I am fairly new to caking but pretty serious about it. I've put in a pretty large investment already and I'm trying to do a lot of cakes to improve my skills.

That being said, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get my cakes 4" tall! I use 2" Magic Line pans, I fill them so that they are the full 2" height. I torte with my Agbay to 7/8" (and then do 3 layers of filling (I do a stiff BC dam with an empty coupler). I also put a ceramic dinner plate on top of the cake to "avoid the bulge" which works really well but sinks my cake even lower.

Anyway, usually I wouldn't care exactly how high my cakes are but I've invested in SPS and can't use it with short cakes! Could it be my recipe? I've done a few different ones with the same results. If it were too tall, no problem I could level the top but it always seems to be just short (3.5" or so, even with icing). The cake IS taller without doing the plate/tile thing but then I'm worried about bulging.

I feel like I'm missing something - I wouldn't think that this would be so hard!

I use 3" pans, get at least 2 layers from each, greater than an inch each. I can also get 3 layers out of each pan that are less than an inch high, and use 5 for a tier, or all 6 if I want alot of height.

How do you treat your pans (grease? flour? Parchment? grease-and-flour?)

Does the cake rise up at least to the upper edge of the pan or does it have short sides and a high dome?

Do you use baking strips? What is the oven temp?

Here is a link where I show pics of my cakes rising higher than the pan, giving me an exact 2" tall cake every time, so even with settling, I can get a 4" tall cake.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=334013&highlight=rise+higher

If you still have a problem getting the height you need, I agree with the "use 3" pans" suggestion above. that will give you some extra baking space for the height you're looking for.

Thank you for taking the time to answer! My oven temp is always 325. I do not use baking strips but haven't had too much trouble with doming. My cakes do rise above the pan. I think it was Leah S who said she tortes to 7/8" so that's what I was doing since it made sense to me and that leaves 1/4 in for filling (knowing I'd have more than that total). The smooshing thing is throwing me. I guess I could torte right to 1" instead and see where that gets me!

I just thought of something else - I torte my bottom layer to 7/8" including my cardboard circle and that would make a difference too! Whoops.