I received the book by Buddy Valastro for Christmas. In the book he gives a tip on how to not get a hump on the cake when it's finished baking. He says to make sure the batter is 70-73 degrees before putting it in the oven at 350 degrees.

Has anyone tried this?

I do this all the time. But only because 70-73 is around room temperature So if you start with all your ingredients at room temp, and your kitchen/bakery is not too hot or cold, and you bake at 350 (pretty much standard), according to him you shouldn't get a hump on your cake.

But I get them depending on the recipe involved and if I have remembered to use baking strips/flower nail or not. Generally I don't get too much of a dome if I use the strips and nail, bake at 325-350 and my bakery is at 71ºF.

I never really get to much of a hump either. I bake at 325 and make sure to drop the pan on the counter a few times to get any air bubbles to come to the surface. And then as soon as the cake comes out of the oven I push the hump down to flatten it.

I've never tried this but I always use a flower nail and don't get much of a dome with that.

It never occured to me to temp-probe batter.

It makes me wonder how thsi kind of stuff comes about. Did someone bake 20 cakes, temp-testing each one, making sure each one was a different temp, then comparing the end results? I mean .... well, I guess I dont' know what I mean maybe are there really people out there who do that? really?

I must be too old-fashioned of a baker. Mix it up and throw it in the oven. It's worked for years. Heck, I took a pan of batter from freezer to oven and it bakes up fine!

That's kind of funny for him to say, I see cakes that they have to cut the tops off on the show all the time. Guess they aren't testing their batter temp in the bakery.

Seriously thought, his tip about smoothing buttercream with a piece of cardstock is pretty awesomesauce. Works really well with SM & IMBC. I don't know if that is in the book but it was a video on his website from the 1st season and I've been using it ever since.

I spin the cake pans before putting them in the oven. The centrifugal force pushes the batter up the sides of the pan slightly, leaving the center just slightly lower. It evens out while baking and I get a flatter cake that way. Not completely flat, but good enough for me.

I wonder if I got some bake even strips and combine with the spin method, maybe they would come out really flat.