My cakes used to need a lot of help. And I do mean alot.  They were unevenly baked, terribly frosted, hard on the edges and barely done in the middle and completely domed like a mountain. Not something you’d be really super pumped to present to someone on their birthday. But you do the best you can with what you got.

For the life of me, I didn’t understand why they were terrible, but after taking my cake decorating classes, I found out the whole reason why… 
In the oven your cakes don’t bake evenly from the bottom up. The edges get done first, setting them selves up and baking inwards so that last piece done is the very middle. With those crispy set edges, it forces the cake batter in the middle of the pan to rise up since it can’t go anywhere else in the pan – hence, the dastardly dome of doom. (I like alliterations, can you tell?)
In my first cake decorating lesson I learned of the Wilton Bake Even Strips, and wham bam thank you ma’am did they solve all of my cake problems! 
Today I was baking a couple of cakes for my first Wilton teaching gig that starts TOMORROW, and I had to share with you how wonderful these strips are. 

I prepped my batter ready to bake it according to all instructions and before loading up my pans I soaked my strips, ready to put them around the pans to go into the oven.  On one of the pans I used a Bake Even strip and one pan without as a control. See how scientific I am? 

See if you can spot the difference in the baked cakes!

This is the cake I baked without the strips. It’s got the ring of overdone-ness around the outer edge, pulling itself away from pan and giving it the dome on top. 

Here is the cake I baked with the strip. It’s brown pretty evenly all around with a no crusty edge and no valley and dome  in the middle. 
The wet Bake Even Strips slow down the baking process a bit, allowing the edges and bottom to get done at a similar pace, eliminating the doming and uneven baking that would normally happen.

Can you tell the difference between the two?
These have been a great addition to my baking and if you like a well baked and level cake, these are something you really should try!
What was your best baking accomplishment? Or what was your biggest baking blunder?
Over and out!
*Editor’s Note* Yes, I am starting tomorrow teaching the Wilton Method – but these were purchased over a year ago with my own money when I initially took the Wilton classes and I put them to the test in my own kitchen. This is a product review done of my own accord and I am not, I repeat NOT being compensated for this review. These strips are just that fabulous.