Whenever I bake and level my cakes they end up 1 1/2" tall. I butter and flour the pans and place parchment paper in the bottom of the pan as well. How can I get a full 2" high cake layer?

I guess I'll have to start measuring mine.... I know mine always rise over the top of the pan so I assume they are close but never measured! Can't wait to hear what the "pros" have to say!!

You may not be filling your pans full enough. I fill mine a little over half full. I also use 3" tall pans to get a little extra height then level to 2".

Yep, more cake batter. If you are getting too much of a dome, lower your oven temp by a bit. You also may not have to cut off ALL of the dome depending on your filling. If all else fails, just bake more layers. It's more about the height of the finished product than the exact number of layers inside.

I use 3" pans and more batter than the charts recommend. I use the flower nail in the center to help it bake a little more level and bake at 325.

Have you tried collaring...there's some great info (& pics) on this thread: http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-726166-.html

When I use 2" pans, I fill approx 2/3rd full and bake at 300 - I get pretty close to 2" layers this way. I recently borrowed some 3" pans and put the same amount of batter (# cups) into them as I do my 2" pans, baked on 300 and had almost 3" tiers.

~Chelle

Thank you everyone! I have been filling my pans 1/2 full, so I will add more batter to them..hopefully it helps. I forgot to mention earlier that I always use bake even strips on all my pans (except 6").

Sometimes if you put a lot more batter than usual, it's good to put a cookie sheet with edges underneath, just in case it spills over.

I usually only have spills with square or pillow pans, but nothing smells worse than cake batter burning on the oven element.

Definately try "collaring" as FlourPots suggests.

I used to have the same problem and read the tuturial on here about collaring and it works great.

It takes a little extra time, but turns out great cakes with height everytime.

I tried to pull up the tutorial that was suggested. The tutorial itself would not pull up but the responses did. But, I did find another one. I have two cake orders for next weekend that I will be using the collaring technique. I'm really excited. Thank you everyone for all your suggestions. I will report back on how they turned out.

Is it just the photos, or the entire post??