Do I need tose bake even strips? I've seen something before about using a flower nail, do you just put it in the middle of the batter and bake? I've never used this big of a pan and right now we are "poor like Kenny" so I can't afford to experiment too much. Thanks for any advice!
Sue
The bake even strips are helpful, but for a cake that size, I'd use the flower nail trick, assuming you don't have a heating core. I haven't tried the flower nail trick yet (I don't do a lot of big cakes), but I've seen a lot of people on here who seem to prefer it over the heating core anyway. Hope that helps.
I have that pan. I have tried it out both ways. I think the results are about the same. Personally, I think the flower nail trick is easier. I just give it a spray of cake release and pout the batter over it. Works great everytime.
For a pan that large, I would use 2-3 flower nails in the center. If you don't want to buy baking strips for the outside of the pans, you can make your own using wet paper towels wrapped in foil. This prevents the outside of the cake from over cooking; it also helps reduce the hump in the middle of the cake.
I use flower nails all the time and have notice a lot of improvements in my baking BIG pans! If it were me having to bake the 16 in. square, I think I would bake 4 - 8 in. squares instead. I'm just a chicken for big cakes I guess, too much that can go wrong. If I were using the big pan, I would use three or four flower nails in different places. Can you tell I'm overly cautious!!?? 
Thanks for the help. I'll try a few flower nails, I'm glad you said to spray them first, I wouldn't have thought of that. It's going to be the bottom teir of a four teired cake, so I'm a little scared to use four 8" pans because of placeing dowles, etc., plus I already bought the sq. pan set, but I know what you mean, I'm always scared when I have to flip a large cake out of the pan!
Sue
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