I'm planning on making a gingerbread house cake using 6" square pans that are 3" tall. The centers seem to be taking forever to bake, while the sides/corners are browning a bit. Any hints you might have? I am using the WASC recipe (lemon version) and baking at 325. Thanks in advance

You could use bake even strips, or if you don't have any of those, pin some wet (not wringing wet) towels around the perimeter of your pans.

That cools off the sides a bit and allows the middle to catch up. Also helps them come out level.

Put a flower nail upside down in the center of the pan before you bake it, also check your oven temp, it might be hotter than you think it is.

I've never had a bad result with the strips. But I don't usually use them on anything less than 9in in diameter.

I always use 2 flower nails, sprayed with Pam and have no problems --- cakes always bake even. I have the 'center cake baker' from Wilton (sorry, don't know technical term) but I prefer the flower nails since they work just as well and you just simply pull out of cooled cake - not having to worry about replacing the cake center from Wilton-thinger-ma-bobber!!
~~ Jaime

I'm also a bake even strip person, plus lowering the oven temp for slower baking. I use the strips on all size pans and reduce the oven temp on all size pans.

Here's a thread on the science of baking strips and how/why they work:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=3467363#3467363