Hi! I'm still learning the science of baking and for all the Pro's out there can you please help me with this one. What causes the cake to be uneven? I have already asked my mentor about how to prevent the cake from having a Dome and he said i should just lower the temp to 325 when baking. So i lowered the temp it didn't dome, but still its uneven. one side is higher than the other I hope someone can enlighten my very curious mind on this on. Thanks a lot

I'm Baked.
M

Hi there sweetsbym Nice to see another new face in our sweet corner of the internet.
Are you *sure* your oven is level? That is the most likely cause.....your floor or the oven it's self is not level.

An unlevel oven rack is my problem so I go ahead and let the cake dome so I can trim it till it's level. Works better for me and my family gets to eat the cake trimmings! LOL!

Hi kakeladi That also came up to my mind the first time i had baked this unleveled chocolate cake. but my theory of having unleveled floor was busted when i baked my first pound cake. the pound cake came out good, smooth, leveled no need for trimmings or leveling.

maybe there is something wrong with the recipe ratio? here's the recipe for the unleveled cake:

1 3/4 Cups APF
2 cups sugar
3/4 Cups Cocoa
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 c veg. oil
1 cup choco chips
1 cup milk
1 cup boiling water

bake at 350. grease and flour pan.
Combine dry ingredients. add eggs oil milk. beat in medium speed for 2 mins. add choco chips mix well with spatula then lastly add boiling water and mix well. bake for around 40 mins.

I'm really really curious what causes this thing.
Thanks!

Hi catlharper. I suck at cutting the dome big time. I really find it hard cutting and leveling the cake Every time i cut the dome, i kinda cut almost half of the cake

Sweetsbym, is it rising the side closest to the element or heat? With the dome, a hint i got on here was when you take the cake out of the oven, place a clean teatowel on top & press dome down, this evens out the top minimising wastage. Just be careful of any steam that may escape. Hope this helps.....

i use the wilton bake even strips around my cake pans and that helps alot with the "doming".

Hi, it sounds like your oven might be not be leveled. I also like to use
the baking strips from wilton, they work pretty well. Good Luck!

I agree with kakeladi...something is not level. Could be the oven rack. Might be the pan. Could even be how you put your batter into the pan. I have issues with my oven too. I used a carpenter's level to check my racks and it looked ok. But I still have issues with some of my cakes. I really think sometimes its how I fill the pans.

sweetsbym - I level my cakes in the baking pan, that is the only way I can get a nice level cake. I also use the bake even strips on the pan so my edges come up high enough instead of just under the height of the pan, along with using a flower nail for the larger layers. HTH

so I had a long post with examples and stuff but it got lost when I hit submit. So long story short.

Are you cooking with a convection oven? Some ovens have a strong air flow and can cause the cake to bake higher on one side b/c of the air moving around it (not all and I have baked in both)

It may not have happened with your pound cake because it is a heavier batter and wasn't affected by the air ciruclation.

just another possibility.

just curious, did you ever find out what was going on with your cakes?

I am having the same problem with my cakes and I cant figure out why they are sooo uneven on one side its big difference in the amount too

I notice this even more so with cupcakes in my convection oven.  I turn cakes and cupcakes around half way through baking and they come out nice and even.  Even so, i almost always wind up leveling the cakes

AI have this problem too! What i do is if one side of the cupcake is hanging off the side of the cup i cut it to fit and place that piece on the shorter side! Then coated the cupcake thicky with jcing! No one noticed (i asked people)!