I'm new here, so hopefully I'm posting in the correct forum!!

I'm doing cakes and desserts for a friends wedding this weekend and started baking the cakes last night. I've tried the white cake recipe I'm using before but I baked the first layer of the bottom tier last night and it sunk in the middle. I did add 1/2 tsp of baking powder because it's a dense cake and I though this might make it a tad fluffier. Here's the recipe I followed:

http://www.recipezaar.com/White-Almond-Sour-Cream-Wedding-Cake-69630?scaleto=20

I used a 10" circle pan though.

Should I not have added the baking powder? Did I over mix possibly? Any other suggestions?

Also, should I use the cake with the sunken middle? If so, should I try to fill it with some leftover cake scraps or frosting or what?? Or should I just make cake balls out of it and start over?

I don't bake a cake box, so I could be wrong, but yeah, it probably was the extra baking powder. Too much baking powder and you will get the opposite effect. At least I know you do with scratch cakes. I'm asuimng you had enough baking powder in the mix.

I use self rising flour so mine already have the baking powder & come out nice--but that seems like a generous amount of salt to me--but shouldn't have affected the baking--the taste maybe.

There's a thousand variables--it could be the amount and thickness of batter in relation to how your oven cycles. Did you maybe bump it, was there a door slam?

Baking powder and cake mix are made to work most efficiently at 350 degrees of heat, not 325. Although tons of people use 325, I like 350 as the directions state on the box. Then at the end I'll back the heat off rather than at the beginning.

Lots of ways to do it~~

I wouldn't say it's the recipe if you have used it before without issue. It could have been the extra baking powder you added to it. When I'm using the larger cake pans I put a flower nail in the center of the cake to distribute the heat more evenly, and to prevent it from being uncooked on the inside while overcooked on the outside. It sounds like the cake has fallen. Was the stove bumped or the door accidently slammed. I have a white cake recipe that also calls for the 325 degree temperature, which is what I usually bake my larger cakes at so they cook more evenly. If you would like a white cake recipe there is one on the wilton.com site.

That's the recipe that I use all the time. It will fit a 10" pan. Use a greased flower nail in the middle of the pan (upside down) and bake at 325. Usually takes a bit more than an hour. I never add extra baking powder, I want a nice dense cake...but the baking powder shouldn't have done anything to make it sink. My guess is that it hadn't baked all the way through in the center, which is what the flower nail will help.

you probably didn't cook it long enough. I had that happen after I baked it for the first time. I would try again

Ditto on the baking longer, and with a flower nail if possible. But if you're stacking the cake at all, don't fill the gap up with anything, you'll compromise the stability of your cake. If you need to use that tier, why not level it down a good deal, to the height of your sunken center? Sure, you'll lose half the height, but it could function like half a torted layer, instead of losing the entire thing or compromising your structure. HTH!

As has been said, too much baking powder will cause a cake to sink in the center...

Handy cake troubleshooting charts:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu

http://tinyurl.com/32goqe

http://tinyurl.com/6c745g

Also, if your 10" diameter pan was 2" deep and you used all the batter, your pan was probably slightly overfilled (1 cup).

If your pan was 3" deep, you were probably slightly short of batter (1 cup).

Wilton cake making help:

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/

HTH

http://tinyurl.com/6lpjww

maybe you needed a nail in the center...flower nail that is, to bake center evenly with the rest of the cake