Well, luckily I was just messing around a little with a cake mix tonight, because I totally deflated it! I replaced the water in the recipe with sweetened condensed milk just to see what would happen. So, the cake is baking... and baking... I checked it and could see that the center was not at all set. Baking... Baking... then I gave it a little jiggle to see if the center was set yet. It was like someone had just popped a hole in a balloon! The center of the cake just slowly sank a good 3 inches. Like I said, this wasn't for anything in particular, so I had the luxury of laughing at the situation without stress. Just thought I'd share my little funny.

That sounds familiar! I had a fatal poke recently when I overfilled a cake pan. I went to test it to see if it was done and down, down it sank I think I had to level off half the cake.

That is some good info to pass on. I was thinking of replacing the liquid in my next cake with some Kahlua. But I am not really sure how it will taste. I did make some BC yesterday and used Kahlua as the replacement for the clear vanilla. I didn't notice much difference in the taste. But it did change the color somewhat. That won't be a problem though since I am tinting the BC a tannish color. But what do you all think that would make the cake taste like-oh it is a devil's food mix? Maybe I could try to find a good doctored devil's food cake mix to use instead. I really need to get the cake mix DR book!

I think the problem was the sweetened condensed. I usually use evaporated with no problems at all.

I seem to remember seeing somewhere that excessive amounts of sugar will do all sorts of weird and unusual things to a baking cake.

Illy

I think you're right Illy. Thanks for pointing that out. I kind of knew better when I did it, but was wanting to experiment a little anyways. I'm glad to know that the evaporated milk works just fine, as that was my next 'test subject'! Does it just make the flavor richer? Does it change the texture of the cake at all?

With mine, the evaporated milk makes a slightly denser cake, that's moist without being wet. It's wonderful; I hardly get any crumbling on the cut surfaces, and it does seem to change the taste for the better.

Illy

I think I will try that today, thanks for the input Illy!