So today i am having the worst baking day of all! I just want to throw in the towel and have my sister get a cake from the grocery store. I am making a first communion cake for her daughter. First i baked the top of the cake in one of those open book pans...big mistake. I should've taken the advise of another cC and just hand carved the shape because the edges are sooo over cooked because the middle part of that pan is sooo deep. I'm worried about torting it too, but that's another issue. Then i baked another larger cake to put underneath it. Well, the cake is still warm, but i decided to trim off a little of the excess on top. When cutting into it i noticed that a small area looks like it could be undercooked. I tested it with toothpicks before turning off the oven and it seemed ok, but now that i see this i'm paniced. I don't want to torte it yet because like i said it's too warm. My fear is when i do, it will be a mushy mess. I'm praying the texture i saw was a result of the cake still being warm and me playing with it. My question is...

Is it too late to put that baby back in the oven? It's been out for a few hours but it still is warm. I pray that i won't have to rebake this late into the night.

Why oh why do these things never go easy for me.?

Well, since i didn't get an answer i guess i don't need to know now. The cake is almost fully cooled now. I'm hoping heat in the cake carried over the cooking so that it will be ok. I'm gonna torte it tonight and hope for the best. Good thing it's not needed till Sunday. Worse comes to worse i rebake tommorrow and bring the cake to my sisters in the early morning instead of tommorrow.
It's been one of those days ya know..i think my mind was elsewhere today. Today would've been my dad's birthday..he passed away just over a year ago. As much as i tried to busy my mind, i wasn't as focused as I should've been.

Suz

Sorry no one answered. My internet connection has been down so I haven't been on cc in a few days... talk about withdrawal!!!! I don't know if you can put a cake back in the oven. I have had this happen to me before. You would think making a box cake would be easy, but it wasn't for me! I kept getting a fudgey center. I would scrap each cake and start over. I have started cooking with a flower nail on every cake I do to prevent that. It works like a charm.

Well, i did have three flower nails in, and the baking strips on the outside... just not paying enough attention i suppose.
I still am having problems with my chocolate mix forming huge cracks on top. I thought it was just my choco fudge mix and to that i add a bit of extra water to thin it a bit. Today it was devils food and i didn't think i had to be worried about that mix and cracking..guess i was wrong. Everytime i bake a chocolate cake i worry. Never had this problem in the past, i'm starting to wonder if betty crocker changed the mixes somehow.

I have tried putting back in the oven after having it out for awhile with no success. I now use a flower nail in any pan 10 inches or bigger. sorry you had such a bad day