I've been trying to make the white velvet recipe from CC (here's the link).
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/15190/white-velvet-cake
Wedding is on Monday, my first paid wedding cake order and this is the flavor she wants. My problem is it keeps sinking in the middle.
My oven temp is 325, I've tried a 6" pan, 8" pan, 9" pan and 12" pan on different days but the middle always sinks.
Please help.
Should I reduce the temp even more like to 300 or bump it up to 350? I think 350 is going to be too hot because it is a very dense heavy cake. I am also using the bake even strips.
Have you tried actually measuring you oven temp with a different thermometer? It could be your oven temp is off. Also, never open the door to "check" on the cake. Wait until it is almost done.
I was having probs with choco wasc cake sinking in the middle, so I started adding a teaspoon or so of baking powder to them mix. This helped me.
Be careful with baking powder. You shouldn't add baking powder to a sinking cake batter.
It's actually one of the faults of a cake sinking!
http://www.greatknives.com/Pastryfolder/cake_faults.htm
Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center. Too little baking powder results in a tough cake that has poor volume and a compact crumb.
Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/bakingsoda.html#ixzz11sPH0hgL
Did you read the comments on that recipe? I find that a few people have the same problem you're having and had corrections to the recipe, or at least questions.
I tried this cake several times this week. I'm making a haunted house and needed several layers. I tried it with eggs whites, two eggs, three eggs. Only the 3 egg version didn't sink in the middle. It overflowed into my oven. I used baking strips and flower nail on everyone. The tops and sides are so hard, it's like a cookie. So I have to carve so much off, it's such a waste. There has to be a better dense cake recipe.
Here are a few recipes, just to compare to the others. Sometimes I do that to find out what could be wrong. The one from Cake Boss (the software company) seems similar.
http://www.cakeboss.com/WhiteVelvetCake.aspx
http://weddings.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Wedding_Cake_Recipes
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/white-velvet-cake-recipe.htm
I make a similar cake. The only difference is that I don't use creamer (they have lots of sugar and fat in them, so it really alters the chemistry of the recipe).
I use straight water. The cake is delicious.
I also put an inverted flower nail in every cake (1 in the center of a 6" or 8", 2 in a 10", 3 in a 12", and 4 in a 14"). I bake at 325. I don't open the door too often, I don't move the pan around, and I don't press on the center or test with s toothpick until the center doesn't jiggle when I pull the rack out a bit.
HTH
Rae
Yes, I have an oven thermometer that I have placed in the middle of the oven.
I guess I try the baking powder. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
just use whole eggs not the whites and no baking powder make sure your oven temp is at 350
good luck and let us know if this works for you 
I'd try:
1. Raising the temp to 350
2. Reducing the added sugar by half
Where's LindaF? She's pretty good at troubleshooting.
Thank you, but i have zero experience with doctored box mix cakes. The only thing i would suggest is to try a different brand cake mix, as they are all different. And i would not add more leavening. It is already included in the mix and adding more will make it rise then fall begore it is finished.
Good luck.
I use the recipe on the Cake Boss website and have great results with it. It's a hit with everyone that's tasted it. I use Betty Crocker cake mix and Swan's Down cake flour. It works best if you line the bottom of the pan with either wax paper or parchment paper along with cooking spray. Mine would stick and tear up coming out of the pan until I started doing this.
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