I need help!
I love decorating cakes, and am pretty good at it, but I seem to suck at baking them!

I normally do pound cake (butter cake from wilton site) and I find this is a pretty good recipe and holds up really well. I just find when it bakes, it is about 2 inches high, but then comes down to 1 inch. What am I doing wrong?

When doing a wedding cake, I would rather have 2 layers than 3... but I can never seem to get thick layers?!?!

Any advice would be great!!
Thanks! Katie.

The recipes I use, most came from here on CC. . HTH

all purpose, every time.

I read (I think on here) to take your flower nail spray it with bakers choice and put it in the middle of your pan after you put the batter in.
I have starting doing that and my layers don't go flat and they cook in the center quicker too.

ALSO, my cousin that bakes all the time she has a catering biz said to beat your batter for a good 5 minutes as she said beat the daylights out it,

REally? She says to beat it for that long? I'm always so afraid to over beat it, and thought that is what I did wrong last time and why it came out too moist...

Why does the baking part have to be such a science?

I'm not convinced that it is a science. I "eyeball" many of my measurements. I think I'm a little bit lazy. But I don't have any problems with my cakes because of it. I know I'm done mixing because of the way the batter looks. I don't run a timer. If I had to be that precise, I wouldn't enjoy baking the way I do.