dont' be shy about greasing that pan. I see that with lots of folks who are in my kitchen helping me ...... they're afraid to grease up that pan.
That is exactly what I say to my munchkins while making brownies. We like the chewy edges!!!!
I collar my 2 inch Wilton round pans and grease and I only flour the bottom. My cakes rise up nice and tall every time. I do have a slight hump but wind up shaving off a bit more then just the hump to get 2" layers. But nobody around here gripes about wasted cake. They fight over those scraps as they won't get a piece of cake until it's decorated the next day or even the day after that. I should make the poor dears cake more often.
Frustrated. I thought the cakes looked like they were going to be at least 2 inches tall. WELL, much to my dismay, I leveled this morning and NOPE, not 2" tall. UUUUGGGGHHHH 
I greased with crisco, used the baking strips, baked at 325, filled to what I thought was at LEAST 2/3 full. Is it the Wilton pans I'm using? Is it because I use a box mix? I'm either going to have to bake 3 cake layers from here on out or just settle for 3 3/4" cakes. I was really hoping to have this solved last night 
Thanks.
You have to aim for about 1/2"- 1" over the height you want. Cakes settles with gravity during the cooling process. I aim for 3 inch cake layers when I bake and wind up shaving of an almost 1/2 hump to get my 2" layers.
Edited for incomplete thought...DOH!
Simplified science...
Air expands when heated. You bake at 325°-350°. The cake bakes up and the air in the batter expands making little pockets. When the cake cools(your home is probably between 65°-85° which is much cooler then the oven) the air also cools and then shrinks... the cake's pockets shrink-the cake shrinks. Your fridge is even colder so a cooled cake will be more dense because the air pockets have shrunk to the 40°-50° in your fridge. So bake bigger than you need to get the size you want. Some recipes really react to this while others don't as much. So we are all like mad scientists in the kitchen. 
Lets get experimenting...
Take a regular sized child's cheep $2 bouncy ball. Set it in the sun on hot grounds for an hour. Measure around the seam with a measuring tape. take ball inside(washing it of course) and throw it in the fridge for half an hour. Take it out and measure the seam again... it's smaller now. 
HEre's a photo of the cake rising higher than the pan:
Also ..... 1" of filling?
Guys, measure out 1" .... that's a LOT of filling! As the song says, "slip slidin' awa-a-a-a-a-ay". 
... I agree!...sliping cakes!.... too much filling!
Edna 
HEre's a photo of the cake rising higher than the pan:
Also ..... 1" of filling?
Guys, measure out 1" .... that's a LOT of filling! As the song says, "slip slidin' awa-a-a-a-a-ay". ... I agree!...sliping cakes!.... too much filling!
Edna
A soft filling/icing like this...1" could be a problem...heck! even a 1/4" could pose a problem!
http://www.easy-cake-ideas.com/image-files/buttercream-filling.jpg
But a filling, firm one, like this...1" can be achieved without a problem...without slippage...
http://www.calandrasbakery.com/images/cakeslices/cakeslice2.jpg
It depends on the filling and the cake...
Sadsmile- I get the scientific part of it...I'm a scientist in my real life 
I just need to know how to do the BAKING part of it to get the bigger layers! Maybe I need to try the parchment method on the sides?
I have always used the homemade cake release (oil, crisco, flour) and line with parchment. I decided to give it a try today with just greasing up the pan really well with shortening -I LOVE the idea of getting higher, flater cakes and not having to cut parchment everytime I bake. The center of the bottom stuck to the pan on both pans. What did I do wrong? I can't really tell b/c I used a new recipe as well (Hummingbird cake). Does this method not work well for cakes with fruit in them?
It's a 2" pan. I grease NO FLOUR. cakes rise higher with no flour. I fill it at least 1/2 full or more. With the grease-no-flour, the batter is able to glide right up the sides of the pan. Flour, I have found in my 30 years of doing it this way, grabs onto the batter and holds it in place, preventing it from gliding up the side of the pan to a beautiful height. Baking strips and bake at 325, no matter what the size of hte cake pan.
I am so glad you posted this. I found this thread right as I was getting ready to bake! I have always been a butter, flour, parchment baker because when I have just greased my cake ALWAYS sticks on the bottom in the center. So I took your suggestion and just greased (liberally, of course) with crisco and lined with parchment (just in case) but no flour. Not only did my cakes rise way more than usual (I got a 2.5 inch cake out of a not quite 2 inch pan) but they still came out of the pan with ease. Thanks!
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