is the cake a gonner? Should I just pull it out, dump, clean, and start all over? Or is it possible that the cake itself may still be okay? Any advise?
P

You should be fine. Just let it finish cooking. I have had this happen to me before.

Me too! I had a parchment paper collar and when I wasn't paying attention, it pushed the paper up and out and boy what a mess! I just scooped out what needed to be and let carry on baking. Not as high as I wanted it, but it worked out fine.

Well, you're going to want to clean your oven out when it's done baking, but the cake in the pan should be just fine if you just let it finish baking. You may have to trim it a little where the overflow went, is all--for aesthetics more than anything else.

You cry and wail and stomp your feet and walk around in circles. At least thats what I did when I last forgot to collar a cake. The cake baked fine.

But the top edge got stuck to the pan pretty bad. And we all know cake sinks as it cools. The top was totally glued to the top of the pan -bad! So as soon as I took it out I ran a pairing knife just around the top to free the muffin top and avoid losing a huge layer of cake. I took off the crunchy stuff tha was stuck to the pan and munched nervously while waiting for it to settle. And it was fine after that except the cleaning out the oven part.

That happened to me last night! Not only did it spill over and drop to the bottom of the oven but it started to smoke, of course the smoke detector went off (this is at midnight) and then the alarm went off so as I am running to the keypad at the front door to turn alarm off (Dh is sound asleep) I trip over our dog who is black so I didn't see him in the dark, I get to the keypad and punch in the code Oh Hell it doesn't turn off! I grab the phone to call the alarm company, smoke detector and house alarm still screaming, the alarm company answers and says "What is your 14 digit account number" Are you freakin kidding me! I don't know I said and give them our password, they then tell me they aren't getting any alarm for our house. Geez I say can you hear the alarm screaming in the background! Yes he says but I can't help you, I suggest you call the company that installed your system. Yes I am sure they are available at midnight!
So I start punching buttons till I get the alarm to turn off. back to kitchen open all the windows, doors etc. fanning the smoke from the oven out the patio door till smoke detector stops.
Dh sleeps through all of this! Good thing it wasn't a break in going on lol. Not wanting to give up on my banana cake I finish baking with the oven door open.
The cake turned out fine, rose nicely and tasted great. Of course I will rebake for the order I was doing, but the family will be having a banana cake for fathers day!
Sorry it was so long, when I saw original post it got me laughing again thinking about it.

Thanks you all, your stories are encoraging, but .... I just dumped the cake. It baked okay, I trimmed it and it looked allright, but the taste of the trimmings was off. I decided it was not worth to serve to people. Going to bed now, will start again in the morning. Hope it'll be a better day...
Thanks you all, P

Ya know what...as a light bulb glows so brightly over my head it pops and I snap back to reality. Moments like these only come after 1 in the morning!
A brilliant person would line their oven with foil that can be pulled out in such times. I hate cleaning ovens! I think it's worth the foil!

Party pooper! LOL I figured as much all my great ideas have already hapened-or else I'd be the rich inventor.

This might be a really silly question but what does it mean to "collar" a cake?

I have my mother coming over today for an oven cleaning party! But mine's not cake - it's sweet potato juice. That crap really puffs up!

I am glad I am not invited to that party..hehe

Collar is made from a strip of parchment paper that you stand up around the inside edge of your cake pan. Make the strip wider then your pan is tall by an inch. So as a cake rises if it rises above the pan it will still bake nice and not overflow. It also keeps the cake from sticking to the sides.

Ohhhh ok!! Thanks so much!! I wish I had known that a long time ago, it would have saved me a lot of oven cleaning!!