I agreed to do a 3 tier wedding cake (1 layer real, the rest, dummies) the real layer would be 16" to serve 100 people. The idea looked good on paper until started it. The 16" pan just fits in my oven. It almost against the oven door. Do you think it will still bake evenly, or should there be more space around the pan for heat distribution? Please help

I have no idea, Id make sure I had a heating core or 2 or 3 flower nails in it and bake even strips around it and it might do ok as long as the door shuts completely. Good luck!!

My 16" only fits if I sit it on something...like a 10" turned upside down on the rack. It lifts it enough over the "stuff" that keeps it from hitting the door.

thanks everyone

Sugarbaker, did you make your 16" layer yet? Because I tried to make 2 of them yesterday and the cake started burning and some of it was not getting done. The pan fit into the oven with just about an inch or so all the way around. The pan held a lot of batter and since it did the same thing twice I ended up wasting alot of batter. My oven is calibrated and I cook at a very low temp and nothing worked. Ended up switching to 8 - 8" square cakes to put together and make a 16" tier. A little more work, but the only thing I could think of.

Let us know how yours turned(turns) out, ok?

Pam

For future projects, you can always get those half round pans and then put them together.

I wanted to let you know that I had a change in plans - instead of making a total of 8 - 8" squares to make the 16", I tried one more 16" pound cake in my oven but modified how I did it. I put much less batter in, turned the cake pan every 30 minutes, and used 2 heating cores and 3 rose nails, and I turned my oven down to 250 deg, which for my oven would be actually 300 deg. Cake turned out just fine and I ended up doing a total of 3 thinner layers and we just finished stacking and crumb coating it. It's 4 1/4" now and still have to do fondant. Figure it will be 4 1/2" tall when all is said and done.

HTH's

Pam