I am really trying to open a store front. Doing my bussiness plan, looking for eqp, etc. I have a bil that has a pizza oven and was wondeing if this can be used for cakes. I'm not sure of the model but it is the regular one not a rotating one. Anyone?

I was looking online at Cupcakes take the Cake blog and they had a youtube link to some guy who was auditioning for the TV show Cupcake Wars. Long story short, he owned a cupcakery and it showed pizza ovens in the background. I'm assuming that he used these to bake with.

Maybe if you don't want to go convection in baking, pizza ovens are the only choice for commercial ovens?

HTH

There are a lot of non-convection ovens that are not pizza ovens. Just because it's a deck oven doesn't mean it's a pizza oven. Does your BIL have a pizza oven or a deck oven?

Anyway, my baking partner in culinary school rented an old pizza store to bake in after he graduated. The only problem he had was that the pizza oven tended to bake at one temp - really hot. He had to bake with the oven door open all the time.

If it was originally a bakery then it's VERY likely a regular deck oven. It will have an upper and lower heating element that you can't see like in a regular home oven. You have to set BOTH temp dials, or you'll have heat from only one source, top or bottom. Typically, everyone puts a sheet pan upside down on the bottom of the deck and leaves it there. Then you put your cake pans on the sheet pan. You wouldn't want to have your cake pan sitting directly on the heating element (which you can't see.)

My husband and I own a store that originally had a pizza business going. The ovens sound like what Leah is describing. We have 2 of them stacked. Each one has a door underneath of it where you can see the pilot light and heating element. The bottom of each oven looks like gray stone or brick (kind of). I don't know what type they are for sure. But, I will tell you they bake the best cakes!! I have racks that I have slid in the oven so my cake pans are not directly sitting on the brick/stone (whatever it is). I leave them in there all the time. I can set the temp. on each oven to whatever I want. I typically keep mine at 325 degrees. I can literally fit a 14", 10" and 6" wedding cake in at the same time (2 pans of each) in each oven. It makes baking speedy! And opening the door to take (for example) the smaller pans out before the bigger ones are ready...does not cause any issues like my home oven does.
I love it and would love to take it with me when we sell this store...but, they are too large.

Definitely inquire about it...I know when I first started my business I refused to use the pizza ovens ~ they just seemed like the would burn the cakes. So, I always used a standard oven. The business grew so much that I decided to try it out (almost out of necessity)...and now even take my own baked things to our store because it bakes so well.

I never tried cakes in our pizza oven, but I did make chicken strips, fries, hot dogs, ect in it with no problem. Cakes wouldn't have worked in the first one I had but would probably work in the one I have now. but it is more like a tosaster oven.

Hi, I am setting up a new kitchen and want to use a double deck pizza oven for bread and cakes, the type with a stone base. I see the post here from hsmomma about using a pizza oven and would like to know the size of the oven being used, in particular the height of the oven inside, so that I can compare the one available to me, also any pictures of the oven being used would be useful. Thanks.

The brick ovens were about 4' long and 2 1/2' deep. The top to bottom inside height was around 8"
We sold the store otherwise I would measure them for you. They worked wonderfully!
When we opened our new studio...I missed them terribly.
We have since bought a new convection oven (a LG oven...less commercial but, after 100 + weddings this summer...I can tell you that it is a workhorse.) We debated whether to buy a new deck oven or a commercial oven. This was actually bought originally for our new house. But...we ended up loving it so much that we decided it was a great cake oven too. It's a double oven with enough space to fit 2 14" cakes, 2 10" cakes and 2 6" cakes all at the same time.
Previous poster ~
PM me if you have any questions about the pizza deck oven. I used it for almost a decade without issues. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

The brick ovens were about 4' long and 2 1/2' deep. The top to bottom inside height was around 8"
We sold the store otherwise I would measure them for you. They worked wonderfully!
When we opened our new studio...I missed them terribly.
We have since bought a new convection oven (a LG oven...less commercial but, after 100 + weddings this summer...I can tell you that it is a workhorse.) We debated whether to buy a new deck oven or a commercial oven. This was actually bought originally for our new house. But...we ended up loving it so much that we decided it was a great cake oven too. It's a double oven with enough space to fit 2 14" cakes, 2 10" cakes and 2 6" cakes all at the same time.
Previous poster ~
PM me if you have any questions about the pizza deck oven. I used it for almost a decade without issues. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

The brick deck ovens were about 4' long and 2 1/2' deep. The top to bottom inside height was around 8"
We sold the store otherwise I would measure them for you. They worked wonderfully!
When we opened our new studio...I missed them terribly.
We have since bought a new convection oven (a LG oven...less commercial but, after 100 + weddings this summer...I can tell you that it is a workhorse.) We debated whether to buy a new deck oven or a commercial oven. This was actually bought originally for our new house. But...we ended up loving it so much that we decided it was a great cake oven too. It's a double oven with enough space to fit 2 14" cakes, 2 10" cakes and 2 6" cakes all at the same time.
Previous poster ~
PM me if you have any questions about the pizza deck oven. I used it for almost a decade without issues. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

My first ovens were Blodgett gas pizza ovens, aka deck ovens. They baked to perfection! They were stacked three high so I kept a step-stool (aka upside down molasses bucket) nearby.

I placed all bread and cake pans onto sheet pans so loading the oven was easier. The only time anything burned was when I forgot to set a timer.

Thanks for your helpful information everyone !

I have deck ovens in my rental kitchen that I wish I could use - but they take an hour to heat up. In a rental kitchen situation where I pay by the hours that does not work for me, I don't want to pay to sit on my bum for an hour while that oven gets to temperature. But the other bakers (that have monthly agreements, not hourly, so they can spend the time waiting on them) rave about them.

Hi There!  If you don't mind....what temp and length of time would you bake cupcakes in this type of oven? A friend of mine owns a kitchen with a Bodgett pizza oven (I think that's the name...lol) and is willing to let me try it out, but I'd like a starting point so I don't waste the time I'm given...Thanks for your help.

God Bless,

Vee

Hi hsmomma,

I am currently working as a pastry chef and because my store kitchen is a little down, i am temporarily using an older kitchen where they use these deck/pizza ovens to bake. However, I am having trouble with my baking, especially with a genoise sponge cake. Previously I would bake them at 180 degrees celsius, but now that there are two temperature dials I'm not sure what to do, and also what temperature to bake it at, because it seems to overbake all the time and I cant see what's going on inside the oven so it's hard to stop the baking when i think it's the right time. Maybe you could advice me on what temperatures you bake your cakes (sponge cakes especially) at and for how long? and even any other tips at handling the oven temperature and timing better would be useful. I would really appreciate any help i can get. Thanks so much in advance!!