Hello everyone. I am in a real pickle. I have a gas stove and everuthing I cook, I have to do a trial run. I just made a pound cake earlier today, put it in the wilton house pan and baked it on 320 like the recipe said and it burnt. Everything I bake I have to "test" it first unwillingly. What can I do? Does anyone know about how far I DOWN I need to set my stove temperature to get it right the first time with gas?

Do you have an accurate oven thermometer? It is a must for baking.

Then start most recipes about 25 degrees lower than the recipe stated. it will take a few minutes longer to bake. also, for layers larger than 8" you will get great results using an inverted flower nail as a heating core. It helps the center of the cake bake evenly.

I've only ever had a gas stove, and our current stove is definitely "off". So I use the oven thermometer religiously. You should be able to determine one time how far off your oven temp is from the dial using the thermometer, and then always set the dial accordingly. Mine heats by 50 degrees over dial (or is it 75...sheesh it would help if I could remember! LOL) so for a 325 cake I set it to 275, it's that simple.

Also my oven thermometer allowed me to determine just how long the oven takes to preheat. Seems to help with the baking; I realized that I was ready to put my cake in when the oven was only 225...can't imagine that would help the baking process!

My only other final advice is that for any new recipe just to make sure to check in on your cake at least 10-15 minutes before the recommended baking time to see if it's on target or...perhaps...getting done early.

Good luck!

Thanks all of you for your advice. I will definitely use those suggestions.