Help! I'm baking a stacked construction cake today with a 12in layer at the bottom. I just realized I should have picked up a heating core, but don't have time to run to Michaels to get one. Will the cake be oK? Any advice on an alternative to a heating core?
i wanted to try that on a 10 inch cake im making. will the flower nail work just as well as the heating core?
FLOWER NAIL IS SOOOOOOO AWESOME! you don't need to waste your $ on that heating core if you don't want to! Using the AMAZING advice from all the veterans out there, I used it on a 12x18 (3" deep!) sheetcake and it worked like a charm! Pefect & evenly baked! to do it:
1) grease(or butter) LIBERALLY/flour as usual
2) FLOWER NAIL in center
3) cut parchment to fit bottom of pan
4) place parchment OVER nail
5) bake as usual! (make sure to poke nail tip through)
** there will hardly even be an indentation from the nail
Thanks for the Veteran advice CC ....hopefully it will work for you too! 
I lost my flower nail, and don't have a heating core. I've taken to using my itty bitty metal biscuit cutter right now.
Necessity is the mother of invention and all that.
Yep, the flower nail is the trick. I bought a big one just for that purpose. And once I smarted up and put it in the pan before the parchment paper it was even better because It wasn't taking anyting out of the cake. Not even an indentation. Coat it with cake release and it comes right out. Wonderful invention. You can use two for big cakes if you want.
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