I made my first carrot cake today, went to flip it out of the pan, and as I was sitting it on the cooling rack, it cracked in the center. It didn't all make it to the cooling rack so I very carefully tried to move it and it just broke into pieces ! I need to decorate this cake tom but I have until thurs evening to finish it...but now my confidence is shot! Would it be wrong to ask a bakery down the street to bake me up one of their carrot cakes with no icing or anything on it so I can decorate it? I am not selling the cake, just doing a special cake for a friend that NO bakery in our area would do! (3d bonsi tree, the carrot cake is just the "flower pot") Think a bakery would agree to bake it for me such short notice?

Personally, I think you should just rebake. When I used to just turn a cake out on the cooling rack and it didn't land where I want it to, I put the pan back over it and flipped the cooling rack back over so the cake goes back in the pan and tried again. Now I just put the cooling rack over the pan, center it where I want it and then flip.

How did the cake break that you can't put it back together? I had a chocolate cake break in half last Tuesday. I just pieced it back together and you couldn't tell that it broke at all.

A bakery may sell you un-iced cakes but you have to ask them about it.

I have had this problem with carrot cake also (though never with any other cake). I solved it by putting parchment paper in bottom of pan and then greasing it before filling with batter. I don't use parchment with any other recipe, just carrot and I have not had any more carrot cakes falling apart. HTH

I used parchment paper on the bottom, I flipped it over onto my hand, usually use another cooling rack but I only have two, the other layer was already using that one lol! It literally began to crumble after that first crack, fell into about 6 different pieces! I don't have time to rebake because after I get my son to school in the morning, I have to take my baby to the dr I don't know that this recipe is even a good one, rather retry it when I don't have other people eating it! A local bakery that has been here for years makes really good carrot cakes, so I will just have a "Baked by .....and decorated by me!" Id rather these mishaps with recipes happen now than when I do get to open up shop Anyone have a recipe they know is good they wouldnt mind sharing???

My family's carrot cake recipe is delicious but is very crumbly! So I broke with tradition and tested out a few...this is the one that I absolutely love - the batter is very generous (yields a little more than the recipe says it does) and it tastes awesome! The only thing I do is a add a little bit more cinnamon and nutmeg to it, other than that - I use it as is . Hope that helps

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/7362/carrot-cake-or-banana-cake

To help with turning out of a pan, don't flip it out and hope it lands correctly. Instead place the cooling rack upside down on the pan. Turn them over as one unit and remove the pan. The cake is now upside down on the cooling rack. Then if the cake has any dome at all put another cooling rack back on the cake and turn it over as one unit again. At this point the cake will be sitting bottom down, top up on the cooling rack. If you leave it upside down and there is any dome, the cake can crack as it bends towards the cooling rack. If you only have one cooling rack, for the first flip you could use a cookie sheet or something and then do the last flip onto the cooling rack. Hope that helps for your next cake.

I also cool my cakes in the pan - not on a cooling rack....helps a lot!

Flipping over into your hand is never a good idea, your hand is not completely flat nor big enough to support all but the smallest of layers. I do what denetteb does, flipping twice so cake cools, right side up.

I cool my cakes in a pan. It's the only method I've found for very fragile cakes that works. Then I shake the pan until everything has worked itself loose so I can figure out what isn't. Then I take the cooling rack, invert it onto the pan, and flip the entire thing. If I try and remove the pan and it feels like it's pulling, I just let it hang upside down. It normally works loose itself.

If a piece falls off, oh, well, I'll take that part of the cake and turn it to the inside or use mortar to fix it.

I also use (very generously) a 1:1:1 mixture of flour, Crisco, and veg. oil mixed together and just brush that into the pan. It's the only thing I've ever found that allows my mom and I to flip her carrot cake out of the pan with nothing coming off (which is usually the fate of her recipe).

Carrot Cakes are tricky to deal with because they are an extreamly Moist sticky cake. After all its egg's, oil, sugar and carrots basically.

I always grease my pan and flour it first. I find that with out the flour it always cracks coming out of the pan. I let it cool enough in the pan that the sides have peeled away a bit. I then set the cooling rack with parchment ontop of the pan, and flip them together. give the top of the pan several good smacks to ensure the cake isn't stuck, and voila its out.

You can piece a carrot cake back together with icing, I use to do it all the time.

If you need a good recipe for a carrot cake I use the one in the Betty Crocker pink cook book, its like "best Carrot Cake". I have made 50 of them and had nothing but rave reviews.

Don't get to upset, the first carrot cake i did turned out horrible, and in like 10 pieces. They are more difficult cakes to work with. Evan when the cool they have a sticky touch.

I make a Canadian Living recipe carrot cake all the time...never yet had it fail. You can find the recipe at http://www.canadianliving.com/food/canadas_best_carrot_cake_with_cream_cheese_icing.php. I also add 1/2 cup each of raisins and coconut to the recipe. The addition of the crushed pineapple keeps it wonderfully moist.
My DH insists on this cake every birthday....I've doubled the recipe, tripled it; made it in different sized pans.....and it comes about beautifully each time.

if your cake has any doming, use either the push down method or do a preliminary trim while its still in the pan. This will give you a more flat surface to flip it out on. Yes, place the cooling rack on teh cake pan and flip both at the same time, the use another cooling rack to fllip the cake over, again, so it's sitting on its bottom (the completely flat surface).

If a cake is flipped over and resting on a domed top, gravity will work against you and pull the unsupported edges/corners down, causing the cake to break.

Oh .... and I'm from teh school of "git-r-dun". My cakes are trimmed and out of the pan within 2 minutes.

Thanks everyone! rebaked with no falling apart (yay!!!) I just finished decorating the cake in about an hour! Never decorated that quickly, but with the rebaking, and then having to take my daughter to the dr this morning, I had no time to spare! Didn't come out as cleanly as I wanted, but to do what I did in an hour, I am proud! Now if I could only find the camera...