I'm baking two giant cupcakes for a friend and her husband-to-be for their wedding cakes. The guests each get 1 regular size cupcake. I remember reading that heating cores are good for baking really tall layers to ensure they bake thoroughly and evenly. I bought a Fox Run giant cupcake pan--it was on clearance for $2.49--and the bottom half is just about 4" deep. I'm thinking the core would help prevent burning on the outside of the layer and make the bottom and top halves bake at closer to the same rate, rather than baking each half separately, but I've never baked such a tall single layer of cake or used a heating core before.

I looked through some of the previous threads on giant cupcakes and didn't see this question. I look forward to your guidance.

I bake my 6" cake as one cake and just put a flower nail in, comes out beautiful. Just a long baking time.

The flower nails I have are plastic, or I would use one. I think the heating core and the flower nail perform the same function. All of the posts I've read say the cake takes roughly an hour at 325. I'm making a test batch later this week, but I figured I would ask here first.

I have the Wilton giant cupcake pan, and I've never used a heating core and never had a problem with it. I fill the bottom half first and bake for about 12 minutes, then fill the top part and bake another 30 minutes. That's using box cake mixes though, I haven't tried it with any scratch recipes yet.