This is my 1st post! HELP!!! Every time I bake my cakes come out looking like an hourglass! The tops are OK but the sides curve in. I've tried everything! I grease. I grease and flour. I bake at the specified time. I'm so confused. I checked the joy of baking website... nothing. I even asked the lady at the cake supply store that gives lessons and she looked at me like I was from another planet!
please help!

Welcome to cake central. There could be many factors that effect your results. Maybe with more information we can offer some tips.

Are you using a mix or a scratch recipe.
Are you testing for done-ness-sometimes baking times are not exact
Do you have an oven thermometer?
Have you tried using an inverted flower nail to aid baking in the center

Bake even strips, or even strips of wet toweling wrapped around the outside of the pan can help even the baking.

Are your pans completely straight up and down on the sides? I had that problem and then I realized my pans were slanted smaller at the bottom than they were on the top.

I use both scratch and mixes. I test for doneness. Brand new oven and I have a thermometer. I use springform pans for the most part that are straight. cakes taste even, center to edge. I really don't get it. bought them but I haven't tried the bake even strips yet. but my understanding is that they only help with the tops leveling out. I don't understand the flower nail trick?
Does it act as a heating core?
Thanks for all your help!
Keep it coming!!

Are you using Wilton cake pans? If so, invest in Magic Line.

Some of Wilton's pans are concave.

I smell cheap cake pans. Most non commercial ( this includes Wilton) pans aren't straight. I have had good luck with vintage made in the US pans by Mirro, Nordicware, Chicago bakeware, and Magic Line

By hourglass do you mean the sides of a single layer curve in then back out? Or you have the hourglass shape when you put two pans together.

If it is the two pans then the other responces may be the answer. But if it is a single layer then I don't think it is the pans sides not being totally straight up.

Okay, I get it....Your cakes are falling. They are rising and then collapsing on themsleves, denting themselves in the middle. Springform Pans are really thin aluminiumso they get really hot really fast, causing them to rise quickly on the sides when the middle of the cake finally catches up, the weight shift to the greater mass in the middle pushes the sides back down.

I'd try a heavier gage pan or some cake strips.

Also try not greasing the sides... sound like the cake is pulling away after it is baked. If you don't grease, it will stick and then you can loosen it with a spatula to remove it.

Sounds to me that your cake is maybe slightly overcooking. If your cake pulls far from the edges of the pan then you have overcooked it (even if its just slight.. as far as it being hour glassy-- make sure your cooking on the middle rack.

i think the springform pans (aluminum issue that the txkat talked about) could be part of the problem...

i know EXACTLY what you are talking about.i had that problem some time back...at that time, i figured it was the recipe...either too much fat or too much sugar, then...i was using doctored cake mixes, and they sometimes would take on the hour glass shape.

BUT...now that i bake scratch, lately i am learning a bit about how altitude can affect baking. i am just barely above sea level and am realizing that i need to adjust baking soda/powder amounts because they rise and then sink with certain recipes, and i read in the joy of cooking how certain altitudes require different amounts. much less for lower altitudes

so- those may also be possibilities.

I know this may sound strange, but do you rotate your cake pans in the middle of the baking time. I had a stove that did that and for some reason it worked for awhile to rotate the cake. worth a shot.