Whenever I bake a cake, the middle rises a lot and the sides harldy at all, so I end up cutting a lot of the cake off the top to get it flat. Is my oven too hot? Should I try the baking strips?

Why does this happen?

What temp are you baking at? I bake at 325 and may have a small hump, but not too bad. The baking strips work really well, if you have them.

Some folks use wet papertowels, but I have not tried that. Also I have read about pressing down on the cake with a kitchen towel when it comes out of the oven to get rid of the hump. I haven't done that either. Maybe someone else can explain it better.

Cindy

I'm going with what the box says, 350, and I'm using Wilton pans.
Can I try lowering the temp AND the strips, or should I just try one or the other?

The cake hump is the tastiest part! I don't want to smash mine down, my family loves to eat it!!!!!!!!! Phooey with trying to get rid of it

I have a wonderful AGBAY cake leveler (www.agbayproducts.com) and it slices the hump off super easy, which makes for good eating!

Lower the oven temp to 325, and bake a little longer, then when it first comes out of the oven, out your cooling rack on top of it and press down while it's still in the pan. Let it sit like that (you can put a small can on top for a little weight) for a few minutes until you turn it out of the pan. This method only works if you use enough batter to make the cake bake up to the tod edge. If you make shorter cakes this method will not work. I use these tips and I NEVER have to trim anything off my cake!! Yay!!

I tried the flower nail thing and it works pretty good. Grease a couple and put them in the pan with the batter. The last sheet cake I did w/out the flower nail I took it out of the oven and put a pyrex pan a little smaller on top w/ a can of soup to smoosh it down. I just left it for a couple of minutes and it was really flat. But I agree with alicegop that hump is really good eating!!! my family loves the hump!!

This is what my aunt told me to to do when I started baking, and it works really well. When you pour the batter into the pan, push it out to the sides so it's a little concave in the middle. When it bakes up, it bakes up more level. This works for me!

Ok here is what I do. First I tried everything and found that when you do several things together you get better results.

I use the flower nail in the middle of the cake. Lower the temp to 325 and cook it for the longer time it says on the box. Check with cake tester or toothpick to be sure it is done.

I also use a trick someone on here told us where you spin the cake in the pan BEFORE you put it in the oven. I don't know why but it works.

Then if all else fails I will put a dishtowel (clean of course) on top of the cake as soon as it comes out of the oven and press down to flatten cake.

That being said, my next cake I'm going to do everything I can to get the biggest hump so I can cut it off and try the cake balls everyone raves about!

Joanne

I always use bake even strips or just strips of an old towel that I've soaked in water. It usually does the trick. HTH.