Ok, I am hoping some of you out there will have some wisdom to pass along to me....I only bake cakes as a hobby, but I have a wedding cake to do in April, so I need to find some answers before that.
Here is my problem: Every time (and I do mean every time) I bake a cake it seems to be higher on one side than the other. Now, I have tried somethings I have heard here on CC...the flower nail, baking at a lower temp, ect. I have a brand new oven (which I am sure is level) When I bake the cakes, they rise higher towards the inside of the oven, not the front or back.
Leveling a cake is the bain of my existence & I have a huge slice out of my finger from leveling to prove it 
, so I'd rather have it come out as even as possible. Could it be my pans (wilton dec preferred), or what?
Please, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!!
Sounds like you need to make sure your oven is level. Never assume it is, new or not. Mine wasn't. I ended up wrapping some aluminum foil around parts of it just to raise the rack up in spots to make it level.
I would check that before doing anything else. Put a pan in the oven, and put the level on the pan, NOT the rack. Hope this helps!
I also agree that your oven does not sound level. If you can't change that, try rotating the cake pans a few times while they are cooking.
Another possibility, are you leaving the oven light on? I thought one side of my oven was hotter than the other because one layer would always bake quicker. But I had read about that on here, the extra heat would make it cook faster (duh, should have known that 
) and ever since I haven't had a problem now that I leave the light off.
Serious_Cakes wrote:
Another possibility, are you leaving the oven light on? I thought one side of my oven was hotter than the other because one layer would always bake quicker. But I had read about that on here, the extra heat would make it cook faster (duh, should have known that ) and ever since I haven't had a problem now that I leave the light off.
Um, yes, I do leave my oven light on for most of the time! Never even thought of that.... I'm gonna try the level-in-the-pan thing first and go from there. Thanks again everyone!
From your description (cakes rise higher toward the inside of the oven, noton the sides) it sure sounds like you're describing doming. It's not unusual at all.
Solutions to try: turn down the temp to anywhere between 300 - 325. Use bake even strips or strips of toweling, both soaked in cold water and fastened to the outside of your pans.
Of course, you can level after you take your cakes out of the oven. The best and easiest way to level a cake is with an Agbay. Barring that, a long serrated knife resting at the top of your pans will cut an even line.
Hey, it's nothing to laugh about! My poor cakes suffer from claustrophobia! Leaving the light on makes them less scared
I leave my light on!...I like to see the cake! 
ME TOO! I don't want them messing around while in the dark....it's not play time, its serious baking time.... hee! hee!
I have to turn my cakes around after 12 minutes in the oven, just when they start to rise but the batter isn't set on top yet because my oven heats more on one side than the other.....it's not unlevel the heating element is! lol you learn to work around it! My oven also bakes about 35-50 hotter than the dial reads.......I set my temp to just under 300 degrees......how rediculous is that??
My oven sits level but my racks don't. I guess I should have thought of leveling them with foil, as suggested, but I never thought of that! I end up turning my oven timer on for 15 minutes and rotating the cakes around so they're level. Once I remove the cakes from the oven, I immediately place a clean dish cloth over them and flatten them with my hands or a flat object to get a level cake. Works like a charm and gives a nice dense crumb, great for wedding cakes.
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