My dd wants chocolate cake for her bd on Sunday so I baked it last night and before it was done (I'd say it was half done) it started to smell like it was burning. When it was finally done, it really stunk up the house with it's burning smell, but when I took it out it wasn't really that burned. Just a tad on the edges and a little on the bottom. Why? Has this happened to anybody else?

the top of my cakes will sometimes have a little darker color. I bake in 3" pans and my cooking time is quite longer. Could be too hot, Could be rack placement yada yada! There are many factors. You said the bottom was burned --black??

No, not completely just an edge. It also baked up higher on one side so it looks like a topsy turvey cake already. I used a DH chocolate fudge mix and doctored it with choc. pudding, extra egg, used milk instead of water.

It will be fine. Just trim off the burnt edegs! I am not a fan of pudding. When I have used mix and pudding it really makes the cake heavy in my opinion.

You can just flower nail it or wrap with strips to make more level. I will make a dip in the middle of the batter also!

Thanks Moydear77. I did plan on using the cake anyway. 6 and 7 year olds only eat the frosting anyway HAHAHA.

I experience this too when I bake a chocolate cake. I baked a BC milk chocolate cake last night and it started to give a slight burning smell but it wasn't really burnt. I scraped off some of the darker crumbs from the bottoms and I'll probably cut off the top edges today which formed a slight crust but not burnt. What temperature did you bake at? I baked on 325. I don't do 350 anymore or it definitely would have burned.

I baked it at 325 for 30 minutes. Talk about frustrating.

I burned a choc cake tonight too! Of course it's because it was in for 35 min, still not done but we had to leave for a motocross show (don't ask!) and I was planning on turning off the oven and leaving it in - only a 6" so if I had to toss it oh well not a customer cake. Well we left, came home, and as soon as I walked in and could smell it I realized I FORGOT TO TURN OFF THE OVEN!

It was QUITE done after almost 5 hours in the oven

Heehee, I burnt the bottom of my chocolate cupcakes that I made this past weekend. The recipe made either an 8 inch layer cake or 30 cupcakes so I decided to make cupcakes. It said to bake cupcakes for 25-30 minutes. I started smelling them at 20 minutes and when I took them out, I could tell from the smell that they were scorched on the bottom. I had some left over batter and put them in the oven. Fifteen minutes, they were done and no burned bottoms. But instead of doing my usual, "I screwed it up so I'm going to toss it out", I came up with idea of just slicing off the tops and plopping my buttercream frosting in the middle and turning them into cupcake whoopies. Think SuzyQs but only better!