Just a short intro….  My wedding is in March and I was hoping to make our wedding cake.  I’m testing early so if I chicken out, I’ll still have time to go to Plan B!   So far, I’ve made four 9in test cakes and 2 came out with a drooping center (both recipes out of “Sky High”...don’t know what went wrong) and the other two came out as expected. 

My main concern is actually not the decorating (it’ll be very simple) but with the actual baking.  Working with my one oven (standard size), is it possible to bake multiple layers at the same time?  Is it ever ok to put layers on different racks?  Anything I could do to cut down on baking time?

I much prefer to bake layers over 9” in diameter individually.  I’m never pleased when I bake two layers on different racks! 

Try some of Rose’s recipes - I’ve used them for nearly all the wedding cakes I’ve made.  I recommend The Cake Bible and Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.

I agree…I don’t like to bake on different racks.  One of the things I’ve discovered if you try to do that, is #1) don’t put the cake pans right on top of each other, but rather stagger them, one slightly to the right, the other slightly to the left.  #2) Switch the cakes (move the lower to the upper and the upper to the lower )  2/3 of the way through the baking time (not half way). 

The layers that sank in the middle…were probably underbaked.

Good luck!

I don’t like baking on different racks too unless I’m really pressed for time. I try to avoid it at all cost.