I can't belive this. Have a cake due tomorrow Saturday, planned ahead, got all my fondant decorations done ahead of time. Baked the cake last night....butter cake in a 11x15 pan. Ok 2 dh cake mixes, 2 sticks of butter, six eggs...followed the directons to the max. Baked the cake, it sunk in the middle and is crusty around the edges. No problem, still have time. Out of eggs, ran to the store today. Put another butter cake in the oven, again, followed the directions, cake sunk in the middle...not quite as bad this time but still a little dip about 2-3 inches long in the center of the cake I am waiting for it to cool now, have to tort it and put in banana filling and then ice with butter cream. Is there anyway that after I fill it and ice it that the sunken part will not look so bad?????

I always use dh mixes but this is the first time with butter cake mix has this ever happened to anybody else?

If it's not sunk too bad can you fill in the sink hole with buttercream? I've filled low spots with butercream before with no complaints.

Deb

I baked a 10 inch round last night due tomorrow and used DH as well and it did the same thing..So I had to rebake this morning. Frustrating feeling I know.

Thanks, I have already made my buttercream and made sure to make extra for this reason. Hoping my decorations can hit some of it. I just have not had this problem before and cannot for the life of me figure out why this happened.

TMM2001, was it a butter cake mix? I always use dh, but this is the first time with the butter cake mix

sounds like maybe it wasn't done all the way when you took it out of the oven, or like you cooled it too fast???? This happened to me once when I took the cake out of the oven to test for doneness, the whole thing was sunken in next time I tried to check it.....try just reaching into the oven to check for doneness and when it's almost completely done shut off the oven and open the door and allow it to cool slowly. Funny, I always have the opposite problem....all my cakes come out looking like I used half a sports ball pan on top LOL

Had the same problem almost last night. I fortunately had some extra batter left over and had made a small cake with it. When the big one dipped, I torted it, put on my filling and then cut a nice round piece of the smaller cake and laid it on the top. Put the top layer on that and you would have never known there was a big, nasty dip in it.

Did you use a heating cor or a flower nail? I like to use one for any pan over 12", they really help!

Southernbelle,
I had the same thing happen to me using the DH butter mix. I also wondered what i had done wrong because i had never had that happen before. Luckely, i had extra mixes at home to try it again but i had to mix 1 DH butter mix and 1 pillsburry butter/yellow mix because that was all i had left.
Wouldn't you know it did not sink when i used the combined mixes.

I don't think i will be useing the DH mix anymore for a butter/yellow cake.

I cannot credit where I read this . . . may have been the DH website but they don't recommend using their butter recipe mixes when using more than one mix. That may be why they sunk.

I have had the same problem when baking a half sheet cake and using the cake mix extender. It seems like the more "stuff" they have in them the more they tend to sink. Stuff meaning sour cream and the like.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks everyone for your help. I baked a second cake and the same thing happend only not quite so bad. I had saved the other caked, cut the top off and leveled both, filled iced, decorated and delived this afternoon. Customer was very happy. Whew............hope no one orders a butter cake any time soon. Never had so much trouble with a cake. Usually I have the opposite problem, have to level the hump off the top Oh well, turned out ok....thanks for all the suggestions. And the flower nail in the middle, never done that, may give that one a try.

I have had this happen several times when using the Duncan Hine's butter cakes mixes. This is the reason why I have switched to using yellow cakes mixes. I have patched the hole with cake scraps an buttercream and it worked fine. You would never know that it had sunk!!!