Does anyone know the answer to this question?
Why is it that, when you bake a cake or make a loaf of bread, the bit in the centre of the tin always rises more than the bits around the perimeter of the tin?
I wonder whether it is the fact that the heat takes longer to diffuse into the centre of the cake or bread, therefore there is more time available for the baking powder or yeast to do its stuff before the heat sets it. To test this out, I would propose turning up the heat really slowly, so that the cake stays at a spatially uniform but steadily rising temperature, but I don’t think I have patience enough to try it.
However, our breadmaker pretty much does this slow turn-up of the heat as it moves from the last rise phase to the bake phase, and it still produces loaves that are mountainous in the centre. So what’s going on?