Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I seem to be experiencing a new phenomena with my square cakes – the corners don’t seem to want to rise !!  No matter how low the temp or long the cooking time, still won’t go up !!

I never used to have a problem – anyone have any tips or suggestions as to why this may be happening.  I am ending up have to re-do sponges so give a proper depth of cake (as in the batter i use should easily make a 2.5/3″ height cake) so I make 2 lots as by the time i level it I’m left with the equivalent of 1 layer 🙁  it’s really annoying me now

I don’t know if this is the answer but have you tried making the donut hole in the middle of the mix before you put it in the oven

I used to have this problem but since I’ve been greasing, flouring and lining my tins it’s stopped. My oven just bakes lopsided as a norm! You on the other hand have never had this problem up until now, which is quite puzzling. Try pushing the batter more into the corners and making a large dip in the middle of the batter as suggested by Bev0. You could also try making some baking strips with  towelling and attaching them wet to the cake tin to encourage an even bake. Some people find baking cones useful, and also covering the batter with parchment paper during the baking process. Might also be worth checking the oven thermometre, sometimes it can become less accurate over a period of time without significant signs, then all of a suddenly it starts presenting problems. Sorry, haven’t a more practical solution, hope you sort it.