I've read that some use flower nails ... don't have those either ... any other suggestion(s), please. I'll use it for a sheet cake.

Since you don't have either item, lowering your oven temp to 325 degrees might be sufficient. If you have the magic strips they would help. The point is to slow the baking on the outside until the middle can bake, or to speed up the middle baking.

If you don't have the magic strips, some CC members use a kitchen towel or paper towels rolled and saturated in water to wrap their pans. HTH a little. Good luck.

I second that. If you don't have a heating core or flower nail, cut up an old 100% cotton kitchen towel in strips, soak well in cold water, wrap around the pan before sticking it into the oven and secure with a metal paper or binder clip. The strips I use are fairly thick, yet I fold them over, so I have two layers of fabric over the entire 2" height of the pan... Hope this helps and happy baking!

You can make your own heating core.
you take aluminum foil and make your own
make-shift nail and grease it like you would the nail.
Don't make it too big though and try to smooth it out.
I also have soaked towel in cold water and wraped foil around the towel and then the pan.

This is what my very helpful cake supply store suggested to me when I needed an alternative heating core: Take some type of empty vegetable can and remove both ends and all the paper, wash it and put that in the middle. Then you just have to put the plug back in htat part of the cake.

HTH,

Kim

I have several different size cans that i have saved just for this purpose! Be sure to grease and flour them WELL and I hold down the center portion as I remove the can.

A sheet cake (BTW: which size??) does not need a heat core to bake properly.
As the others have said, lower your oven temp and bake for a longer time. Using (some sort of) "magic strips" along w/lower tmeps should do the trick just fine.

For some 15 yrs I baked 12x16x2 cakes w/o using any help except much lower temp. Never had one that didn't bake up just fine

Thanx for all the replies, unfortunately I was not "notified" when these were posted (yes, the box is ticked

I'm using bake even strips and baking at 325 degrees (living at the coast, does that influence anything?). The cakes usually raise well, but sag an inch or so when removing it from the oven. I've found that although the skewer comes out clean after 1 and half hours (madeira type of cake), when I cut it, I sometimes have this thick piece of dough in the very middle of the middle of the cake (does that make sense?). I once found the same problem, using a round 11 inch tin - unacceptable on such a "small" cake? Also in my mind, a cake (non-fruit) that needs to bake for more than 1 and half hours is too much?

I'll 1st try the tin-thing (have that handy) and then the foil thinga-ma-gix and then the heating cores should be delivered or shall I buy flower nails in stead?

TIA