Recently I made an Italian coconut cake and Lane cake.  The last step of each recipe is to fold in beaten egg whites.  While in the oven they rise beautifully.  After taking them out of the oven the cakes went flat; really flat.  Both were very dense cakes.   I noticed the tops of each cake were sticky as well and difficult to torte the cakes.  Any suggestions on what is going on here?  Thanks

Did you need to cool cake upside down like an angel food cake so it wouldn't deflate?? Not sure if this is problem but angel food cake is basically whipped egg whites with dry ingredients folded in carefully.   Or the proportions are off in recipe. Some sponge cakes also ask you to cool them upside down .  Just some ideas of what might have gone wrong.   3rd-- were egg whites whipped stiff enough before you folded them into batter.

Was it baked long enough? Sticky top and deflation could also mean it needed longer in the oven. 

Really sounds like it wasn't baked long enough.

Thanks for the responses.  

Regarding bake time:  the sides pulled away from the pans and a toothpick inserted in the middle came out clean.  Am I missing something?

I agree with others about cooling it upside down if it was a bundt cake pan. Just put a wind bottle on table and turn the bundt pan upside down and let it sit till it cools.

I tried to correct spelling above it should say wine bottle. Sorry about that. I tried to edit but CC would not allow me to edit.

Assuming you're referring to traditional Alabama Lane Cake and Italian Coconut Cake, neither of which is baked in a tube pan.  

Common causes of cake to fall:

Over creamed butter and sugar (cream on medium speed)

Over beaten egg whites (causes fast rise, then protein structure collapses and cake falls)

Oven temp too low

Too much moisture (sugar is hygroscopic)

Wet texture:

Too much sugar (creating to much moisture)*

Oven temp too low

Improperly mixed

Too much egg