I have made six 8" rounds today and this has happened to the BOTTOM of 5 of them. No you aren't seeing things, it is an acual baked in convex dent!

This is a tried and true lemon cake from scratch, the only thing I did differently was use Magic Line pans rather than Wilton.

All renditions were greased and floured, some had parchment circles.

I don't know what to do at this point, I have tried everything I can think of, less mixing, lower temp, etc...

Has this happened to anyone else and if so, how in the world can I keep it from happening again? I love my new straight sides; please, please, please don't let it be the pans.

Can't post picture for some reason.

I have had that happen when I check the cakes in the middle of baking, my temp is too low or the cake is shifted while baking. I have also had to change my flour to get a better result. I have never had trouble due to the pans. I am sure you will figure it out. Good luck!

Could it be your ingredients...such as slightly older eggs...expired ingredients. That is what I would check first.

I bought everything either today or yesterday... I could see the top falling with that but the bottom coming out of the pan with a convex dent? It's not an air bubble, but fully baked in. I know my racks are level.

If you still have your Wilton pan, you could just make one more (if you have time and/energy) and see what happens. If the same thing happens then you know it has not be something else besides the pans. I can't imagine baking 6 of them!!!

You wrote only 5 out of 6 had it. I'm guessing there was not anything you did differently on the other one.

Best of luck!

Were you baking a bunch of them at once? That can reduce the oven temp enough to cause under-baking and - as a result - a sunken middle. I baked two med-sized sheets together yesterday, and they took a full ten minutes longer to bake than the single sheet (same size) I baked right after them.

Well, tried again last night and cakes 7-8 were a success!! I tossed my baking powder which should have still been good and borrowed some from my neighbor, turned down the oven to 325 and baked FOREVER. The top is a little overdone but I'm going to level that off anyway, the improtant part is it is completely cooked with FLAT bottoms.

Thanks for listening to my vent and the suggestions.


PS: I'm an idiot - convex means out, concave is in. The dents (which are inherently pushed in) were concave, only on the bottom of the cake.