Cakes will be cooked just perfectly and won't dome if you follow 1 simple method

Domed cakes can be frustrating, especially when you want a perfectly flat surface so you can layer cake tiers and add icing. The good news is that there's an easy fix. By using one straightforward method, you can cook cakes perfectly without any doming.

It usually happens for two reasons: either the tin is too small or the tin heats up faster than the cake itself. If it's the latter, the edges of the cake batter set before the middle has fully risen, which means the centre keeps climbing as it bakes, creating that little dome on top. The same thing can happen if your tin is too small - the cake has nowhere to go but up.

If you can slow down how quickly the edges of the tin heat up, you can help the cake bake evenly from centre to edge. The easiest method to do so is extremely simple, according to cake experts at Dr Oetker.

They said cooks should simply lower the oven temperature by 10-20C and increase the baking time slightly if they consistently have issues with cakes doming.

"This is one of the easiest solutions," they wrote. "This will make sure the cake tin doesn't heat up too quickly. Once you're past the cooking time specified in the recipe, keep checking your bake every 10 minutes or so."

According to Mary Berry, the easiest way to check if a cake is fully cooked is to first check to see if it is golden brown. The cake should shrink away from the side of the tin, and when you press it gently, it should be springy to the touch.

She recommended setting the cakes aside to cool in their tins for five minutes, so they can shrink away from the tin even further.

To prevent cakes from heating up too quickly, you can also use baking strips, which are long pieces of fabric that are soaked in icy water before being wrapped around the outside of your cake tin.

If you don't have baking strips, you can try double wrapping the cake in foil. The result is a beautifully level sponge - ready for buttercream, fondant, or just a dusting of sugar.