Hi. I'm a hobby baker and am making my first doll cake. I can't get paid for baking here in CA, but my son's friend bought all the ingredients and the Wilton pan so I could make his daughter a princess doll cake for her birthday. I've never used the Wilton doll pan before, but according to the directions I can use any cake recipe that I'd like. Well, I decided to use the one cake recipe that my entire family and by son's friend likes - the White on White Buttermilk cake from Bake Space. I've used this recipe any time I needed a white cake and it's always served me well. Until now. I don't know if it's the recipe or the pan, but according to the Wilton instructions, it takes 50-60 minutes for the cake to cook -- try more like 75 minutes. At 50 and 60, it is still really jiggly in the middle and a cake pick comes out with wet batter. However, when I cook it until the pick comes out clean, the cake keeps sinking in the middle where the heat core is, and it sinks before I even get it out of the oven. Any suggestions on how to avoid this? I need to have the cakes ready by 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 7th. I've already re-baked the cake once because I thought maybe this recipe couldn't use the reverse creaming method - which is what I used the first time, but it still happened again, so any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not good at carving cakes, so please don't advise me to try that method. I really want this cake to turn out nice for his daughter.

Hm..I have used that pan many times and never had I had the cake sink in the middle.The only advice I have is try another recipe..I use cake mixes and have never had a problem...

I have used that pan many times and depending on the weather it can sink a little bit. I have generally found it does best with a pound cake mix or recipe. The denser it is the less it falls. I have also had luck in slightly overfilling it. Put some aluminum foil underneath to keep the mess contained.
The other thing I have done is make a small round cake, about the same size as the bottom of her skirt. Then I just leveled it and put it on top of the second cake. It worked out well since I was using fondant and gave her a full skirt. I used small logs of fondant (or even rice crispy treats to support the skirt, so it would fall nicely. Here is a picture.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/etMta4f0AQmpOIujm7rTJtK-nasbul1Fao4XYh8MPRI?feat=directlink[/code]

Hi. I made a doll cake for my daughter, but I just used a pyrex bowl with 2 round sponges under. Once it was all covered with bc and fondant, it was fine. Obviously the bowl had to be roughly the same size diameter as the round sponges, although a slight difference could be covered by the fondant. Took an age to bake the sponge in the bowl, but it was just a plain victoria sponge I made.

I am not a fan of the doll pan but unfortunately I need to use it when people request doll cakes I always bake it using a cake mix thickened up with pudding mix and bake at 325 - it does take an ungodly long time and the cake tends to be drier than other pan shapes but other than that - it serves its purpose

i never had a problem with this pan. i use a regular cake box mix and bake at 325, and it comes out perfect every time

it sounds like the batter is the problem, maybe you should try using another recipe

Thanks everyone for your responses. I did bake another one and used a doctored cake mix. It still sunk in the middle but not as much. I filled the pan only 3/4 full and am using a 9" round cake to add some heighth to the cake. I've heard that not a lot of people like this pan much, but it was given to me by my son's friend as he wanted the cake for his daughter, so I have it now. Will maybe work with it some more to see if I can find the "secret" to how it works. Otherwise, I will be working on my carving skills....which I should probably do anyway! Thanks again!!