Hello all, I got a recipe from the forums on the Wilton website because I wanted a good recipe for a scatch lemon cake. Anyway, after following these instructions, I baked my cakes and the middles fell. the only thing that wasn't clear that I can think of that might have cause it is that it didn't say whether to mix the lemon juice and buttermilk, so I did. Otherwise, I am not sure why it did that! The batter was yummy, I haven't tasted the ruined cakes yet, but would love to figure out where I went wrong. here's the recipe (and TIA!):

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter (softened)
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 plus 2 Tbsp lemon juice
3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Make the batter. Preheat oven to 350 degreesF. Using a small brush, lightly coat two 9 in cake pans with softened butter or vegetable oil cooking spray. Dust with flour and tap out any exces. Set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda and set aside. In a large bowl using a mixer set at medium speed, ream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending each thoroughly before adding the next. Scrape down sides and beat in vanilla extract. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture by thirds, alternating with the lemon juice and buttermilk and ending with the dry ingredients.

2. Bake the cake. Divide the batter equally between the pans and spread evenly. Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a tester inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean --20-30 min. Cool in the cake pans on a wire rack for 15 min. Using a knife, loosen the cake layers from the sides of the pans and invert the layers onto the wire rack to cool completely. Frost with Lemon buttercream.

Like I said, thanks for any input!

Keyshia

Hmm... the ony reason cakes have ever fallen on me was because I opened the oven inthe middle of baking or tested it with a toothpick too soon.

I have had a soft cake (also lemon) fall when I forgot to tap out bubbles and my DH wouldn't quit opening the oven to look before I showed him how to turn on the light. I took the fallen cake and layered with lemon curd, berry filling, and marscapone/cream and made a trifle and told everyone that was what I had intended

I don't bake from scratch however one thing that no one has addressed is the possiblilty of elevation differences. This can be a major problem. I have no idea what the elevation is where you are.....if it's over 2,500 that could be the problem.

There's more than one reason why cake layers would fall upon cooling - overmixing probably being #1.

Cake troubleshooting chart:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu

HTH