There are many problems that you can run into when you are baking cakes. The cakes could turn out to be overdone around the edges or excessively domed, requiring a lot of trimming to get them down to layer-cake proportions. Some cake “problems” are simply the result of a recipe that isn’t the right fit for your project (some cakes dome more than others, for instance), and some are the result of external problems, like ovens that run hot or cold, or have hot spots in them. One thing that you can do to help your cakes bake more evenly is to use cake strips when you bake cakes.
Cake strips are bands of material that wrap around the exterior of a cake pan, providing insulation that should help cakes bake more evenly. Cakes usually bake from the outside in, with the edges of the cake baking before the center of the cake because the batter bakes faster when it is in contact with the metal (or glass) of a cake pan. By insulating the sides of a pan, the pan itself heats up less quickly and you end up with a cake that bakes much more uniformly throughout. The idea is similar to that of using a water bath when baking a cheesecake or custard. There are many different types of cake strips. You can find silicone strips that slide over predetermined pan sizes. Other cake strips are made of heat-resistant fabric that is soaked in water before being fitted to a pan.
What do you think?