I'm just curious to know if you have any thoughts on what might have caused this cake to turn out so horribly wrong! I followed a recipe I've used countless times for vanilla cake, and this time I added chocolate (according to the recipe) and well, this was not quite what I had in mind.. My guess is that since the chocolate has sunk to the bottom, this will somehow have impacted the heat distribution? All of the ingredients were fresh and I'm quite sure I used the right amount of flour, sugar etc.

Thanks in advance! :P

Whoa. When you pulled it open it wasn't done inside? I'm trying to figure out from the picture what this is. Is it raw in the middle?

Did you use cocoa powder or chocolate chips and if so, how did you add the chocolate?

You added chocolate chips? Did the cake stick to the pan?

AI can see that it's broken apart, and that the chocolate has sunk to the bottom, but that's all I can tell from looking at the picture. Some more details would be helpful - was it undercooked, gummy?

The sides were perfect, but the center was undercooked and there was a large hole in it... The reason it's open is because I tested it for doneness and it felt hollow, so I cut it open to see. I added chocolate chips, the rest of the batter is a regular vanilla flavored one. The cake didn't stick to the pan at all, it was like a nice cake "shell" with uncooked batter in it.. very odd.. :P

Perhaps adding the chocolate chips distributed the heat unevenly?  Were they frozen?  Also, is the batter runny just generally speaking?  It seems like they should not have sunk to the bottom.  

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070116134307AAGDp5H

Well I learned something new too!

Could you use mini-chips?

Also, MimiFix...do tell!  You have me intrigued.  If those answers are wrong, what do you suggest? 

Is it possible you put too much batter in the pan ? and it just did not cook in the middle ? 

AThe first thing that went through my mind when I looked at the photo was that your cake reminds me of a lava cake. I have never made one, so I don't know the ingredients or process that allows the center to be liquid/hollow, but maybe you did something similar to that process. Or maybe you accidentally put in the wrong amounts of an ingredient. Hopefully someone can help you figure this out.

AThe other thing it reminds me of is a popover. I've never made those before either but I recently saw an episode of Good Eats where Alton explains why the popover is hollow, but now I cannot remember why. I'll see if I can find the info from the episode for you.

AHere is the transcript of the show if you want to read it. Perhaps it will help you figure out what happened. http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/season12/popover/popover_tran.htm

Sorry, I didn't know someone had answered! I'm guessing it was due to the chocolate chips sinking; I did use the right amount of the other ingredients and didn't over mix... I guess it was just a bad recipe! ;) I'll try making a thicker batter next time! :) Thanks!