Hi! Here's my question, if anyone can help out a little:
I baked a 10 inch square cake using the WASC recipe -
Wilton chart says 6 cups of batter (Which i usually find their chart to be less than what i usually put in to get the full 2 inches in height) - I put in 7 cups of batter
Baked at 300deg for 25 minutes - then 325deg for 30 minutes (with one flower nail)
The cake baked perfect all the way thru - except, when leveled, it's only 1 1/2 inches high. I have the fat daddio pans that are 2 inches - It was because the corners /some edges didnt seem to bake up high enough so when i leveled it, i had to cut of .5 inches....
How do i fix this for my next cake to be the exact 2 inches? More batter? Cook slower? Any tips would be greatful - I'll be baking the next cake tonight! I"m using the SPS system w/ the 4inch legs so i have to get it as close to that as possible! Thanks!!!
Angela
I use self rising flour when I make wasc or you might want to consider adding some baking powder. I scoot the cake batter out toward the corners and leave the middle of the pan more empty.
A remedy for the short corners is build them up by leveling the middle of the cake 2" tall which will leave the corners too short.
Take the piece of cake that you leveled off and cut it in quarters (cut it in half then cut that in half)--you now have four right angled slices of cake..
Ice the (too short) corners of the leveled cake.
Place a quartered cake piece on top of the corner of the cake lining up the right angles-do all four corners.
Now re-level the cake.
The leavening in a cake mix is designed to puff up best at 350 degrees. Unless you've got convection 300 might be too low I don't know.
You must understand that the cake mixes have been downsized since that recipe was posted. There is updated info in the comment section - rather far down :(
Just to let you know, I baked 2 cakes recently using the recipe just as it is posted. I have always pushed batter into the corners so it's a bit higher then the center before baking. They were baked in a 9x12x2 pan and turned out perfectly. They rose just to the top of the pan and were the usual moist, tender cake I came to know in the past. Since I have a new/different oven now I am baking at about 330 degrees and it seems to be a bit off. Right now I don't have a thermometer to check it and have to rely on the setting. They baked in about 45 minutes.
I have a feeling there might have been something wrong with the particular box of mix that caused the problem. OR it IS just possible you did some wrong measuring of the ingredients. So sorry you had problems. BTW: I never, Never *NEVER* measure batter :( I just learned how many mixes each pan holds and know to fill the pan at least 1/2 way up - usually 2/3rds.
Also, instead of leveling your cake to the height of the corners, fill in w/icing to level it so you don't loose so much cake. I like what K8 suggested also.
kakeladi/Lynne
If you spin your pans after you add the batter, it will work it up the corners a bit and it will help it to cling and rise more evenly.
Bake even strips will help a lot. I normally use Magic Line pans, but when I need to use Wilton for special shapes, I ALWAYS use the bake even strips otherwise I have the same problem you did. Fat Daddios pans are NOT Magic Line. :)
Also, lining the sides of your pan with parchment will help the cake climb up the sides and stay there.
Thank you all for your feedback and hints!
I went out and bought those Bake Even Strip things - I spun the pan - Made sure the corners batter went up a little higher - put the 7 cups of batter (it is a little more than 1/2 full) and it baked pretty straight across - one or two corners kind of drooped, but I can fix that now, thank you!
I measured it and it was just at 2inches!
Thank you all again - I appreciate all the help - now to bake a 14 inch cake and hope I have no problems! :)
use a flower nail and the strips around the pan also?
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