I am so new to this... we are supposed to make an 8 inch cake for phase one of our Wilton class on tuesday so I went and bought a Perfect performance ultra springfoam 8x2 and 5 eigths pan and added a box of betty crocker cake mix. The instructions that I read on the wilton site said about 35 minutes or untill it comes out clean in the center... well it did not come out clean till after 55 minutes, after that the cake was cracked at the top and very raised . I did the teperature at 350 degrees. At first I had a cookie sheet on the bottom of the pan (about 35 minutes) because it is one of the pans that releases at the sides so it might drip on the bottom of the oven.
Does anybody have any pointers for me for next time? Thank you guys you are the best

I recomend using the instructions on the paper that came inside the pan My cakes always cook longer than 35 min unless it's a 4 or 6" but I also cook all my cakes on 325 I like a moist cake! hope this helps. The reason the site is diffrent is because there are diffrent grade of pans so cook to the pan recomendation

why a springform pan, that is for cheesecake. you need 2 or 3 inch cake pans. a mix usually yeilds 4 1/2 to 5 cups batter, that is enough to do two layers of a 8 inch cake in a 2 inch pan or 1 -10 inch cake.

check a wilton book or somewhere on this site for the amount of batter to go in each pan.

Your cake took so long because it was too thick....if baking something that thick you need what is called a core to put in the middle and help with the baking.

good luck.

I also bake at home at 325. I view all recipes and baking directions as "suggestions". If you don't have a convection oven, putting the baking sheet on the lower rack could have prohibited proper baking ... it blocked the heat getting to the cake on the upper rack. Some folks can bake fine using both racks, but I know when I baked cookies at home and used both racks, I had to rotate the baking sheets because the top one didn't bake as fast as the bottom rack becuase the sheet on the bottom rack was blocking the heat from getting to the top rack. (wow! that was a mouthful, huh! )

why a springform pan, that is for cheesecake. you need 2 or 3 inch cake pans. a mix usually yeilds 4 1/2 to 5 cups batter, that is enough to do two layers of a 8 inch cake in a 2 inch pan or 1 -10 inch cake.

check a wilton book or somewhere on this site for the amount of batter to go in each pan.

Your cake took so long because it was too thick....if baking something that thick you need what is called a core to put in the middle and help with the baking.

good luck.

Wow, thanks so much... lol no wonder it had a recipe for a cheesecake on it... I thought it was a great deal with the three pans included. I did not see the silver 8x3 pan that my instructor had so I was looking for something similar in size.
Thanks again

I've used springform pans without a problem. Just try and bake at 325 like others have suggested. I didn't use a cookie sheet and it never dripped. You may want new pans if you want crisp clean edges though