well I have a stack of cakes to do in the next few days and my last 2 cakes have sunk in the middle and burnt at the edges - never happened before.

I have a new kenwood mixer which is fab, but I was thinking it was that which was causing my cupcakes to sink in the middle (again never happened before). So did trial two cakes, one made in old mixer, one in new, put side by side in oven and neither sank but left hand cake side didnt cook in the middle and needed 10mins longer!!

Made another cake and that was fine til the last 10 mins and it sank slighty in the middle, it was cooked so took it out and all the sides on the top are burnt!!

Hubby thinks it could be the element or thermostat (or both). I tried my top oven with cupcakes and the ones at the back all burnt while ones at the front not cooked!!

I have a wedding cake to do in 2 days time and several celebration ones this week. Gonna have to find a cooker somewhere to use! Oh no!!!

Oh No! Machines know when to pick their moments to act up don't they??
Do you have a friend or family member to ask to "borrow" their cooker?

I can sure feel for you. I recently moved and owner wouldn't let me put my stove in. Here it is propane. I hate it. The oven is stone-aged, and when I first got here I burnt everything. An oven thermometer revealed that the oven when on 325 degrees was actually 425 degrees. Lovely. I WANT MY STOVE BACK! It was right on the money. I feel your pain.

with your kenwood mixer are you using the K beater or the whisk to mix your cake batter? Only reason I am asking, is I accidently used the whisk attachment on mine last week and the exact same thing happened to my cakes, swapped it back to the k beater and tried again and it worked perfectly

I am using the K beater which is what I usually use for cakes. We think (hopefully) its the element on the cooker which has gone and as its a fan oven that would account for the heat not being distbuted right or evenly.

Thing is the part wont be available til at least Tuesday, so tomorrow having to 'borrow' my sisters cooker for the afternoon as I have a two tier wedding cake to bake!!

Cant believe its gone wrong when I am so busy at the mo! And can you believe it - my washing machine has now stopped working!

it's true that mixing cakes too quickly results in collapse (irregular air bubbles...) but that wouldn't account for random burning.

You said it was a convection oven? They are kind of picky when it comes to baking. Not sure if uneven heat would cause the outside to cook but the inside to stay raw, unless the oven is just way too hot. But even if you left it in for the usual amount of time to burn it, it should just be overbaked, not raw in the middle. What a puzzle!

I have a Kenwood mixer and love it. I have never had a problem with the middles sinking. I think it's your oven too. I had a problem with my oven baking to hot. The temperature would spike to 500 degrees but the oven would say 325. It always seemed to happen when I was baking a wedding cake. It took me seven appliance companies to fix it.

I Agree w/your DH. Have that oven checked out. I'm sure that is your problem./
Hopefully by now you have had it fixed. Please let us know

I feel your pain, my trustworthy oven died back in May. I loved the way it baked. My hubb bought me a Kitchen Aid Convection. I have ahd it a couple months and still dont have the right temps down. I love the oven, but secretly miss my old one. Good luck to you!

Definitely an oven heating problem if you're burning on the edges and sinking in the middle. Maybe try some of those bake even strips around the edges of the pan...or make some homemade bake even strips with some tin foil and wet paper towel. It's all I can think of for now.

Yeah, I feel your pain - the convection oven went out yesterday but I didn't realize it - I baked 8 dozen cuppies yesterday for an order today and my trusty recipes were flat, raw in the middle, burnt on top and shrank when I pulled them. I though I messed up on my ingredient or something. So I re-made the batch. They failed also. By then I had to shut down and get home. So this morning I start early and re-mix the 8 dozen AGAIN - only this time I put in my oven thermometer. The thing was fluctuating between 280-380 degrees! And of course, the entire batch failed again. So I mixed up a 4th batch and had to bake them in the regular oven - one. pan. at. a. time. :< Stupid oven. I can't even think about all the ingredients that went in the garbage today - just in butter alone... at least 16 lbs.