Why Did My Carrot Cake Bake Like This?
Baking By Mark-Mexicano Updated 23 Apr 2013 , 3:23pm by Annie70
Last night I baked a carrot cakes and it like completely ruined. I followed the recipe exactly, I put it in the oven and 30 min later I checked it and its like the middle didnt even bake and the outside was done? It looked like I punched it in the middle of the cake? I dont know why. Ive made carrot cakes before and it has never done this. (But this is the first time making this recipe) so please take a look at the picture and tell me what I did wrong. (I am also around 5,000 feet so maybe it has something to do with altitude?) Also when it said 3 cups carrots do you loosely measure them or pack them?
This is the recipe I used..
Carrot Cake Straight Up
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/6073/carrot-cake-straight-up
Thanks for your help Mark Mexicano
yes the parts that baked were absolutely amazing!!!
Ha! I'm in New York and the same thing has happened to me with 3 different recipes. I wish I had the photos! And I hate shredding carrots. The recipe that saved me was Martha Stewart's Carrot Ginger Cake recipe. I don't know if it works because it has buttermilk in it-but it's great. Good luck.
This may help.
Adjustment for 5000 feet:
Reduce baking powder: for each teaspoon, decrease 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon.
Reduce sugar: for each cup, decrease 0 to 2 tablespoons.
Increase liquid: for each cup, add 2 to 4 tablespoons.
Increase oven temperature by 25 degrees F.
Carrot Cake Straight Up by jkalman (some of the CC recipes lost their author's name when the feature was updated) is my favorite carrot cake recipe. 
Since carrot cake is my DH's fav, I usually bake it in a 13x9x2 so it's easier for him to snack on (no decoration, just cream cheese icing).
I always bake using bake even strips and inverted flower nails (for larger pans or heavy batter) at 325F.
That being said, I think you would still have had problems because of your high altitude, as Narie advised.
Some additional high altitude baking help:
(Start right off by increasing baking temp. by +25 degrees to help set batter.)
http://www.ochef.com/327.htm
http://www.brettagold.com/worksamples/articles/highaltbake.pdf
High Altitude recipes:
http://ces.uwyo.edu/PUBS/B427.pdf
http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/circ293.pdf
HTH
God bless you!!! I've been in in a high altitude for 3 years!! All other cakes bread not problem... but Carrot cake.. I said I would get this cake down if it was the last thing I Did! Thank you thank you.. Imma give the adjustments a try and keep you posted :)
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