Why don't cakes rise? - Frigidaire Kitchen Ranges

self rising flour uses baking powder as a leveling agent, so it rises as it is being heated in the cooking process, not like a yeast dough.
the following is taken from another site, I could not have said it any better.

Self-rising flour has an almost magical sound to it. And if you look at recipes that call for it, you'll see that they do not call for the addition of salt or leavening agents, though biscuits, cakes and breads made with seem to rise up just fine. The reason for this is that self-rising flour is actually nothing of the sort. It is flour that has a leavening agent - baking powder - and salt added to it during packaging. Since the ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the flour, you will get the same nice lift to your baked goods every time you use it. If you don't have self-rising flour and you have a recipe that calls for it, you can make your own by combining 1 cup all purpose flour with 1 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. Similarly, if you only have self-rising flour, you can reduce the baking powder and salt called for in a recipe that uses standard all purpose flour.
Now that being said, it is also worth noting that there are several brands of self-rising flour that have a lower protein content than all purpose flour (11% protein). They are effectively cake flours (8% protein). Wheat protein, or gluten, is what gives baked goods much of their structure, but it can also cause a bread to be too dense or tough. White Lily and Presto are two examples of self-rising brands that use a low-protein cake flour as their base, and if a recipe calls for one of them, you should use cake flour in place of all purpose in the conversion given above.

That is completely natural. The cake raises due to air expanding in the heat and contracting when cooling down. The shrinking can be partly compensated by turning off the heat of the oven 5 to 10 min before it's done and let the cake cool in the oven for 10 to 15 min before taking it out. Avoids also cracking of cheese cakes.

Your cake may not have risen if you didn't have enough baking powder or beaten eggs whites. Make sure you follow the recipe exactly.

'Another cause is oven temperatures being too low or too many liquid ingredients in the cake and it not being able to set properly and so it sinks in the middle.

The muffin is controlled by using magnets. Get any magnet and put it on the bottom part of the muffin and the muffin should inflate. If not, you can remove the bottom plate on the bottom and manually remove the plunger inside.

just squeeze the air out of the cake, position the circle on the bottom of the cake onto the circle in the oven, wave the wand over the heart or press the heart and it should rise in 5-30 seconds

Keep repositioning, it takes anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. There are no special instructions, just make sure the circle on the bottom of the cake is lined up with the circle in the middle of the oven. Oh if you have the magic rise kitchen, you need to buy the oven (just read another review). We got the oven from Wal-Mart and ours works...also double check the batteries to make sure they're new. I think this is a cheaply made toy (it seems anything with the Disney name is ) because it's brand new and already they're on sale everywhere...I have to find the cake and cupcakes that are sold separately somewhere here in Canada...

They can help you here. Great Co.BLODGETT
44 Lakeside Avenue, Burlington, VT USA 05401
Toll Free: (800) 331-5842 Phone: (802) 860-3700 Fax: (802) 864-0183