A[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3319855/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

10 mins into cooking 2 6" rounds at 350 f. Any ideas

I would like to know what causes that too.  I had this happen one time a couple of years ago and never did figure out why this happened. Anyone know what could have happened? Could it be that it was mixed too much or maybe too little?

I notice this happens with thinner batters.  It's almost like the batter is boiling in the pan.  It doesn't really bother me as long as the cake tastes and feels good in your mouth.  I just turn them over so the bottom of the cakes are facing upwards and I have a smooth surface to work with.

AThere are two different general types of (vanilla) cakes. One has to be leveled since the top is always bubbly and lumpy looking, the other one not (although you would do it if you have other tires on top or just to make it look even. Forgot the name unfortunately. Was just reading an interesting article about it some days ago. Maybe someone else here will know. But it's not the consistency of the batter. My chocolate cake batter looks like soup before it goes into the oven and doesn't "bubble".

i'm thinking along the lines of what remnant said -- did you beat a lot of air into it? or did you fold in egg whites too gingerly?

AI guess it can be happen because of high temprature.it's a kind of shock to the batter.

AThis happens to me if I let the batter sit too long before putting in oven.

You don't tell us anything about the recipe you used :(   Is it a scratch recipe of box mix? 

Usually when this happened to me it was a batter that was very thin.  Also the high temp you are baking at can contribute to that :( 

Try baking at 300 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, then turn the oven up to 325 for an equal amount of time and they should be o.k.

AThe cake actually turned out perfect in the end, as julia said i just had to level the top off. It has been a while since i baked that type of cake, i needed a denser/heavier cake since i was covering it in fondant. Usually when doing buttercream i do the WASC scratch cake. Maybe i just forgot what it looks like but I really dont think ive seen it like that before.