im having difficulty baking lately. my cakes either sink and fall apart or overflow the pans when i bake them and they stick even though i butter and flour the pans! i follow the recipe exactly and im so confused why this is happening. im making recipes from scratch but when i have made one cake from the box it baked fine. im making a strawberry cake w/ cream cheese frosting tomorrow for my little sisters bday. i really dont want to mess it up. i bought cake flour and lots of butter verses my other recipes that call for all purpose flour and oil. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Are you greaing with actual butter? I suggest you try Baker's Joy. It is made specifically for baked goods to be released fromt he pan. If you having an overflow problem, your putting too much batter in the pan. As far as sinking, I would have to see the recipe, cause that could be different things. A mix is a lot easier then a scratch cake to make. You tend to need to practice to make a scratch cake. you need to make sure ingredients are at the right temp., beat the sugar and butter properly, not over beat the batter, stuff like that. Don't give up!

thanks! yes i do grease with butter i will try bakers joy is that a spray? recipe calls for 9" rounds which i use but i will use less batter and see if that stops the overflow. its the chocoate cake recipe from the hershey's cocoa can. but it says to mix on high for 2 minutes maybe this is where the overbeating comes in? do you think the oil and ap flour might be a contributing factor? thanks again!

DO NOT grease with butter. Baker's Joy is a spray and you will LOVE it. I also suggest lineing the bottom of your pan with parchment papaer and spraying over it again. OVerbeating causes dryness, not sunken cake. For the Hershey's recipe, I would think improper beating would make it sink. I can't really think of what may be causing it to sink. Oil in chocolate cake is not a bad thing, it helps with it being moist. With that said, there are MUCH better chocolate recipes then the Hershey's. Also, the Hershey recipe makes enough batter for 3-9" layers.

go by the recipe. whether from scratch or box or extender mix... as far as beating,etc.. use bakers joy.. or crisco and then some flour. i do line my pans when i bake a chocolate cake.. they seem to stick more to the pans than butter cakes or white cakes.. bake at 325 degrees instead of 350..... most decorators will say that... it is sinking .. because .. you have taken it out of the oven .. before it is done.. the herseys chocolate cake is favorite among most cake decorators.. i use several chocolate recipes . and i do love that one also... there are great recipes on this site.. from box, box extender .. to scratch.. just get one you really like and stick with it.. good luck on your next cakes.. we all have trouble at one time or another.. that is just the way it is.. baking isn,t perfect. and we are not perfect.. so we learn.. by trial and error. i,m still learning by trial and error .. after 14 years.. ha!

I use that hershey's chocolate cake recipe all the time and have for years. Make sure you are using the proper size pans, I too have had it overflow on me, Also, try lining the pan with parchment, will help with the sticking tons. I do find that that cake recipe does always tend to sink a touch in the middle, just seems to be 'normal' with this recipe especially with the final texture of the cake.
I've never had overflow or sticking problems with other recipes but actually prefer to either spray my pans with pam or use shortening to grease over butter and I always line the bottoms with parchment.
Good Luck!

i will grease with crisco/ line with parchment- today cause i have to do the cake this morning but will defienetly get bakers joy for future cakes! well it overflows and then sinks cause i guess the batter is too much for 2 pans but recipe making 3 9" rounds that does make sense. i have been making the hersheys recipe for years and always just deal with the broken, overflowed yet moist and delicous cake lol. my husband loves it and says he doesnt care how it looks cause the flavor is the best! ill let you all know how my strawberry cake comes out this afternoon. thanks so much for all the help!!