudding and its sooo yummy, if i can get that cake to come out perfect i would love it. Still dont know what the problem is though.

Okay then, now what I suggest is clicking on "ask Sarah" on the baking911 site. I was having trouble with a cream cheese pound cake batter curdling and then shriveling up on me after baking (kinda like your cake, now that I think about it) and she was able to pinpoint exactly what was going wrong. Squirrelly Cakes is the other moderator on that site, so if one of them can't figure it out, I'm sure the other will!

I may be way off base here, but are you overfilling your pan? Also, how long are you beating your batter?

I have added a ready made pudding cup to my cake mix and no other dry ingredient and never had a problem. I don't think it's that. I think your oven temp is probably off. Good Luck in finding what went wrong. I know it must be so frustrating.

i think your heat is too high... you might want to get an oven thermometer because ovens vary and even if your dial is set to the temperature called for in the recipe, it might not be the actual temp inside the oven.

i work with scratch cakes so i really wouldn't know about what happened with the cake mix. i'll take a guess when i say that maybe you should replace the pudding cup with a box of dry pudding?

My pan is about a little less than 3/4 full and i beat on low for about 30 secs then on "beating" for about 2 mins. I have a sunbeam so beating would be about medium speed. I really dont think its the pudding cup because i this happened to me 3 times in a row and the 1st 2 times i didnt put a pudding cup. Thank you all for trying to help, hope i figure this out soon, i'll take the advice of cheeseball and seek out help from squirrelly cakes or sarah.

I had this exact thing happen a few times...like some little elf got into that pan while it was baking and squeezed the cake all around the middle...but then it wasn't completely done in the center and at the bottom, either...curled edges too. After this happening 2 or 3 times, I got an oven thermometer. I preheated the oven to 325..then checked the thermometer...it said it was at 410!!!! I started thinking and realized that everything I cooked in the oven had been getting overdone, not done enough, etc. So then I started adjusting the knob up and down while I cooked or baked something, trying to keep a steady temp...PAIN IN THE BUTT!!!

I kept doing this until one day, the day of my first Wilton Class I, my cake batter rose sooooo quickly (only after about 6 minutes in the oven) that it overflowed and caught the oven on FIRE!! Yes...I said FIRE!! When we went to buy a new oven a few days later, the appliance salesman told us that when a heating element is going out that the temp will constantly fluctuate (which is what it looks like yours is doing, by the way your cakes are turning out - rising, stopping, rising again, creating the 'skinny middle' part & the edges are curled because the oven is REALLY hot at first, during the first rise of hte cake) until it does nothing but stay at really high temps...then you can't cook anything properly in it because all it will do is burn things on the outside and leave the food raw on the inside...unless it's in there a while...LOL. Then you'll have a nice black doorstop!

Sorry so long, just thought I would share my experience in case it's what's happening to you. HTH!

i'm definately getting a thermometer to check and then i'll see if hubby can fix whatever is going wrong. I'll definately post when i get some info for future reference.