I love making fresh, from scratch cakes. The problem i have is after they bake and i remove them from the pans, they have this stupid crust around the top. Is this a sugar content issue? I am in texas so could this also be a lack of altitude in conjunction with the oven's temperature?

how do i get rid of this crust?

are you referring to the doming of the cake? Or do you mean the top of the cake overall is hard? Not sure what you mean by having a crust "around" the top?

Hi and Welcome to CC, mycody1.

Decoding CC acronyms:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-62926-.html

A crust could be from excess sugar in your recipes... but crusts can also occur when your oven temp. is too high and (the cake rises but requires more bake to set the middle). So when the middle is baked, the outside a tad crunchy.

Also, if you allow your cakes to cool in the pans for more than 10 mins. or so, the flour/shortening used for greasing your pans congeals and can become a crust.

Handy cake trouble shooting charts:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu

http://tinyurl.com/6c745g

http://tinyurl.com/32goqe

You might also find this, Everything you ever wanted to know about making your 1st tiered/stacked/layer cake thread, helpful:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-605188-.html

HTH