I am making the following recipe (link below) and when I pull it out of the oven at the 30 mim mark, I have a brown crust on the sides which has a crispy texture to it

I am using a Fat Daddio's 8x3 round in an oven set to convection @350

Let me know if you have any insight into what's going on

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/classic-white-cake-layers-353170

It sounds like it's overbaked on sides. I have some Fat Daddios, I think they are decent pans. 

A few thoughts are...

1. With convection either reduce the heat or baking time. Convection makes the oven hotter.  My last oven was a convection and I found it overbaked very quickly.  Cakes bake from the outside inward.  Too hot a temp will overbake the sides and make the crust tough.

2. All-purpose flour has a higher protein content than cake and pastry flour (10%-12% vs 7%-9%), so it's not the best for fine crumb cakes.  I use a mix of organic unbleached low protein AP and pastry flours because I do not use bleached flours.

3. Temp & bake times are "guides" as no two ovens are alike.  Test for doneness by looking for a set cake.  Touch the center, if it springs back, the cake is done.  If finger mark remains, it's not done.

4. Volume measurements are inaccurate; for consistent results, it's best to weigh all ingredients. 

Thank you

I always measure by weight, no matter what

I have two scales which i use for everything :)

If you don't mind a bit of newspaper print on your tins fold a sheet of paper to fit your tin  (you will have to use two sheets for the 8 inch round), wet it and wrap around your tin, place the cake tin onto a biscuit tray that you have laid out a sheet of wet newspaper on. This will stop the cake browning and give you lovely soft edges.

I found this truck when I bought a new (crappy) oven.

The oven has gone back as it was faultyand we have a different one now but I would still consider wrapping my tins when doing a vanilla cake to stop any colour on the edges. I also use Fat Daddio's pans.

I also use fat daddios pans.    I too get a browner crust than my inside cake.

Perhaps it is not as professional and that I am in the minority, but I don't mind the crust.

I bought a few FD's pans, tried them a couple times, then got rid of them.  The anondized coating applied to their pans made my cakes come out with a heavy, dark crust...that does not happen with my Magic Line pans.

It's my first set of pans and up in Canada, we have an ok selection but some stuff you have in the states is sometimes hard to find 

I purchase my equipment from restaurant supply stores.  Most are open to the public.  Aside from a vast inventory to select from, the prices are way better than the specialty cookware stores.  Since they service the trade, consumables are packaged for production (e.g., 1000 sheets of parchment paper; 50 lb sacks sugar)

Went to a baking supplies store, they had a decent selection but when it came down to it, fat daddios or wilton

My cakes never get a crust of any kind. I use these pans. A little pricey, but they're worth it. I've changed all my sheet pans, bread pans, cake pans to these. I make everything from scratch, and even our granola doesn't burn anymore like on other pans (same temperature, same recipe). They have a ceramic coating.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/usa-pan-goldtouch-nonstick-round-cake-pan/?pkey=e%7Cgoldtouch%7C111%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C10&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH

They're in Canada, too. Hopefully close to you. Check out the list of stores, all the way at the end.

This video offers a clever way to make sure your cake does not brown excessively on the edges by using some cardboard and foil to line the edges. Have a look, esp. around the 6:20 minutes. 

I'm not sure. Possibly the pans. I made this same cake for the first time this past weekend. Wilton pans, round 8x2" 3 layers (I prefer my square magic line!). Used bake even strips. 350 degrees regular bake not convection. No hard crusts here.  I love this recipe. Could have stood to be a little more moist so thinking about substituting sour cream for milk next time. Anyone else made that substitution with this recipe before and had good results?

I made a chocolate cake in the same pan and that came out perfectly.  Going to try and lower the temp, I found another thread and that's what it suggests, worth a try

http://www.cakecentral.com/forum/t/821808/for-those-who-use-baking-strips-not-leveling-question

This is a recent discussion that might help.