Some of Dawn’s favorite baking tips:

Bake your cakes at 325° not 350°. This will allow your cake to rise more.

Don’t grease the sides of your baking pan. Greasing the sides of the pan will not allow your cake to climb the edges of the pan and grow tall.

Use parchment paper in your baking pan so your cake will release from the bottom of the dish easier.

Using room temperature ingredients will help your cake rise better.

Avoid over-beating your cake batter. This will help ensure a softer cake after baking.

To get latent air bubbles out of your cake batter, bang the pan (with the cake batter inside) on a table before setting the pan in the oven.

Always freeze cakes after baking. This helps in forming a stronger structure of the cake and helps the cake hold together nicely. Freezing the cakes also helps the cakes retain moisture and ultimately taste better than fresh cake too! Be sure to allow your cakes time to defrost before you begin to frost or decorate your cakes (or before you work with your cakes in any way).