Last night I baked a carrot cakes and it like completely ruined. I followed the recipe exactly, I put it in the oven and 30 min later I checked it and its like the middle didnt even bake and the outside was done? It looked like I punched it in the middle of the cake? I dont know why. Ive made carrot cakes before and it has never done this. (But this is the first time making this recipe) so please take a look at the picture and tell me what I did wrong. (I am also around 5,000 feet so maybe it has something to do with altitude?) Also when it said 3 cups carrots do you loosely measure them or pack them?
This is the recipe I used..

Carrot Cake Straight Up

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/6073/carrot-cake-straight-up

Thanks for your help Mark Mexicano

It sounds like it would be a good recipe to me... maybe some of the experts will see your post.
Sorry, I'm no help...

yes the parts that baked were absolutely amazing!!!

Looking at the picture, I would say you should have used more flour or less carrots. For 3 cups of carrots, I think 3 cups of flour would have given you a better consistency.

I really don't know much about the science of baking so can't help you there.
Are you sure your oven is right on target temp wise? Thats about all I can think of.
Sorry you had such a problem.

Too much butter and not enough flour. Try 1 or 1½ tsp BP as well as reducing the BS to 1 or 1½ tsp.

Ha! I'm in New York and the same thing has happened to me with 3 different recipes. I wish I had the photos! And I hate shredding carrots. The recipe that saved me was Martha Stewart's Carrot Ginger Cake recipe. I don't know if it works because it has buttermilk in it-but it's great. Good luck.

for me that a lot of carrot i think that you only need 2 cups of carrots loosely measure and some BP HTH

This may help.

Adjustment for 5000 feet:


Reduce baking powder: for each teaspoon, decrease 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon.
Reduce sugar: for each cup, decrease 0 to 2 tablespoons.
Increase liquid: for each cup, add 2 to 4 tablespoons.

Increase oven temperature by 25 degrees F.

Carrot Cake Straight Up by jkalman (some of the CC recipes lost their author's name when the feature was updated) is my favorite carrot cake recipe.

Since carrot cake is my DH's fav, I usually bake it in a 13x9x2 so it's easier for him to snack on (no decoration, just cream cheese icing).

I always bake using bake even strips and inverted flower nails (for larger pans or heavy batter) at 325F.

That being said, I think you would still have had problems because of your high altitude, as Narie advised.

Some additional high altitude baking help:
(Start right off by increasing baking temp. by +25 degrees to help set batter.)

http://www.ochef.com/327.htm

http://www.brettagold.com/worksamples/articles/highaltbake.pdf

High Altitude recipes:

http://ces.uwyo.edu/PUBS/B427.pdf

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/circ293.pdf

HTH

thanks everybody!!!

God bless you!!! I've been in in a high altitude for 3 years!! All other cakes bread not problem... but Carrot cake.. I said I would get this cake down if it was the last thing I Did! Thank you thank you.. Imma give the adjustments a try and keep you posted :)

JanH does your Carrot Cake Straight Up make good cupcakes??