Help! Can this crochet pattern work???

[ifIwerenotanandroid]

I found this pattern online & thought it looked really cute.

https://wiamscrafts.blogspot.com/2020/05/kitty-granny-square.html

But I'm trying to make it & the white circle for the cat's face is curling at the edges with every row & the middle stands up in a lump.

One problem, it seems to me, is that there are 2 rounds of 12 dc (sc in the pattern, which must be US terminology), whereas surely a circle needs to expand on each row? I wonder if it's an error as the photo for round 7 shows it looking flat, or if the cat's nose is supposed to stand up.

Should I start again & miss out round 3 which is the second 12st row?

If a circle curls at the edges, does it always flatten out when you square it off?

I've done literally hundreds of circle-in-square blocks using the pattern:
(1tr, 1ch) x 12
(2tr into ch sp, ch1) x 12
(3tr into ch sp, ch 1) x 12
then squaring off, & they're all perfectly flat throughout.

I wonder if round 3 is there to intentionally create the doming in the centre.

The great thing about crochet is you can try something and undo it if you don't like the outcome. So try without round 3 and see how that looks. You might need to work a longer stitch at round 2 to compensate.

Or try with the version of circle in a square you've used before (assuming the stitch counts work out).

Another great thing about crochet is there are no crochet police so it's perfectly acceptable to not follow the pattern rigidly.

It is a very cute design, I'd love to see the results when you're done!