Does anyone have experience with this recipe? I have made it twice, and both times it sank in the middle. I used a flower nail, magic strips, I have an oven thermometer, and I can't figure it out. The first time it was 2 - 9" layers, this time it was one 12" layer. I even weighed all the ingredients on a digital scale instead of measuring. Is it me--maybe this recipe just doesn't like me?
Another idea for you would be to go to amazon.com and look up the book, and see if any other readers had problems with the cake.
You could also try searching some other cake decorating websites that are like this. They aren't as big (or as nice) but there are a handful out there.
THis is the only chocolate cake that I make. I've had a couple of times when it has sank as well. I don't know why it is doing that either.
Rachel
Actually I had checked the recipe out on several sites and wanted to make it based on the rave reviews it got. No one said anything about problems other that a couple of people said the cake "crumbles" when it's cut into. Oh, well. Maybe I'll stick to the chocolate fudge cake in Whimsical Bakehouse.
I have made this cake with great success and recently it has not been turning out for me!!! so frustrating, I had to rebake 2 layers of 14" square!!!!
However, the last time I baked it, I turned the oven back down to 325--which was what I was doing before I must have got in a hurry, and it is baking right again. You need to be patient with this cake because it takes a seriously long time to bake! even when the cake tester comes out clean, give it about 5 mins more and make sure the top springs back when pressed with your finger. It is great if it looks cracked on top.
Now, when it's fully baked, it will still sink back down a bit which actually helps with levelling. The best luck with with large layers is to bake one layer at a time instead of torting it.
I don't want to give up on this recipe because it is the best choc recipe I have come across. (much better than WBH). I get raves on this cake. It is a little more crumbly than say, a white cake, but it's dense and rich like a brownie.
Here is a picture of what the cake looks like when sliced.
Lorraine,
I made it this past weekend and it sunk on me, too. When I pulled it out or the oven it was fine, but after cooling a few minutes, well, it sunk. I loaded up on Chocolate BC and that make it look level, but I hate for my cakes to do that. I tried one other recipe out of that book, the French Vanilla BC. What a waste of ingredients. I followed the recipe to the letter and it tasted like just like plain ol butter! I had to add almost a pound of powdered sugar to make it sweet enough. Maybe Im just used to sweet icing. I dont know. Anyway, if you figure it out let me know! I need a really good scratch chocolate cake recipe. I've used the one on the back of the Hershey cocoa can and it sinks really bad in the middle and plus it runs out all over my oven. 
I HATE that! But it tastes good.
Not knowing what the ingredients are is there a possibility of it "whipping" up and being more fluffy? I mean could it be over mixed and there is air in the batter? It would bake up and fall when it cools--just a thought since that has happened to me with a scratch white cake a couple of times.
Leta--that is one seriously gorgeous cake! It must weigh a ton! I had been baking the cake at 350--it developed a very dense crust both times and actually started sinking before I took it out of the oven.
Shalan--The recipe can be found on Epicurious.com
Bakerchick--There's another one on Epicurious that's good too--Double Chocolate Layer Cake. I also like the Whimsical Bake House chocolate cake. You can check the recipe section here--I've gotten several to try there. Hershey's Black Magic is supposed to be good, although I haven't tried it yet.
I think if I tried this one more time DH would think I was nuts--last night he said "let me get this right, you baked it once, it failed, so you wanted to do it again on a bigger cake?" But he ate it anyway!
So I baked the WBH cake, tried to layer it too soon, and one layer cracked. I hope the thing holds up until Saturday. This isn't my week! 
I've made this cake with the same results (the sinking), HOWEVER, the cake was divine. One of the best chocolate cakes I tasted. What was even better was the part that crusted on/over the edge!! My kids and I were fighting over that as I was cutting the edge to make it look nicer for frosting. lol.
Add her chocolate buttercream frosting to it, and you have one chocolately heaven cake!!!!!! 
Tina
Actually I had checked the recipe out on several sites and wanted to make it based on the rave reviews it got. No one said anything about problems other that a couple of people said the cake "crumbles" when it's cut into. Oh, well. Maybe I'll stick to the chocolate fudge cake in Whimsical Bakehouse.
I think I finally figured out why mine was falling in the center. It's from testing with the toothpick before it's done enough. It seems to "let the air out" or something and it doesn't rise back up when you closed the oven door to continue baking. It's only done it with certain recipes. Chocolate would most likely be one of those to do this because you use baking soda instead of baking powder most of the time...because of the dutch process cocoa. I have Toba's new book but haven't tried that recipe yet. I'll give it a fling this weekend.
I just bought a cook book, America's Test Kitchen. All the recipes in it are supposed to have been tested at least 20 to 30 times. They have both a chocolate cake and a devil's food chocolate cake, both scratch, that I am going to try. I am hoping that they are really fool proof as they say.
I will try it out and let everyone here know if it is a good recipe. I have been looking for a really good recipe as well.
It looks like such a good recipe. I will try it next week. I'm intrigued now! So now you can tell your husband not only are you trying the failed cake recipe, you have others trying it too! Ha ha ha
I have tried the Hershey one on the back of the can and it works well for both me and a friend of mine. We've both made it many times without sinking (although it's isn't my favorite tasting, but it's not bad.)
Does anyone have experience with this recipe? I have made it twice, and both times it sank in the middle. I used a flower nail, magic strips, I have an oven thermometer, and I can't figure it out. The first time it was 2 - 9" layers, this time it was one 12" layer. I even weighed all the ingredients on a digital scale instead of measuring. Is it me--maybe this recipe just doesn't like me?
I think I finally figured out why mine was falling in the center. It's from testing with the toothpick before it's done enough. It seems to "let the air out" or something and it doesn't rise back up when you closed the oven door to continue baking. It's only done it with certain recipes. Chocolate would most likely be one of those to do this because you use baking soda instead of baking powder most of the time...because of the dutch process cocoa.
Jeking--
Are you supposed to use Dutch process cocoa? I didn't see that. Maybe that's my problem.
Anyway, I made the WBH cake and it came out great--very moist, dense and chocolatey--not as dense as Toba's, but still very good.
Thanks for all the input--you all are the best!
From my reading I understand that dutch process cocoa requires baking soda instead of baking powder. If your recipes calls for baking soda, you should be using a dutch process cocoa...or so I've been told. Maybe that's why I had problems before. Since I've changed and been doing it this way, I haven't had any more problems. Also, I try not to "test" too soon!
I've made a couple of her cake recipes a while ago and wasn't impressed. I don't use her books for cake recipes anymore as there are better options out there that don't fail or sink regularly. I suspect if the cake is sinking, there may be too much liquid relative to dry ingredients or the amount of leavening is off
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