need some advice on baking a 10" round 3 " deep cake. I made the first one tonight(trial run) and it is sinking in the middle!!! It was brown on top and the toothpick came out clean. What did I do wrong? Do I need baking cores for large pans?

Do you bake it at 325 or 350? I bake the bigger pans at 325 to bake them more even. Do you use baking strips?

10" round 3" deep is pretty big, I would at least use an inverted flower nail in the middle or something. I bet it wasn't done in the middle, if the top was really brown, it may have sort of "scraped clean" the toothpick. I actually use a skewer to test my cakes, seems to be more accurate.

Anything over an 8 inch I use a baking core. Especially if it is 3" pan and 10 inches across, that definately needs a baking core to bake the center before the outside dries out.

thanks for the replies. I did not use a baking core. I just cut the cake and it was so gooey in the middle But this is why you do a trial run. Do ppl have better luck with a 2" deep pan?

Sorry don't know why your cakes might be sinking, but here's a bump.

Actually I have problems with my 3" pans, too. I bought the round Wilton set and some extras of the smaller ones and wish I hadn't.

When I use them the sides, bottom, and top of the cakes get overcooked and the insides are undercooked. I have tried the heating core, nail, baking strips and lowering the temp of the oven.

I just stopped trying to make a 3" cake and now just fill the pans half full to get a little taller cake than from a 2".

Maybe someone has some wisdom for us....


Kim

Could be the recipe as well. If there is too much sugar, not enough baking powder.

But I think that big issue is no heating core. I use a nail for anything over 8 inches. I also only use 2 inch pans.

Stephanie

Do you find it's hard to get your nail clean after? Mine was baked hard. Next I tried a great trick from another CC post. I made little stand up foil thingies. They worked well, until I tried to level the cake with them still in Cake cooked evenly but got really tore up after

3" cake were problematic for me, also.

Using a lower baking temp., baking strips, inverted flower nails and straight cake mix worked best for me.

The doctored cake mix recipes which used a lot of sugar (instant pudding or coffee creamer) were the worst.

Haven't tried the WASC cake in the 3" pans, but it would probably work the best since its a balanced recipe:

http://tinyurl.com/2cu8s4

Cake troubleshooting charts:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu

http://tinyurl.com/32goqe

http://tinyurl.com/6c745g

Using scratch recipes can also be problematic since multiplying any recipe by more than 2 requires an adjustment in the leavening (use less NOT more).
(Too much leavening will also cause a cake to fall.)

There's info in the Cake Bible that addresses how to adjust the leavening (but I've never tried it).

HTH