Wiltons Bake Even Strips. I just tried them for the first time and was pretty excited to use them. I folled the directions perfectly, and my cake still came out uneven. One of the strips even got a little burnt on the edges.

How wet did you have the strips? I use mine with every cake and have never had a problem with unevenness nor with one ever getting burnt!

I start soaking mine in the sink filled with cold water when I start mixing my cake. I take them out of the water and squeeze them out just before placing them around the pan.

yup, thats exactly what I did too. I noticed that the strip was touching the rack in the oven, so I guess thats what did it. but the other one was fine.

i was also excited and dissapionted with my bake even strips, they left the sides of my cake full of crumbs, are hard to put on and not worth the fuss, i would rather deal with the hump then the crumbled sides any day!

auntiem26:
don't fret!!! I used those a couple of times and sometimes they worked and other times they didn't. Never could figure out what I was doing wrong

I have never tried those strips. When I took my cake decorating class... many years ago now thru the local vocational school... the instructor suggested tearing strips out of an old towel and soaking them and pinning around the pan. So that's what I used to do. It was always a pain in the a$$ in my opinion though!

However - I read the tip here to put the flower nails in the cake and that would help it bake evenly. I have done that ever since and I never have a problem now with the cakes baking evenly! Plus it's sooo easy!

StephW,

I have also heard of using flower nails, but I thought it was only ideal for a large cake. I only made some 8' today.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has had trouble. After all the raves I hear and read about them, I thought I just did something terribly wrong to make them not work.
I'd rather just trim the tops instead.

I get the hump mainly with round cakes. To get rid of the hump without having the carve it and make a mess, I take a clean kitchen towel and press the hump down. But this only works if you do it right when you take it out of the oven.

HTH,

Kat

I just got some Bake Even strips and am eager to try them. I'll be making a cake tommorrow...they work with square cakes too right? I've always heard mixed reviews about them, but I thought I'd give them a try anyway.

I've tried the flower nail thing and it didn't work at all for me. I was so disappointed. Instead of an even hump that's easy to cut off, I got a hump with indents in it where the flower nails were. It seems to level the cake off within a 3mm radius of the nail, but no further (which is useless)...and they're a pain to wash!

Have you tried reducing the oven temp to 325 yet?

I have not tried the bake even strips, but have had pretty good luck with reducing the oven temp and adding 1 T. of Meringue Powder to a recipe for 2 8" pans.

When all else fails - there's no shame in trimming off that hump on top! I like my small Wilton leveler - some people will say they hate it -bit it's been working great for me so far.

Good luck!

What temp are you baking your cakes at hun?
A lot of us have found that baking at 325* works best for cakes. And what size were your cakes? If they were deep pans or large pans then you probably should use a heating core in the center of the cake as you are cooking it. In a pinch, using a good ol rose nail works great. Just place it head down in the cake batter after you've poured it in the pan and yer good to go. You can pull it out after you flip the cake over. O and if you do lower the temp you will have to bake a little longer.

Well, next time I'm definately going to try a flower nail and reducing the temp. It was a cool cake. Checkerboard pattern. It looked ok once it was together. I'll post the pic tomorrow.

Thanks for all the replies!

I use them and like them too. I have mine rolled up and pinned with a T pin. I put several of them in a pan, fill with water and then weight them down with something heavy because they want to bob to the top of the water. I use a large can of something like canned tomatoes. When I go to put them on the cake pan I just squeeze each roll a tiny bit, I like them thoroughly soaked but not dripping. Unroll, fit around the pan and pin with the T pin. I found the slanted or bent T pins they have available today work best.