i'm making my mothers wedding cake, 2 tiers, 8 and 10 inches. I just took the first 10 inch round out of the oven and it rose significantly more on one side than the other! I don't have enough ingredients to try again. Should I try to fix this? I'm thinking if i cut off part of the top and use it underneath to prop it up and use icing to glue it together I might be able to make it even enough?

Wait and see how it looks like once it's cool. I normally have a doom too but after cooling it's hardly noticeable and I just need to trim a bit. I use a cake leveler to ensure I don't cut the layer crooked somehow. That would give you trouble when your wanot place the top tier on.

If your cake is lower on one side than the other, take a tea towel and press down on the side that is uneven until it is even.  This works best immediately out of the oven, but may do the trick for you on this cake.  The cake in your photo actually looks fine, except it has a dome in the center.

Are you talking about the dome in the center?

Doming/cracking centers and low sides can result from several things:

Over-mixing - develops too much gluten, especially in a scratch recipe with AP flour.

Too hot of an oven -try 325 F.

Very thin pans - set the pans on a baking sheet.

A lower temp and baking strips wrapped around the pan can work wonders.  If you don't have baking strips, you can make your own by cutting a large towel into about 3 1/2 inch wide strips, folding them in half, soaking them in water, then wrapping them in a strip of foil then pin around the pans.

As for the layer you have baked, you might be able to trim and move some of the pieces around and glue it all together with buttercream, but sometimes things like that are really taking a risk.

I guess the picture doesnt really capture whats gone wrong. One side of the cake is very low while the other side has risen just about the amount i expected. if you drew a line from the edge on one side to the edge on the opposite side you'd get a diagonal line. theres a bit of a dome but a dome is something i can deal with.

(i dont have a cake leveler unfortunately i just have a long serrated knife)

The recipe i'm using has both ap flour and cake flour, and says to heat at 350 but i might try adjusting it down a bit and using a cookie sheet for layer #2 tonight.

Do you have an oven thermometer?

nope. im a student so im not working with a lot.

If it rose to one side, instead of in the middle, your oven may be uneven. That's what mine do and my oven isn't level. To fix this, I rotate the pan half way through baking.

You'd have to level the top anyways to be flat, so cut the top off so it's even. I too use a serrated knife, so no worries there! If you want flatter tops, most people say baking at 325F helps lessen the dome. And save the tops to make cakepops or cake parfaits <3

hm, all the other cakes i've made in this oven (all 8 inches) have come out just BARELY taller on one side so that might be made more extreme in the 10 round. I'll try turning the next layer i make partway through, thanks for the tip!

my issue with just cutting off the top as it was just a little dome is that the shortest part of the cake is REALLY short. If i cut to that i'd barely have any cake left!

this is sort of how it is:

(excuse my sloppy mouse drawing. i am clearly not a master artist)

(also i generally save leftover cake tops and crumble them and mix it in with leftover icing/frosting for anyone around the apartment who just wants a bite of cake and not a slice)

My oven does the same thing, just not that extreme.  Our kitchen floor is not perfectly level, or my stove is not perfectly level, or the racks & rack guides are not perfectly level.  Just locate which side is lowest, simple check with a level, and put a  chunk of aluminum foil under that side of the cake to lift up that side.  If you bake a lot of cakes, wrap the foil around the rack itself in that area.

then the rest of your hump issues are addressed perfectly by the bakers above.

I would suggest you get more ingredients and try again. This is your mothers wedding cake and she deserves on that isn't a hack job.

Robert

The other problem, is that there just isn't enough cake in that pan.  The cake should have risen to the top of the pan so that after trimming off the dome, you're still left with 2" of cake.  It almost looks like enough batter for an 8" cake, but put in a 10" pan.

I agree with Leah...while using baking strips might have helped with the overall levelness of the cake, it would not have risen to the top of the pan.  Even without trimming the "hump" you would still have ended up with a somewhat short layer.

I'm would like make this cake!Someone  give me the ingredients ? thanks

Hi..

cake doesnot have enough space to spring..so it s not even. for.next cake just fill half and it will be so even no need to trim. good luck!!!!!!

I ended up redoing this layer entirely. I borrowed some ingredients from my roommates and skipped a lecture. I used more batter this time, 325 degrees, and turned it partway through. I didnt turn it early enough so its still slightly uneven but  it is MUCH better than the first attempt. 

i used that on my second 8 inch round as well, plus the pressing down with a tea towel, and it turned out almost perfectly even and flat.

Thanks so much for all your tips, guys! while i wish i could have avoided the problems altogether now i've learned quite a lot from this mistake! (plus my roommates are happy we get to keep the reject layer all to ourselves)