AI made my first 2tier cake this week. I bought 2" deep magic line pans for the bottom tier, put a parchment circle on the bottom, and got ateco flower nails for the center as recommended on other threads. I baked at 350 for 30 min, and when the center was still liquid, I turned it down(no baking strips) to 325. The pan on the upper rack appeared done after about 45 minutes, the tester was clean. The bottom rack( closer to the element was moved up, and baked through as well( I put them in the oven about 5 minutes apart). After 5 minutes out of the oven, the cake started to sink in the center, and after depanning, it sunk on the bottom side, too. The other layer did not do this. It was late, so I didn't check doneness again(stupid). The next night, I tortes and filled the first, but the sunken layer was completely raw in the middle. Not a good start to making large cakes.

ARather than turning down the heat, you might be better off baking at 325 the whole time.

AThat's my plan. Do you think the flower nail doesn't radiate the heat well enough? I used the info on the Wilton site about how many cups of batter as well as baking times and temp. None of it was accurate. I've never had nice pans before, only the dark nonstick stuff.

AI don't use heating nails or baking strips, I just bake everything at 325, even 10 and 12 inches.

AWow!!! It probably depends on the oven, but do you notice a big difference on stuff closer to the element? Also, I used 6 cups of batter per pan, and it was at least an inch over the top of the pan

ADifferent batters will rise differently so the Wilton guide is just that, a guide. It's up to you to get familiar with your recipes and your oven. Preferences run the gamut from nothing at all to bake-even strips and nails. Experimentation is how you figure out what works for your unique circumstances.

I overkill everything. So I use flower nail, bake even strips and cook at 325...even with itty bittie 6" cakes.And they have come out perfect since.

A

I do the same thing. :)

AWell, this was an experiment, for sure. I'd never done a tiered cake either. At least it stayed up. I had a 4" pan, so I had to bake, torte and fill that, then drop it in the center of the 10". Moving those layers to stack with that big hole was nerve wracking. [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3110637/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AAnd, I never could have done any of it without this site, reading old and new threads about everything.