Hi Everyone!!
I'm new here and was wondering if someone could help me. I have a few of the wilton character pans and was wondering how do you bake them so they don't dome in the middle? Then it seems to take longer for them to bake and then the edges bake too fast. Can anyone please help me?
Thanks!!!!!!

I bake mine on 325, it seem to help alot.

Put a flower nail or two into the pan before you pour the batter in (make sure you grease the flower nails when you grease the pan). It looks weird with the nails sticking up out of the batter, but they're easy to remove when you take the cake out of the pan.

I read this tip here a few weeks ago and tried it and it works great! Much easier than trying to use a heating core on the big pans too.

I agree with lowering the oven temp to 325. If it does dome, be sure to trim the dome off before turning your cake out onto the cooling rack, otherwise, the cake will crack. I you're worried about the freshly cut cake sticking to the rack, put a piece of parchment paper between the cake and the rack.

woohoo for the flower nail! just put a lot of spray on it and your character pan otherwise it will stick! Welcome to CC...you will love it here

Paula

I've done lots of character pans and I always bake on the center rack of the oven at 325F. Also when I spread the batter in the pan I push it into the corners and sides so that initially, when it goes into the oven, the batter in the center is actually lower than on the side. I usually have a slight crown only.

I use a scratch recipe, not a box mix and I think the box makes a little less batter than my recipe. If you're using a box mix then try using one of the extender recipes so you get a little more batter.

Good luck!

Thank you all for all the ideas. I will try them out this week. I already have a couple flower nails so I'll try that and the temp at 325.

And by the way I really do love this site. I've been looking and reading all day!!