Hi everyone, I'm new to this site. I hope I can get some help to my dilemma.
I just baked a red velvet cake. The recipe yeilds two 8 in. cakes. Unfortunately I decided to add the entire batter to a 9x3 pan. I figure I would just bake for a longer time but it was a disaster.
I did the toothpick test and it came out clean but the center didn't look done. I just decided to go by the toothpick test and take it out to cool.
I thought if I let the cake cool overnight in the pan it would be very done. When I checked on the cake in the morning, it had slunk. The center of the cake was way under baked. I tried to save it by cutting the middle out (about 4 inches), that just ruined it.
My first thought was to put the cake back in the oven and let it continue to cook. I was too afraid that would be over dried. I don't know if should have just put it back in the oven withh waterbath underneath it to allow steam and not overbake it.
Unfortunatley, I'm just going to have to rebake another one this time using two pans as intended.
Can someone please give some advise on this.

I think maybe your toothpick didn't go far enough into the cake to tell you if it was done all the way through. I generally use a wooden skewer or butterknife even so that I can make sure it will go through.

Also, I would definitely not tried to rebake it esp after having it sit out overnight. Who knows what kind of germmies got in the undercooked dough.

Chalk it up to trial and error... learn as you go!

Welcome to Cakecentral!

I second that motion...don't try to rebake that cake!

For future reference..it you decide to try baking all the batter in one pan, then reduce the temp to 325* ..it may take up to an hour . In any case the pan should be filled no more than 2/3 full.