Hi everybody, I've been a member for a while but not posted before.

I tried out an idea I had of baking a cake in a stainless steel bucket earlier on but when I cut into it (after the kids decorated it and then had sufficiently nagged me enough to let them have a piece) there was a huge hole in the centre.

I've attached a photo of the problem.

Does anybody know what would have caused this?

Thanks.

Ali

When this happened to mine, the cake was not completely done. I don't think it cooked enough. That cooking in a can did not work for me.

The cake baked from all sides and pulled the batter away from the middle - if that makes any sense. What size was the bucket and how much did it hold? Did you use a flower nail? What temp did you bake?

Thank you - I was sure it was cooked because my cake tester was coming out clean but perhaps it wasn't then. The texture seems to be ok and the kids didn't complain about it.

Maybe it' will be safer to go with carving a bucket shaped (as in the baby in a flowerpot tutorial) than try to be clever and take a seemingly easier route. Thank goodness I decided to test it out a good few weeks in advance!

Ali

I don't think you had too much batter in it. I would say try cooking it at a lower temp and maybe use bake strips so the sides don't bake so much faster than the middle.

Good luck - - let us know how it turns out.

You could try a different type of cake if it continues to not work. I did a flower pot cake and because you cannot put flower pots on the oven I used a fridge cake recipe.

ok...i'm not sure where you are from...didn't see! ???
Just curious about the 170 temp in the oven? I would also say you need a flower nail and the baking strips. If the pan/bucket is pretty thin then your sides are baking too fast

Thanks for all the help everybody. I'm from the UK and my oven works in degrees centigrade.

when I am in the USA I always bake at 325 Fahrenheit, when I am in Honduras or Peru I bake at 160 Celsius
I would suggest to lower temp in oven and to use baking strips as suggested by our CC friends. This might help you, nice that it was a test run!

Good luck.

CIAO

If necessary, you can bake rounds and carve them to the bucket shape. Put a board the size that you want the bottom of the bucket to be on top of the cake and a board the size of the top of the cake on the bottom. Carve the cake using the boards as template by holding your knife vertically against the sides of the cake so that the knife touches both the small and large cake boards. You carve the bucket upside down- meaning the top of the bucket sits on the counter and the bottom of the bucket is on top. Of course, use pan sizes close to the final size. For example, if you want the bottom of it to be 6 inches and the top 10 inches, bake 2 6's and 2 10's.

Gosh, I hope I made sense.

I was reading the book " how baking works" today and it says that over mixing produces tunnel in cupcakes and muffins because it develops to much gluten.