I used Duncan Hines White cake mix and baked two 10x2 inch rounds. I've baked a lot of cakes over the years and have NEVER had anything like this happen

After cooling in the pan for about 20 to 30 mins I went to flip over to the cooling rack and after a minute or so I saw that BOTH cakes had completely cracked ALL THE WAY THROUGH!!! Its midnight, I won't rebake tonight. I don't even have enough supplies to rebake if I wanted to, which believe it or not I did.

I made this EXACT cake about a month ago. White cake, 10 inch rounds. I cannot believe this happened. I don't want it to happen when I rebake tomorrow. Does anyone know what I should do differently?

Don't leave it in the pan so long.. Let it sit like a minute or two and then get them out of the pan.

I was leaning towards thinking the cake was too soft of a cake and maybe I need to use a denser cake for a cake of that diameter. Its also meant to be a tiered cake with a 6 inch 2 layer cake on top. Should I make a denser cake next time around? Or do you think just taking it out of the pan sooner would enough?

Thanks for the reply!

i was told once to leave it in for 15 minutes and then get it out of the pan...since i started doing that, i've never had a problem with them cracking and i always use DH mixes when i bake..

I use DH all the time and I've never had a problem with it and I've done stacked cakes with it as well. I would try taking it out of the pan sooner. I usually pull mine from the oven and then wait a minute or two and put on cooling rack and cover with foil.

This has happened to me a couple of times, and now that I think about it, it has been when I left them to cool in the pan to long...... I usually take them out not longer than ten minutes.....

With the others, I also vote for a shorter cooling time in the pans. Ten minutes tops.

Also, did you flip the cakes over onto a second cooling rack so the top faces up? If your cake developed a dome and you left it on the cooling rack dome side down, that is definitely, without a doubt, what caused the cracking.

Um... no, wow, yeah, I don't do that. Do you do that immediately? Like, flip, flip? I guess I have a lot more to learn than I thought.

So, you flip it out of the pan and then immediately flip it over again so the top faces up? Wow, that would actually really probably help.

I feel really stupid now. There wasn't "much" of a dome, but I did overfill intentionally, so it had risen above the pan.

Don't feel stupid...we're all on here to learn...there are some people on here with mountains of knowledge and they're always willing to share..

Exactly!! We are all here learning new things!!

Yep, reflip immediately.

Don't be embarrassed. Most of us learned these things the hard way. One day you'll give someone the same advice.

when I over fill to get the cake to rise above the pan I cut the dome off after I let the cake cool 10 minutes just before I flip it out of the pan to cool, then I do not re-flip.

Another way to get rid of the dome...take a clean cloth towel folded in half and lay it over your cake when it comes out of the oven.
Gently push down on the dome until you have a level cake.
This releases the steam in the cake. It will not work if the cake is cooled.

Then turn out on your rack...no need to flip again. Also, no waste of cake and cake tops laying around!

Hmmm, wow, I'll defnitely have to try that! Thanks!

I leave my cakes in the pan, flip over onto a sheet pan and leave them (in the pan) to cool. This keeps the moisture in and gives a flat/level top.

I think it's been said already, but make sure you cut the dome off the top before you flip the cakes out of the pans. It happened to me a few times before I finally caught my mistake!