Help! My famous pound cakes are failing!

Hello! Can I use Wilton baking strips around my tube pan to keep my pound cake from doming?

I'm thinking the top is heating too fast. A cookie sheet over top of the baking pan, leaving about 2-inch of clearance.

Heres my take. It is your new oven and the way it heats. Do what I call the "toast test" and spread white loaf bread out side by side on a baking sheet leaving enough room to circulate around the baking sheet. Make toast by baking at the temperature you use for your cake. Take a photograph. Flip over and see the second side. Compare the colors. You will see whether the bottom heat is greater than the top heat. If so, put a baking sheet or even a pizza pan under the pound cake pan and it will slow up the heat a bit. (From Mastering the art of southern cooking by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart)

Is it possible to see the recipe?

Also, did you change flour brand?

Tracy, one last thought. The link I provided to "The Flavor Bender" gives me an idea: she is the only one of all the authors who makes the interesting recommendation to spoon the batter into the pans in two separate additions, smoothing it after each addition. I also read Harold McGee on the way cake batter cooks in the oven, with the air bubbles expanding, and rising. It occurred to me that if there is on or more large air pockets inadvertently left in the thick batter of poundcake, then that air pocket will expand and rise with heating, eventually getting trapped under the already-cooked crust (the outer surfaces of a cake are the first to be heated/cooked). Perhaps if you spooned the first half of the batter into the tin and smoothed it, then ran a thin sharp knife around and inch from the perimeter to release air pockets that would help, then repeat with the second addition of batter to the pan. Sometimes with a regular cake batter it is recommended to rap the filled tin on the counter or drop it from a low height (Maida Heatter, for example) to release air bubbles. With a thicker batter it may be more effective to run a thin sharp knife about an inch from the edge to try to release large air pockets. I believe this is a suggestion of Susan G. Purdy in her cake-baking books, though I can't find my copy at the moment. Or even if you just ran the sharp knife down the center, where the crack should eventually develop (the crack after all releases expanded steam), you may be able achieve this. I think one of these ideas may help.

I'm wondering, since you have done such a thorough job of going over all your ingredients and pans, that maybe your new oven is heating differently than your old one. Once at proper temperature, my newer oven seems to heat more from the bottom than the top to maintain the correct temperature inside. I have had to do some experimenting, too, as I was getting high-brown bottoms on cookies and biscuits in well-loved recipes. Sometimes I have to use the higher middle rack setting, a slightly lower temperature, parchment paper, a lighter in color baking sheet or any/all the above. Good luck in solving your dilemma and let us know what finally works for you.

Hi Tracy:
This seems to be a known problem, even for seasoned bakers like yourself. It has come up several times on the hotline and on the Internet in general I did a little Internet research (you probably did too) and found a couple of reliable suggestions-- this blog post seems to address poundcake issues very thoroughly: https://www.theflavorbender.com/classic-pound-cake-guide-troubleshooting/
Interestingly, she suggests extra egg yolks as one way to stabilize the batter. Both she and Southern Living recommend using national brands of ingredients, particularly sugar rather than generic "store" brands, for consistency and precision in measuring. And, of course, bringing all ingredients to room temperature to allow the ingredients to amalgamate properly (she is very precise in her definition of room temp).
I would consider whether you have changed ingredient brands lately (flour, sugar, butter), used newer pans that might have created a more rapid rise, or whether your new oven operates with convection that might have changed the results.

Tracy...I also would have guessed over-mixing, but you fixed that.
Apparently, this splitting problem from loaf pans is a known issue.
Rose Levy Beranbaum in her book The Cake Bible recommends inverting the cake in the pan to cool, to avoid splitting.
Or you might change baking pans, and see if that helps.
Or tap pan on counter before baking (as with cheesecake) to eliminate air pockets in batter.
Good luck and let us know when and how you fix this.