I made this cake today -- twice. I misread the time difference between 8- and 9-inch pans, and baked my first 8-inch cake only 30 minutes. It was underdone in the middle. I made a second cake, but this time baked the 8-inch layers 38 minutes. The cake sunk slightly in the middle -- I'm not sure why -- and the edges were almost crispy. In short, the cake didn't bake evenly. The taste of the cake was good, but I can't figure out why the cake layers didn't bake evenly. It's impossible to set an oven rack in my oven exactly in the middle, so the rack was slightly higher than recommended. Could this have influenced the final result? I have had many years experience (more than 50) making cakes from scratch, so this was by no means my first. And, I like baking cakes at 325 degrees, (they are usually more moist) but would I have had a better result at 350? I might add that the method of making the cake was quite unusual, and I found on the second attempt I could put it together in less than five minutes. Not bad for a scratch cake!

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