Hi everyone,

I am on Wiltons Course III, we are making the square birthday package cake. It is covered with Fondant and a big fondant bow.

It uses a 8 inch square pan two layers.

I seem to have a problem with my layers not rising very well on the sides and high in the middle, does anyone have a suggestion for this?

Anyways, I thought I would use the super enhanced cake formula and fill the pans a little more than just what a box mix yields, hoping this makes for taller layers and use any extra for cupcakes. I dont mind cutting the dome off the top but i do want my sides to rise as much as they should.

Does this sound like it should work or does anyone have a better solution.

Also in this recipe it calls for white granulated sugar, is this the regular type sugar or powdered sugar?

Thank you guys so much for all your help.

Granulated is just regular sugar.

Have you heard about the "Bake even strips" from Wiltonl You wet them and put them around your cake pan. It keeps your cake from rising too much in the middle. If you are baking these today, you can take an old towel and cut it into strips to fit around your pans. Wet the strips, wring out some of the water, (you want them wet but not dripping) wrap around the pan and pin in place. Bake at 350 for the suggested time in your recipe. Check the cakes for doneness as usual. I find this method works great for me.

I just tried this recipe for the first time a couple days ago. I used all of the batter between 2 8x2" round pans, used the bake even strips, and baked the cakes at 325 degrees. The cakes come out perfectly to the top of the pan and I didn't even have to level the cake. And by granulated sugar, they mean the white sugar.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Puzzlegut,
Thats great. Just what I needed to hear.
Did you make the recipe exactly as it says. And how does it taste?

Thanks

o.k. dumb questions coming..... When you say you can use an old towel and pin it to the pan, what exactly do you pin it with? And I am assuming you pin it to the outside of the pan So embarrassing to ask that but I truely don't know TIA

You pin the strip to itself, like putting a belt around your waist. The "bake even" strips come with T-shaped pins. You stretch the wet strips so that they seem to grip the pan and don't slide off, and you use the T-pin to pin the overlap snugly to itself.

Dordee.....use a safety pin to pin the ends together so that it stays in place. Yes, wrap the outside of the pan.
No dumb questions here! We're all learning every day!

I can't say enough about the bake strips - I used to waste so much cake cutting off that big hump in the center. Now my cakes rise perfectly!

Gingoodies, thank you for the wet towel idea! That is so smart - and more economical.

I tried the super enhanced cake formula and the enhanced cake formula and I thought the enhanced cake formula was better tasting. You might want to experiment with that on another day.

lsawyer, Thanks for the info and also thanks for not making me feel so dumb for asking. I can't say enough about this website and the wealth of great advice and information I have recieved.

Yes, Dordee, that's the beauty of Cake Central (CC).

CrystalCakes5: The cake tasted pretty good. Nice and moist. Just make sure after you let your cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes, turn them onto cooling racks and immediately wrap them in plastic wrap. This will help seal in the moister of the cake and makes the cakes moister.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

I do have the Bake Even Strips. I have never tried them. I bad about figuring that something that simple would actually work. Plus you hear different opinions about things, so I just never bothered to try them.

I guess I should try them and see how they work for me.

Thanks everyone.

I personally do not like the bake strips. I tried them about 12 year ago and hated them. I also tried wet towel strips, and hated it. Instead of putting anything outside of pan, when cake comes out of the oven, I put a paper towel on top of cake and press down gently. This levels the cake.
It works great!. Good luck.
Vicky

I have some of the baking strips for smaller pans but made my own for my big pans. I just used an old bath towel cut into strips. That worked as well as the ones I bought. I have found though that since I've been using the heavier Wilton pans (the ones that have straight sides) that my cakes bake up the sides more and have less dome if any at all. Often times if there is any dome it gets pressed in as the cake cools on the rack. I've never pressed it down while the cake was still hot as some do. I always bake at 25 degrees lower than the box says.