OK, I'm doing my first wedding cake for my sister in law and things were going well with my chocolate and vanilla layers (doctored cake mixes) but my scratch carrot cake totally sunk when I took it out of the oven to cool. What happened? I even used a baking core so that this wouldn't happen!

Is there any way to salvage this or do I need to start over? If so, what tips to you have to salvage this? Or to prevent this from happening again?

Thanks!

Sara

I don't think there is anyway to salvage it. Carrot cakes take longer to cook. Are you sure it was cooked all the way through? Also, it could have been your baking powder was old. To test it add a teaspoon of baking powder into a small glass of water, if it bubbles it is still good, if not throw it out.

It could have been that it was not fully cooked. Or maybe the oven temp was too low, or the cake was overmixed. There was a great link to a troubleshooting guide in one of these posts from JanH but I can't seem to find it. All I can say is I feel your pain and I am sorry it happened.

To salvage it it would depend on how sunken. I have been known to take my scraps from leveling and fill the hole once the cake is split. then I put in the filling the top layer and frost it and it comes out fine.

Yah as the other said, most likely it was not baked enough. Also as they said, it depends on how much it sunk....if you can use some trimmings to fill it in or some filling.