Hi Cakers!

Please allow me to vent! Here are the details:

Agbay Cake Leveler
Magic Line cake pans (6 up to 12)
WASC, Choc. Durable Cake recipe
Stove has Temp. inside while baking
Brand new oven rack (100% level on my level)
Bake at 325
Cake pans are filled past the halfway mark (maybe ½ room left to rise)

Please explain why in the he** I cannot get a 2 tall cake. I thought it was because my older oven rack was not level. My cakes would come out one side higher than the other. But, I bought a new oven rack directly from the mfg., and it is level.

My cake last night rose evenly so perfectly. No hump in the middle. The cake would bake up and onto the lip of the pan. When I go to trim the cake with the agbay, my cakes are ALWAYS 1 ½ tall. I cannot get 2. When I fill the cake and place the other cake on top, I get EXACTLY 3 of cake?????

I have to always use ½ foam core board to make up the difference.
PLEASE, someone save my sanity. What the hel* am I doing wrong. I have purchased Sharon Z. Back to Basis. AMAZING instructional DVD. My cake comes out exactly like the one she shows, with the cake baking a little on the lip of the pan. Then she levels, I do the same.

WHY? WHY? Sorry for the long rant. I really would like to use SPS one day, but I cant even think about that until I can get a 4 high cake??

Thanks,
Michael

Have you measured the cake pans? Sometimes they say they are 2 inches tall but they really are not. Very deceiving. If that's not it, I'm not sure...

I have not actually measured the pan itself. However, the bottom of the pan does say 8x2 or 10x2. When I get home later I will measure...

Thank You!
Michael

Had the same problem with height so I bought 3" pans and fill to two inches. Some batters rise more than others but I trim off the excess with my Agbay and now I always get my 2". When I used 2" pans, I could often get the domed top to 2" but the sides were too short and left a big gap when I put the two separate cake halves together.

The tops I trim off never go to waste. I send the cut tops over to the local seniors cottage complex and my mother-in-law gives them out to the seniors. They love them!!! They use them for trifles and the like and now every week they are knocking on her door looking for cake tops. It's a win-win situation and I never have to worry about my cake heights any more.

When you level your cakes how much are you trimming off? I have my Agbay (I have the double blade one) set at 1" (bottom blade) and 1 7/8" (top blade). So when my cake is trimmed it is 1 7/8" tall. The space for the filling addes the extra height to get it to 2" - 2 1/8". All my cakes are between 4" - 4 1/4" tall.

1/2" of room left to rise? That's a lot of batter. If you find yourself with time to mess with it, try cutting back a smidge on the amount of batter in the pan. Using the bake even strips also aids in higher rising layers. one batch-3 pans same size...one, fill like you normally do but use the strips, another reduce batter and use the strips, the last one just reduce the batter. Place all in the oven at the same time (maybe use 8" pans...6" depending on the size of your oven) same shelf and see which result you like the best. Some use a combination to get the same results that others use nothing to attain...tomato-tomato (LOL...doesn't have the same effect when written)

I am a box mix baker and when I saw this post I was thinking you might be too since I never get my 8 inch cakes to 2 inches thick.

My cakes are 4 layers of cake and 3 layers of filling. I have never once had a bulge or blowout. I do allow the filled cakes to settle overnight before I ice them to ensure there are no issures. The extra filling layers helps give the cake a little extra height.

As another posted mentioned, you may want to try the bake even strips. I use to use them and they do work.

I also use doctored cake mixes, so I do not think that is your problem.

It is really strange that you only leave 1/2" of space from the edge and you can't get your cake to rise that much. I fill my pans about 60% and they rise at least 1/2" over the cake lip.

I also had a problem with my cakes rising until I read a recipe on CC that mentioned baking the cake at one temp and halfway through baking turning the oven up 25 degrees. Once I started doing this my cakes started rising a lot more. I set my oven to 300 for the start of my baking and then raise the temp to 325. This seems to work great for me and I don't use on special pans or strips.

You could try making a parchment paper collar, esp. if your pans are actually not 2" . I have read some posts (Indydeb?) that said not to grease the parchment on the sides of the pans.(use cake release to stick parchement to the pan sides) It allows the batter to rise better.

my layers are not a full 2 inches tall once leveled. They are a tad under. 2 layers, filling, and 1/2 incch fomecore baord gets them to about 4.5 inches

no worries friend.

I have found that some doctored cake mixes do not rise as much either. You add some flour, sugar, an egg, sour cream, flavorings, puddings, and on and on but not extra levening. The egg will add a bit but not much. Try whipping your egg whites and folding into the batter mix. It gives nice crumb and adds a bit of volume.

Might want to try sifting the box mix and every other dry ingredient you put in your cake batter. There is a thread somewhere that I recently read regarding sifting so I figured I'd try it. It does make a difference in the baking and the texture.

When you said you had to trim the "crispy edge" of the cake, that threw up a flag to me. If the edges of your cake are "crispy", it sounds like they are overbaked. If you've ever overbaked a cake, biscuits, cookies ... ANYTHING .... they kinda shrink into nothingness.

I use magic line 2" pans and use baking strips religiously. Most of the time, my cakes rise slightly past the top edge of the pan, making it easy to trim them as soon as I take them out of the oven.

The baking strips will help avoid the sides overbaking. Baking strips help promote nice and even baking by "cooling" the cake pan ever so slightly so the outside edge of the cake (the part touching the pan) doesn't bake faster than the middle (i.e. it doesn't overbake and get all crispy).

To slightly correct an earlier post, I grease-only-no-flour my pans, including the sides. Cakes rise higher. When I did a demo for a high school home-ec class, I actually took in samples of cakes to show them how this works ... one dinky short cake that was baked in a grease-and-floured pan and one nice and tall cake baked in a greased-only-no-flour pan.

see this post on a similar topics with add'l comment and suggestions:
http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-6979297.html#6979297

Thanks indydebi for the clarification. I was thinking you did not put anything on the parchment - which is what I have been doing. If I use the homemade cake release - equal parts oil, shortening, and flour can I put that on the parchment, or should I not use that since it has flour in it.
THANKS!!

My favorite pan coating is the CK Brand "Pan Grease", which is similar to the homemade version you mentioned (as I've been told). I use crisco-only if I'm out of the Pan Grease.

What is SPS?

Hi Cakers!

I appreciate all of your help on this topic! I wanted to post the picture of the cake discussed in this thread.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1846885.html

This one has a 1/2" foam core to help raise. I have a cake next week that I am going to do a double filling in!!

Thanks for all the help!!!

Michael

Have you tried putting more batter in your pan? I tend to fill them 2/3 full and never have a problem. I use magic line pans and the homemade pan grease, baking between 300 and 325.