I have had this problem with my cakes not being all even when i stack them so i end up doing a lot of trimming to get them to be even all the way around. Does anyone else have this problem when they bake and stack their cakes. I find that my cakes will shrink and then have a smaller top than the bottom and then when i stack them I have to cut the excess off- so instead of a 10" cake I end up having a 9 or 9 1/2 inch cake from shrinkage and trimming. then from trimming the cake it ends up uneven sometimes so it will be bowing out or bowing in on some spots.

does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? I have used the bake even strips but it didn't work very well either. 

The only thing I can think of is that maybe it's the cake recipe's fault? My cakes shrink some, but definitely not that much.

AI count on shrinkage!! your example of a10 in. cake being 9.5 or less works.. the cake goes on a 10 cake board, fill in with icing. when smoothing icing with bench scraper, do it up against the cake board = smooth icing, no cake showing and it's even. :-)