I am in desperate need of help...10 minutes after removing my cake from the oven it has totally sunk in the middle. I only have this problem when using different shapped pans. I used a buttercake recipe and tested it with a skewer before removing.

I don't have the answer, but I'm going to be baking a cake in that same pans soon and would like to prevent this from happening to me....

So, here's a bump.

It definately sounds like it was not baked enough. Did you time it? OR did you bake by smell? Is your recipe scratch or box mix? Those pans are a bit of a pain to use.

The buttercake was home made. I timed it, but the problem was I didn't really know how long it would take. I doubled my recipe amount so wasn't sure. I tested the cake and the skewer came out with only a few crumbs. Problem was it was starting to over dry near the edges....

The ball pan always gets dry on the edges because the amount of cake there is so thin. You should make sure that you put the exact amount of batter that they say in the directions. If you put too much, the weight can cause problems. the second thing is to make sure you time it according to the directions also. I always add 5 minutes to the Wilton times and have never had a problem with the ball pan being undercooked or collapsing. Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for your help. I had hired the tin and no instructions came with it! Next time I think I will download them from the Wilton site. I finished the cake (hope they won't notice the slight dent underneath) and it looks great anyway.