Please help how can I stop my cakes doming in the middle

Do you use the strips on the sides of the pans? That seems to work for me.

Lower the oven temperature a little.

I also use Wilton baking strips. My cakes never dome. The one's I have need to be secured with straight pins, I have seen one's which close with velcro, I bet those are easier to work with.

Velcro! Oh My Goodness! Do you think I can sew Velcro onto my Wilton bake even strips and not affect their effectiveness?

If I can, I will be ecstatic! Yes, even more exclamation points ecstatic! The light bulb is going off over here, folks. Velcro! No more shoving those pins into my fingers, bending pins, using multiple pins, etc.... Velcro!

LOL....I've been so desperate as to use paper clips to hold my baking strips together. And a friend of mine was driven to improvising strips by wrapping a strip of damp cotton cloth in tin foil and wrapping it around the cake pan. Boy, do we all love our baking stips!

I use paper clips, as I lost the pins right away. Wouldn't Velcro melt? Isn't one side plastic?

There's stick on Velcro, which has an adhesive on the back, and sew on Velcro, which I think it made of fabric. Perhaps the grippy side is plastic, though.

I make my own baking strips out of folded paper towel encased in alfoil - hold together with small bulldog clips

I got cake dome every time I bake in the 6x3 inches pans and strips don`t help. I need any advise.

lowering the oven temp is a lot easier than wrestling with cake strips

This works for me: Bake @ 325 degrees and when cake is done remove from oven and lay a dry dish cloth on top. Press gently all over top until the cake is level. Let rest a few minutes and then remove from cake pan onto cooling rack. Be careful it will be hot with steam while you are pressing.

I bake 350F. How low it should be? 325 or 300?

Depends ont he cake, but around 340 works for me. If I have a full oven I'll raise the temp if I'm opening the door a lot to take things in and out.

I do lower my oven. I also use the rose nails. I still get more dome that I like. I've got the third of 5 cakes I'm baking today in the oven right now. The bake even strips help a lot and there's barely any dome.

Thank you for your help!! It works

This may not be of any help as I am based in the UK and use marzipan underneath rolled fondant wheras it doesnt seem to be used in the US. If a cake domes excessively I turn it upside down so that the flat surface becomes the top and then roll a sausage of marzipan which I push around the bottom of the cake to fill the gap. This keeps the cake tier nice & deep and aviods trimming the cake down.
Amanda x

I put my cake release in the pan then throw it in the freezer for 20-30 minutes prior.

Then take it out and put your batter in, then right into your oven. :)

Just came across this post and haven't read all the replies.  Baking at a lower temp (300 to 325 F) is all that is necessary.

Use my *original* WASC recipe :)  All the information on proper baking in in that post.  Read ALL the replies on that.  [Sorry I can't link you to the recipe since the new format :( ]

AI don't use bake strips, tried them not thrilled. But I do collar my pans with parchment which also results in a more even rise and worry free removal (parchment bottom and sides). Also press cakes immediately after removal from oven and bake at 325 (300 with the convection on). Basically love parchment and love the fact that my cakes do not have that flour shortening goo marring the outside. Get whole sheet size then just sit and cut all my circles and collars at once.

One word.

Agbay.

I haven't heard of it, but I'm starting a new thread to see if anyone else here has.

I bake the cakes, with my newspaper/foil strips at the usually stated temps (e.g., 350).

I'm thinking my alfoil 'tent' does exactly the same thing... 

Don't overmix. Bake at 325. Use a baking cone in the center of large cakes. If you don't have a commercial Deluxe oven baking strips are probably a good idea. Yes, you can sew velcro to them. Gotta agree with Leah: agbay

By putting the pan in the freezer prior, it keeps the pan from getting too hot, too quick and prevents the cake from baking from the outside in.

Since i started doing this, I have not had a cake dome. Maybe a little bit but not like it did.