Does anyone have any idea why my WASC cakes always sink in the middle while they are baking?? It doesn't matter what size or shape of pan I use, they always sink about an inch in the middle of the cake during baking. I am so frustrated. The cakes always taste great and they are done uniformly. I have tried everything I know, so I'm looking for other ideas.
I bake in a commercial convection oven set at 325F.

I bake for the first 20 mins on 300 & then bump to 325. I make a point to not open the oven at all while baking. You've probably tried those, though!

Are you baking at a higher elevation? That can cause the middle to sink if you don't make some adjustments in the recipe.

Which WASC cake recipe are you using (there are so many variations it's almost become a generic term).

Rebecca Sutterby and Kakeladi both have pretty basic but very dependable recipes while some of the others use a lot of different add-ins.

Handy cake troubleshooting charts:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu

http://tinyurl.com/32goqe

http://tinyurl.com/6c745g

http://tinyurl.com/6lpjww

http://tinyurl.com/yay22w

HTH

Thanks for the tips and links. I think I have the problem solved now. I started really beating the egg whites before adding them to the other ingredients...DUH...:-0. That seems to have worked well.

I can't remember if it's the sinking problem or the sticky top problem, but I read that reducing the sugar will help. If beating the eggs whites doesn't continue to work, you might want to try reducing the sugar.