Why do I get air pockets in my cake? How can I keep them from happening? I have tried running a wooden spoon handle around in the batter after I put it in the pans but nothing seems to help. Help!

After filling your pans with batter (1/2 to 2/3's full), place a clean dish cloth on your counter and drop the pan of batter onto the counter from about 6-8 inches high. The dish cloth deadens the sound of the pan hitting the counter. I do this to pop the air bubbles that form during mixing. I sometimes do this up to 50 times per pan - until I don't see any more air bubbles trying to form or pop. My husband always knows when I'm doing cakes as he can hear the pounding from the garage!!

The few times this has happened to me the batter was too thick. It needs more liquid in it. Once you find just the right ballance you will not have any more problems. Sometimes it maybe just a tablespoon more, other times could be as much as 1/3 cup.

When I stopped being a home baker, hubby said he was NOT going to miss the pan-pounding noises!!

I'm a mix baker, and I also found that sifting the cake mix REALLY reduced the air pockets. I think it's also part of what Jan said .... when I didnt' sift, I had to run the mixer longer to get the batter silky smooth. With the sifting, I only have to run the mixer less than 2 minutes. The cake texture is SO beautiful!

Oh, I sift but I'm just fanatical about air bubbles!! I use the WASC just about exclusively and mix at low speed for only two minutes. But I HATE swiss cheese cake and pound away!!

cool information, thanks for the link!