Hello
I am baking a 12 inch cake and yesterday failed dramatically... So ive looked into a few way and i was wondering when using a heating core do you need to change the temp of cooking/ lenght of cooking time for such a large cake?? i am using a old tin can as the heating core as sugested on a few posts on here. Please help.xx

I would not use a tin can. I baked three 12 inch cakes tonite and I just used a flower nail in the pan as a heating core. It works great and there ia almost no hole in the center. If you're using a tin can, aren't you left with a big hole in the middle of the cake?

I haven't had luck with heating cores either. I use a few inverted rose nails for larger cakes and like the previous poster said, they work like a charm! Just make sure you grease them with cake release!

I wouldn't use a tin can either but to avoid a hole, even when using the heating core, you just pour batter in the center. Metal flower nails work fine as well. Just be sure to "prepare" whatever you use, as you do the pans.