AThis has been happening to all my scratch recipes and for years now. Because of it I stopped making scratch for years. Today , I tried again for a wedding, all the three cakes came out the same . No Mather what I do. I had my ovens checked by technicians and bought oven thermometers, ovens are working fine but all my scratch recipes comes out gummy on the bottom and sometimes on the sides too. I have used AP and cake flours always with the same result. I used flower nails and baking strips , still gummy, dense and shrunken cakes are the results. I searched and saw some people had this same problems before. Can anyone PLEASE!!!!! Tell me how they resolved this problem. I have been baking for twenty some years and this started only about 3 years ago. I have 2 mixers and thesame result happen with either of them. i stopped using baking powder and soda recipes to avoid expired ones, still thesame result. Any help is appreciated

A[Bumpcry::cry::cry::cry:

Oh hon...I can't help you with an answer...but I will cry along with you!  

AHow long do you wait before you turn your cakes out of the pans? I only wait about five minutes. I am so sorry this is happening to you!

ASounds like there might be too much liquid in your recipe. Are you open to trying other recipes?

AVgcea yes I am open to any other recipes and everything else. Crypto, I wait the same number of minutes with all my cake, scratch and box- 5to 10 minutes. Baking sis, thanks. I am waiting anxiously for any suggestion.

ABump

AWhat temperature do you use to bake? Do you ever bake withOUT the baking strips? How long do you beat the batter after adding the eggs? What recipes are you using? What cakes have you success with?

ASassyzan. I am successful with box mixes. I don't mix much after eggs are well incorporated, I actually only fold in flour. I only bake at 325degrees and never baked without strips.

AWhat recipe did you use for the latest one that failed?

I made a white cake from scratch in a small pan 6", I think) and used baking strips and the cake turned out very moist, almost to the point of being wet. It was like the cake was steamed instead of baked. I baked the same cake without the strips and it turned out great.

AI made the basic yellow cake.

AYep, I'd try it without strips and see if that helps!

ADo you line your pans with parchment?

AKikiandkyle, I use the home made pan grease so I don't use parchment paper. Jae, I always bake with strips and that includes box mixes which always comes out right. So I don't know why the strips will work for box mixes and not scratch. I guess I could give your suggestion a trial.

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AI'm going to suggest trying parchment in your pans for your scratch cakes. I can't work with pan grease or any of the sprays, it just never works out right when I make a scratch cake. I grease all of the pan with the wrapper from the butter I'm using, add the parchment circle to the base then coat the sides with flour. If I'm baking a taller cake I sometimes put parchment on the sides instead of flouring them (called a collar).

AMy cakes bake fine with parchment collars and no strips, I've had my cakes turn gummy with strips before, not often, but it has happened!

AOr if you still want to use the strips, try baking with them on and the oven at 350. I think the strips plus lower temp might be overkill.

AThank you all. Will try all suggestions one at a time to identify the actual problem. Jae, so when you had the gummy issue, all you did was bake without the strips?

I usually bake with no strips now, unless it's a big big pan. There have been times where I throw baking strips on them and they turn out gummy in the middle and on the bottom, too wet. It's probably happened three times to me, but yes, the only difference was the baking strips!

I feel like the strips are doing this to my scratch cakes too. I'm going to try  my next cake without them and see what happens. I might add a flower nail to the middle to see how that works.

ABump!

ASounds as if you are knocking the air out of the mix. Do you use your mixer to mix in the flour? If so try folding it in with a metal spoon. I am assuming that you preheat the oven. Sorry don't mean to be condescending. But it sounds like something really simple to fix. What is your recipe?

Did you try parchment paper and NO strips?

ANot both at the same time. Do you think that May do it immi fix? Sugar florist, it happens to all my scratch recipes most even from here that others swore to. I am going to try immi fix suggestion next, I guess.

AOk i just have to update everyone on this. I finally broke the scratch cake jinx!!!. My problem was not the recipes, mixing method or too much liquid, it was the baking strips!!! Who knew? It works on my box mixes but not on scratch. I have done differentcrecipes without the strips and they came out nice now. Success finally!!!. I am contented with using just a center heat core( i use cannoli former) and squish down any raised portion afterwards. Thanks to all who gave advice on all the treads i started on the issue.

AGlad you got it sorted