I am a total newbie in this cake world & I sure need help cause I've put myself in a diff one!  I've baked a few cakes, changing the recipe a bit to see if it comes out better.  The cake per so, pardon my ego, it comes out amazingly delicious, but the appearance frustrates me to no end.  The outer edges of the cake seem to sink in.  (please see my little drawing/image).

Here's the recipe I use:

1-french vanilla cake mix

ingredients listed on the box (all at room temperature)

8ozs cream cheese (at room temperature)

1 pkg of vanilla pudding

I spray & flour dust the pan & put parchment paper at the bottom.  The 1st few times I just sprayed the pan. Yesterday I tried the paper & flour, and 1 cake came out perfect but the other didn't (used 6" round wilton pan).

PLEASE!! Is there anyone that could please help me figure out what the problem is? Here's my urgency: a friend's daughter is getting married TOMORROW and they didn't have money for a cake so they asked me to help them.  And I tried baking yesterday like I said, and one came out good but not the other...  I kept it (sealed in plastic wrap in the fridge right now just in case).  But my OCD kicks in and really would like another attempt to see what happens.

I bet is something really simple and silly so please pardon my ignorance. Like I said; total newbie here!!!!

Thanks so much in advance for your help!!!

are you leaving them in the pan to cool? i always flip mine out about 5min after they come out of the oven, and they no longer get that indent on the side :) try that

I've tried flipping them immediately to see what happens and I can see how they have "sinked" from the sides even before coming out of the pan.  :(  I tried this time, leaving them out a few mins to cool and I was able to see it was messed up again before flipping them. :(

it may also be over baked? i had this problem every time to, but some how i figured it out! lol

try not baking it as long, next time, just by a few minutes maybe?

Have you tried using bake even strips? I've heard of people using cut up strips of towel the same way.

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30D620-475A-BAC0-592117323818A1AA

Why not ditch that recipe and try something else. The recipe may be flawed. Try the WASC (white almond sour cream cake) in the recipe section on this site. Everyone seems to have great success with that one. Or (please don't kill me, scratch bakers!) just use boxed mixes without messing with them. I only suggest this because you are so desperately short on time. Sounds like they are in emergency mode right now. You're sweet to try to help them. Good luck!
 

It is the cream cheese, definitely change the recipe if you  need to re-bake, a day before the wedding isn't when you want to play with tweaking one. The WASC cake has good reviews, like dawny said.

Cake mixes are not meant to hold heavy ingredients like CC, so they will buckle. Can you just trim it, if the taste/texture of the rest of the cake is good?