AI followed Wilton's guidelines for baking a 16" round x 2" deep pan and put 15 cups of batter (box mix). It has overflowed significantly!! What happened, and will I be able to still use the cake?

Aww too bad--what a mess. I have relied on those charts my whole career--I hate that this happened to you.

How did you measure?

Most of the time when I have had spillover, it makes the middle of my cake fall. But not always. You can check --let it bake off completely and cool. Then use the edges of the pan as your guide and cut off the top--you can then see how it looks in there--if it's gonna cooperate or not.

You could also bake a 4 or 5 incher and insert it where you cut out the booboo portion if you have a booboo portion,

AI used an 8 cup measuring cup. I also used a heat core and fortunately it didn't fall. I cut away the edges and it didn't turn out cleanly but I think I will be able to still use it. The second one I put about 13 cups in and it just almost spilled over, so for this next cake, which is a 12 inch, I'm going to use about 5 cups instead of the 7 1/2 cups per Wilton. It must be the cake mix; I haven't used this particular one before and won't use it again. Thank you for your encouragement!

I bet you're right about it being the cake mix. Shoulda baked like a dream. Wow. Well, you're certainly on the right track now.

Hope all goes well!!!!

I am bad for just eyeballing the batter amount. I have a convection oven so I triple my recipes alot of times and bake all my cakes at once. Overflow happens! so on good advice I have two inverted cookie sheets that I place on the bottom third rack in my oven to disperse the heat in the oven but they also catch overflow. Too, the cake will still trim up well. I have a pair of scissors that I trim off the main hangover with and then the leveler will cut the top normally.

My chocolate and yellow both get filled half way, and my white and lemon about 2/3 pumpkin and apple spice and carrot almost to the rim....I use baking strips, bake at about 315 conventional, 280 convection,  and all cakes rise to the top of the pan, and bake mostly flat.

AThanks everyone for your encouragement and advice; it is truly appreciated! I got through this and the cake was ready to go Friday night. Everyone loved it! Here is a picture; I've never done this so if I didn't upload correctly, pls let me know! Thanks again!

[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/2877373/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AThat is a beautiful cake! I bet it tastes great too!

ALooks great! FYI, you can easily cut large circles from cardboard using 2 pencils and a string. If your bottom cake was 16", you'll want the board to be at least 20". Take yor string and tie the pencils 10" apart, pop one pencil in the center of your board, holding one pencil in each hand, pull the string taut and draw all the way around, like a giant compass. 20" circle :-)