I need to voice a frustration to see if it's just me or if others are having the same issues:

I just baked my doctered chocolate cake (with the extra egg and pudding) in a 10X3 round pan. I baked it at 325 and even added the flower nail in the middle and the baking strips to ensure it would bake evenly.

Well, it took what seemed forever to bake and although it did come out pretty level, it's hard around the top 1/3 edges. I also baked a 10X2 with this same cake recipe and it also turned out hard on the top and top 1/3 edges! Why is this? I can bake 6" and 8" just fine. But if I bake 10" or larger, they come out hard. I know I could cut off the top but then it makes me ask - why did I even try to bake a taller cake in the first place?

I'm thinking maybe I put too much batter in each one but if I put less, then I get these wimpy short layers. Am I doomed unless I get a convection oven??

At this rate I'm thinking I don't even want to bake/sell anything larger than a 10" (which, thankfully, no one has ordered from me yet).

Thoughts/suggestions/comments? Please and thanks!

Maybe try two nails. I did two 10"x2 pans each with a flower nail in each. One came out great and the other required a bit more cooking. To get the center cooked correctly, had to cook it like 10 minutes longer than the other.... and I bake with convection. I don't have consistent results with convection so I think that I may go back to using the regular oven. The second cake (that had to cook ten minutes longer) had hard edges. And I use the bake easy strips too!!!! Good luck! I don't have luck with 10" cakes either. I am going to try 2 nails in each going forward. If that doesn't work, I am not doing another 10" cake ever again!!!!!

I just did a 14" round with three nails and baking strips and it came out great. I also did a 10' square and used two nails and strips and it worked like a dream. Just be sure you are not overfilling your pans. Good luck!

I don't mean to put a question on your thread, but how would over filling the pan lead to hard edges? Because you have more batter, so it takes longer to bake? I often have the same problem with hard edges when I make sheet cakes.

Maybe its just me or my oven, but I overfilled my pan and, to get my center done, my edge around the cake was "crusty". But hey, I'm still new at this!! (And I can prove it....just look at my photos!! LOL)