earlier in the week I have to bake for two cakes due today .... ALL of them sank in the middle... until now I haven't EVER had this problem.. same recipes, same pans EVERYTHING is the same.. temp of the oven is right on.. I did a feather test close to the oven door to see if the gasket was wore and needing to be replaced and NOTHING.. no movement (Thanks Theresa ) 2 therm. test the oven to be at the right temps.

I keep the cakes because they tested done.. and they were (I cut a small square out of the oven and carefully dug it out. It looks NORMAL!!! I used them.. yeah they sunk in the middle and didn't rise above the pan but the sides rose nicely.. so I just leveled and used them. I had come to the conclusion it was the cake mixes that I started my recipes out with. Maybe bad baking powder in the mixes or something. Oh I want to add these were vanilla cakes.

SOOOO..... I start baking last night for cakes due next week.. gonna freeze.. THEY SANK ALSO!!! This time in chocolate... All I can think is this... Could it be the weather playing a factor?

Here is what I do..

1. After I get my cakes into the oven I don't open the door (learned this years ago). I pretty much know how long each recipe bakes ...

2. I don't over beat IN fact instead of recommended 3 minutes I beat just until it looks perfect... sometimes 2 minutes...

3. I have had my oven tested.. it's nice and level AND it bakes at the correct temp now..



I don't know what else to do.. This is starting to worry me about the low rise.. or no rise to the middle of the cakes...

What could be going wrong .. Please help me I am about to pull my hair out!!!

Thanks

not sure what to tell you, but have you tried baking with a flower nail in the cakes, it might help with the middle. And the weather certainly could be effecting the baking.
Also, if the manufacture is messing with the formula for the mix that can throw you off.

I use flower nails in anything larger then a 9 inch (wow sorry for all the typos in my first post.. EARLY.. TOOOO early! LOL )

Ok well.. I'll just have to work with these also I guess

I know how aggravating this can be. Every once in a while mine will sink a bit in the middle. Have NO idea why. Like you, same recipe, same cake mix, same everything. Makes no sense.

Is this a scratch recipe?

Could the baking powder be at fault?

Did you start a new bag of flour? Could you have accidentally picked up self-rising flour?

Well they started out with box mix... both different brands

I know how frustrating this experience can be....it happened to me years ago! It was my oven! I had oven thermometers and everything, so like you, I assumed it wasn't my oven as it appeared to be "holding" temperature! Well, it wasn't! At different points during baking it would dip down by 25-50 degrees for a short period of time...then raise back up and hold the correct temp. Sometime it would dip down 2x during a bake cycle! After pulling my hair out, I called a repair man and he replaced one of the elements and I never had the problem again! It was a hard one to figure out! The repair man thought I was crazy!

I'm not 100% sure that's you're problem, but that happened to be mine. I also think the weather can play a role....my problem occured during the Fall months and it was cooling off outside...not near as much humidity!

I hope you can figure it out!

That could be it I guess.. Wonder how they would test it if it is falling during baking ?

That stinks. Can you still get to the empty boxes? Check the dates on them. By any chance do you have a probe thermometer? The one with the probe at the end of the wire. This way you could put the probe in the oven, and still see the readout to see if the oven is no staying constant. Most ovens will dip in temps, gas oven especially.

Mike

Christi, I have this same problem sometimes! It's not every time, but occasionally my cakes will sink in the middle, for no apparant reason. My oven is off by about 50 degrees, and I keep a thermometer in there at all times to make sure I'm at the right temp. I didn't realize that the temp could fluxuate during baking. If you figure this out, please let me know!

<Starkie>

I will starkie!!

Mike I didn't think I could stick my probe in and leave it... without it screwing with the temp. (ya know the breaking the barrier between the gasket and the oven door.

Just a real PAIN.. and it's an expensive pain!!

I mean I made these cakes work.. but I can't use them for the carved cake I am going to do.. they wouldn't be sturdy!

I about Ughhh oh well.. I guess I could start kicking my oven LOL

<...At different points during baking it would dip down by 25-50 degrees for a short period of time...then raise back up and hold the correct temp. Sometime it would dip down 2x during a bake cycle!....>

This is *exactly* how an oven is suppose to work!
My DH was a serviceman before retiring. We owned our own business for yrs.

If the oven is losing temps enough to not let it rise. The little opening that the wire will cause won't effect it.

Mike

do you all know the doom music they do in scary movies.. that is what is playing in my head...now that my oven is preheating.. the music is playing...

LMAO!!!!!!!! Yes THANK goodness!!! LOL

You can buy an oven thermometer at Wal-Mart for $6.00. You can either set them on the oven rack or hang them off of the oven rack. I have one for each of my ovens and know exactly what the temp is at all times.

From my experience with my carrot cakes doing this; it turned out that by putting the carrots in the food processor instead of grating them by hand caused too much moisture and that is what caused it to fall in the middle. Is there anyway you possibly put in too much liquid?

Mike, thanks for that funny yet strangely freaky video

I have 2 Shannon

i'm guessing weather too....this happens to me occasionally and a friend of mine had the same problem. we tried our tried and true recipes and happened to bake on the same day and both our cakes fell ( we live 10 miles apart). she rebaked that same day and it fell again. i rebaked 36 hours later and it baked up perfectly. wish i had a weather tester

LOL .. yes me to.. maybe since it is going to rain and no humidity it will work out ok today... keep your fingers crossed..

Oh yes I forgot to mention.. I even go as far as to let my oven heat up for a hour before baking so I know it's not that...

Maybe it's the weather.. let's hope so.. a new oven is not what I wanted to spend DH's money on LOL

I'm so sorry this is happening to you! Have you tried baking the cake as the box recomends (I know I know -- Ewww -- the taste of it) However, what if you did a test cake to see if the box mix is different - but two different mixes... I am not sure -- I am not help I'm sorry.

Is anyone going through the kitchen a lot -- bouncing? If my step son is "trapsing" through my old 250 year old house and happens to go through the kitchen with his led feet, sometimes my cakes will fall in the middle.

I'm sorry I am not of much help.
Nikki

Two words....Cake gnomes!

Maybe it's one of those things were you need to walk away for a bit (as your schedule alows of course!)
Hope all works out for you!

Actually .. it might be the pixies trying to get back at me for stealing their dust... its all over the kitchen

you know, you can add an extra egg white or a T of Meringue powder to help your cake fluff up higher.

I used to use the extra meringue powder all the time and got some really high cakes, nice and domed in the center,

Used to cut that off and give to the kids.