I've had two chocolate cakes not come out of the pan completely this week and it's such a waste of ingredients and time, errg! I'm so frustrated, and need to have my first wedding cake ready to go this weekend ... hoping you lovely experts can help me out!!

- I use the Hershey's Perfectly chocolate cake recipe (found here: http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=184) which I know isn't a sturdy cake, but it's worked for me before.
- The cakes were 10 inch rounds (compared to 9 inch that I've done before successfully) in Wilton pans.
- I used a home made cake release of 2 parts Crisco, 2 parts flour, and 1 part oil. The cake release works perfect for my other cakes; they just fall right out usually!
- Baked at 315 for about 50 minutes.
- Let sit for 15-20 before leveling (still in pan)
- Took toothpick around edges to loosen, flipped over onto cooling rack... and cue disaster. About 75% comes out ok, but some sticks to the bottom of the pan leaving the cake unstackable.

Is it the recipe? The cake pan? The cake release? Am I not letting it cool long enough? Can anyone point me to a scratch chocolate cake recipe that is actually dense and easier to stack and level?

Many thanks!!

Make sure its completely done inside...and then I only ever let my cakes cool 5-10 minutes before flipping out of the pan.

If you do have a super moist cake that has trouble coming out of the pan (and you used plenty of cake release) then just cut a circle of parchment paper and line the bottom of the greased pan...that will make double sure the bottom will not stick. I use that for cakes like carrot cake or a few other recipes that seem too moist/dense and sometimes have problems coming out of the pan.

Definitely agree about using parchment... I grease my pan, put parchment in the bottom then flour the sides...Never have a problem. Hope that helps!

Ah you're both lifesavers!! I used parchment last night, and it worked perfectly. Thank you for such an easy solution, and for not making fun of me for not thinking of it myself.

I use homeade pan release and I always line the bottom of my baking pans with wax paper (can't afford parchment paper ). I've never had a cake stick using this method. I also let my cakes cool for 10 minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack.