Hi everyone, It is true that this website is highly addictive. I have just started doing cakes as a hobby/creative outlet. I have some questions that I never thought about when I would just pour batter in a pan and frost whatever came out of the oven.
1) should a 2 inch pan produce a 2 inch layer? sounds silly
2) how do I minimize the bump in the middle of each layer in order to reduce waste from leveling?
I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks in advance.
it depends on how full you fill the pans, whether you get a 2" cake. I normally torte my layers, and two layers, torted and iced are about 4 inches total.
If you use an inverted flower nail as a heating core, that can help even baking. Also, the bake-even strips or even a wet towel wrapped around the pan can help create level baking.
I swear by the wet towel method! Cut a strip of old towel, long enough to wrap around your tin, soak in very cold water, then squeeze out just enough so it dowsn't drip, but is nice and wet and secure round the outside of your pan (I use stationary binder clips!). You need a double thickness of towel, so it doesn't dry out too quickly. All of my cakes come out perfectly flat on the top since I started doing this, as it stops the outside of the cake cooking too quickly and setting before it's finished rising.
HTH
Kelly
My culinary arts instructor told us to lower the temp of the oven by 5 degrees. This minimizes the rising in the center, therefore, less to level off. It doesn't do anything to the texture of the cake you just have to bake it a bit longer than the suggested time for the suggested temp. HTH 
I smoosh my cakes as soon as they come out of the oven. Burning hot cake becomes so dense and moist and yummy when you smoosh it 
Take a CLEAN DRY kitchen towel. Fold over once for protection. Lay onto half the cake and take both hands and press gently and evenly yet with enough pressure to bring it down to the level of the pan or the rest of the cake if the cake didn't rise to the edge of the pan. Once that side is done continue to the other side until the entire cake is level.
If you wait too long and the cake cools too much doing this on a cooled cake will cause it to crack and bust. Doing this OUT of the pan will ruin your cake so always ALWAYS do it while it's STILL IN THE PAN Also make sure you do this when it's just out of the oven and still burning hot and easy to manipulate .
Also if you're making a very large say sheet cake or large round or square or something that would take a bit too long to smoosh with a towel, use a cake board the same size as the cake, lay it on top so that the flower nail punches thru the board and smoosh away Works great and produces a very moist and very dense cake everytime!
Finish off by cooling IN pan for 10-15 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack or onto a wrapped cake board and leave to cool completely. You may even want to pop it in the fridge or freezer to firm up before icing. Just remember the cold air circulating around in the fridge and freezer will dry a cake out badly so make sure you wrap it very well, I normally triple wrap mine with saran wrap and then pop it in the freezer for a few hours and ice while it's cold.
if you get a hump in the center of the cake, after you take it out, immediately turn it over onto a heat-proof surface, covered with parchment paper and smoosh it down. then place a potholder on top and put something heavy on top to weigh it down. let it sit for 10 minutes, then take the pan off, wrap it in two layers of plastic wrap and cool.
it does make the cake a bit more dense, though because you are smooshing the cake into itself.
your 2" pan should make a 2" cake, depending on how much batter you put in. if you don't put in enough, it won't rise enough and be lower than the top edge. i believe there is a chart on wilton's site that tells you how much batter you need to put in each size and shape pan.
hth
good luck and welcome!
What I do:
Grease-only, no flour, in the pans. (I use CK Products brand Pan Grease. Just plain 'ole Crisco will work ok, too. Don't use the spray Pam ... it seems to fry the sides of the cake).
baking strips ... all pans, always. I never use the flower nail or heating core.
Lower temp to at least 325.
My cakes tend to rise higher than the pan, so I can use the pan as a guide to level any doming that occurs. The baking strips will not eliminate the doming entirely .... it will reduce the doming, but more important than that, it will help your cake bake evenly, avoiding those crusty corners.
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