Hi Everyone,

I just made a batch of the 3D doctored cake mix recipe using Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge and instant pudding mix. I split the recipe between 2 9" pans w/cake strips and baked for about 40 minutes. Soon after opening the oven the cakes started shrinking are are now less than 8" in diameter. There are fairly level. What did I do wrong?

Thanks for your help!

You could have overbaked them a tad but my cakes always shrink back from the pan a little bit. It will be okay. You're still going to ice them back up to 8".

In my experience, shrinkage is generally a sign of over-baking. And if it shrank that much, serious over-baking. How did you test for doneness?

I used a toothpick and it didn't come out completely clean, but not wet either. I tried the cake just now and it didn't taste like fluffy cake at all, almost. bit gummy. I mixed between each ingredient and then for 2 minutes after everything was incorporated.

I think it may be over mixed & over baked. Mine shrink, especially chocolate, but not a full inch. Maybe, a half inch, at most.

I use the WASC recipe for my cakes. I dump all of dry ingredients together and run a wisk thru them & then add the wet. I mix all of my wet together separately, gently fold that into the dry, and then use the hand mixer on medium for 1 min. 45 seconds. I bake at 325F until a wooden skewer comes out mostly clean.

HTH
Rae