I have been baking cakes for a while now and the outer edges of the cakes are really hard. I have to trim them and I guess I have been patient and it hasn't really bothered me until now because I was working in a bakery for like a week and their cakes came out of the oven so perfet and soft. Is it because they use a concection oven? What could I possibly be doing wrong? I have tried parchment paper, baking spray, crisco & flour, aluminum foil.... and nothing seems to work I'm wondering if it could be my oven??? Please help.


Sorry this is so long

Thanks
Jackie

I am very interested in knowing this as well as I am having the same problem. I have checked my oven temp and it is running a little low. Say I put it at 350 degrees and the little thermometer I bought to stick inside says it is at 300. So I bake it a little longer. My cakes are coming out hard on the outside and raw (they sink) on the inside. My smaller cakes say 6" to 10" come out fine...it's the larger cakes that are coming out raw, yet the tops are almost burnt. HELP!

In my experience using cake release or the recipe for it keeps the edges crumb free and somewhat moist. But the bake even strips bake the cake evenly and leaves no hard edges. Make sure your oven is turned down to 325 and in my experience the very few times I let my cake sit and cool for more than an hour; made the cake drier and harder on the edges. So I ice mine when it is still slightly warm to the touch in the center. It makes for a very very moist cake!

Thanks for pointing that out also my small cakes are fine a little hard but the bigger cakes have some raw spots inside and they are dark and hard on the outside. I use the flower nail to help with heat distribution but sometimes that doesn't work. I use the pund cake recipe that is on the side of the DH cake mix box. Could it be the texture of the cake, ingredients? I also use milk instead of water. I was thinking of buying one of those oven thremometers but I have no idea where to find one.

Thanks for reading

Jackie

Have you ever heard of Cake pan wraps? These are oven safe wraps that you soak in water then wrapped around the pan before you place your cake in the oven. This will keep the sides from cooking before the center. It allows the cake to bake evenly. I used mine for the first time last week after our teacher told us about them. I found mine in Hobby Lobby in the cake section. There were 3 sizes in one package. The teacher told us if we couldn't get any wrapps we could use a soaked dish towel that will wrap evenly around the pan held by a safety pin will work just as well. I am a believer now and my cakes turned out beautiful and cooked evenly and the sides weren't hard like they usually were.

Hopefully this is what you were looking for.

Shyann

I don't necessarily think you need to get technical with thermometers and all. I don't ever use them. The bake even strips work great. And if you use crisco and flour the flour always seems to dry out the edges of my cakes and I don't like the grit on the sides from the flour. I hate that feeling. And using cake release will also work to your advantage on the moistness of the sides. But bake even strips are really the key. I never use a nail in the center and don't have a problem. I cook every cake on 325 convection with bake even strips and cake release. Perfect cakes every time. For my Wilton class I teach in course 1 I have to make a cake and ice. So I make one with strips and one without to demonstrate the difference. The one without is dark and dry on the sides and bottom. And was used with Spray on the pan.

Oh and I don't use water either in my recipes.

Samsgranny,

It sounds like you are adding too much liquid to your recipe. I had that problem a few times until I tweaked it a bit and lowered the liquid a bit.

Thanks, cakeswithattitude. I'm following the box directions only adding an extra egg, substituting milk for the water, and adding the dry instant pudding mix. As I said the smaller pans come out great, it's just the one over 10" that are giving me the problem of not baking in the middle and too brown on top. I've tried the baking strips and that was the first time I ever had a cake sink on me...through the strips out and never tried them again. You think I should go back to the strips? Please advise.

I think you should try again. I thought they didn't work the first time either. and a year later tried and they worked everytime. If you are adding those extras and just changing from water to milk then it shouldn't be the liquid. But maybe just a fluke or something else. But try the strips and if the cake is bigger than 10" add the inverted flower nail too. That should help. But always cook at the lower temp of 325 and mine takes about an hour to bake. Are you giving it that long? It may look like it is getting dark and the cake is still soft; but give it time and it should get done and the top won't get much darker. Are you using metal pans? And make sure to use cake release. Anything that is a spray will not allow the cake to rise correctly. The cake tries to rise and falls b/c the oil based spray causes the cake to slip back down causing a hill in the cake.

Okay, I will try again and leave it in for an hour. Thanks for the tips, I'll let you know.

Mine take an hour whether it is a 6" or a 10" maybe give or take 5 minutes. I always set my timer for 50 min and check. My oven bakes very fast. So it just takes a while when you use the milk and extra egg and the pudding

I use Betty Crocker mixes following the directions for the ingredients and I bake them at 325. No matter what size cake I am making it always turns out great. I have never had to use bake even strips or a flower nail to get them to cook through. I just leave them in until they are fully baked. Also, I make sure I use enough mix that it rises above the pan so I can cut the top off and that gets rid of most of the hard spots. Then I take the cake out of the oven let it cool for 5 minutes at the most, lay cling wrap over the cake and flip it out of the pan onto the cling wrap. Then I wrap the cake up airtight and let it cool in the cling wrap. This helps hold the moisture in and gets rid of any hard edges. My cakes are always moist and a bit denser so they are great to work with.
HTH,
HeatherMari

Oh by the way I have never used the flower nail but hear it works. If you try a cake with and without strips at the same time in a convection oven so they bake at the same rate. You will see the difference when you flip the cake over. The one without them is dark and drier. Other than that it looked the same. but the lighter one is much better