Home Bakers

Business By welder Updated 26 Jun 2006 , 7:40pm by Softangelkisses

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welder Posted 14 Jun 2006 , 3:03pm
post #1 of 16

I bake/sell cakes from my home I do not advertise just word of mouth and stay very busy with baking. I also have a full time job so my cake money is my "extra" money (Gas money LOL). My question- we have built a new home (4yrs old) and I was very careful I thought when buying a stove/oven (making sure the large pans would fix- and level!). I have a wall oven and a slide in stove. Neither oven bakes even - one side is always higher than the other. (The repairman told me to turn the cake during the baking!) The wall unit has been replaced twice and I'm still not happy with the end results. This is a convection oven and I'm not real impressed with it - maybe I was expecting to much. Cooking meat and casseroles is fine. My old GE oven(30yrs old) cooked like a charm - I know they don't make anything like they use to. Both are electric I have had the repairmen and utility Company check everything out and it checks ok. I'm exhausted -- I'm getting ready to try another oven - What have you all had success with --that is large enough for the large cake pans. Thanks for letting me vent!

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daltonam Posted 14 Jun 2006 , 3:13pm
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oh this is going to sound really stupid, but anyway here goes, b/c it is a wall unit it can't be leveled by hand, correct?? is it possible to buy/find something metal (even alum foil??) put this under the sides that are lower & try that before you invest money in a new oven, i don't even know if i'm making sense---oh yeah, next time you see the repairman tell him to stuff it, icon_lol.gif it sounds like he thinks that's gonna fix the problem

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daltonam Posted 14 Jun 2006 , 3:15pm
post #3 of 16

i forgot to ask do you have a level, it will help you to see just how bad out it is.

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moydear77 Posted 14 Jun 2006 , 3:19pm
post #4 of 16

I am not a fan of convection ovens. I worked with them in reastaurants and they bake uneven. I know they have ones with reversable fans and work more efficient and all. I love me 250 dollar electri and bakes perfect everytime!

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welder Posted 14 Jun 2006 , 5:28pm
post #5 of 16

The shelf the wall unit sets on is level and the racks seem level-- I'm convinced somehow it is getting hotter in spots. I don't know how to test this. This morning I calibrated the ovens -10degrees to see if this helps. Thanks for your input.

welder

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moydear77 Posted 14 Jun 2006 , 5:43pm
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I meant to say that the fan that was blowing would blow the batter and lift one side of the cake. It did this with bread to.

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txdiann Posted 20 Jun 2006 , 2:27am
post #7 of 16

Have you tried using the bake even strips? I use them on all of my cakes and it makes a big difference. Just a thought.

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SugarFrosted Posted 20 Jun 2006 , 2:37am
post #8 of 16

I recently watched a cooking program in which the chef showed that while a convection oven is great for roasts and casseroles etc, it was not a good choice for baking cakes. The cakes get overdone and dry.
He also stated that with most convection ovens, you can turn off the fan. The fan is the actual part which makes a regular oven a convection oven. Have you tried turning off the fan while baking a cake?
Also, I rotate my cakes after 10 mins and then at 20 mins. and every 5 mins after that. I have an old too-small electric oven which won't hold anything larger than a 12x18, but my cakes turn out great. I use baking strips on every pan that I can get them to stay on in the oven.

Good Luck! thumbs_up.gif

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fearlessbaker Posted 20 Jun 2006 , 2:51am
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Welder, You are not alone. 8 years ago we put in a kitchen. I did soooo much research. Even took dishes with me to pick out the diswasher. I read everything I could find. I ended up with a Miele Gas Oven and Conv.Combo and the Kitchen Aid Gas Combo Convec. Cookies are good in the covect. but you have to keep your on them at all times. Cakes can puff up and deflate or be dry on the outside and not done inside. Cheescakes turn out well though. The Kitchen Aid has a large oven. I think there are some that may be even larger now. The Mielle has some real shortcomings that are not worth going into. The worst thing about the KA is when you time something and the timer goes off so does the oven. So if your cake isn't done it has to be restarted. Needless to say I ;use a separate timer. Good thing, if your Jewish it has a setting for the Sabbath. If I did this over again, it would be either a KA or Viking. I have the Viking stove stop and love it. Is this more than you wanted to know???

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nicoles0305 Posted 20 Jun 2006 , 4:00am
post #10 of 16

Being a Culinary Graduate, I've learned alot about different ovens. First of all, for baking the best kind of oven is a rotary rack oven, which is a huge oven that you roll a bakery rack into, then the oven picks up the rack a few inches off the ground and rotates it the whole way through the baking process. These ovens are very large and expensive, therefore impractical to put into a home kitchen. Convection ovens would probably be the next best choice, but they are known for having hot spots, since the fan doesn't really distribute the heat very evenly. I hate to say it, but the repairman had a valid suggestion in rotating the cake halfway through baking. I know that I have a conventional gas oven that gives me the same problems with uneven baking, and I do rotate my cakes sometimes, or I just trim down the higher part of the cake. So from my experience, I would probably say unless you want to spend probably $10,000 or more on the right kind of oven, I would just rotate my cakes, or trim them down. But you also said that you just got this oven, and maybe after using it a little while, you'll get the feel for how to position the cake in the oven to help even out the baking. I know I recently moved into a place that has a gas oven, and before that I only used electric. At first, I had some trouble, but now since I know better how the oven works, and where the hot spots are, I can better position my cakes to bake more evenly. So maybe just use it a little while longer before giving up, and maybe you'll find that the oven isn't so bad after all. Good Luck.

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welder Posted 21 Jun 2006 , 2:29am
post #11 of 16

Thanks for all of your comments. I reckon I heard what I didn't really want too! I did calibrate the oven -10 to see if that would help. ( i would try to remember to lower the temp each time but I would forget) Actually, it did help a little.

Thanks.

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Cake_Mooma Posted 24 Jun 2006 , 3:38am
post #12 of 16

I had never put much thought into it when I went to bake at my moms NEW oven. The cake was so dry no matter how much milk we drank with it, we just couldn't eat it, LOL. I have a very basic oven and it works wonders. I also turn my cakes but only half way through the baking process. Other wise you lose to much heat. I don't know about your oven but in my moms oven (with time and patients) I was able to turn the fan off. I'm still not a huge fan I think that you lose a lot of space and have a hard time with those large pans but for everyday cooking it works Great! icon_smile.gif

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SugarFrosted Posted 24 Jun 2006 , 3:44am
post #13 of 16

Hello & Welcome to CC, Beashorty32!

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Cake_Mooma Posted 25 Jun 2006 , 9:29pm
post #14 of 16

Thank you! I have become a quick fan of the site. I find myself on the site everyday, there is something new to look at and read and learn. I found a new "family"

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CakesBySandy Posted 25 Jun 2006 , 9:35pm
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Watch out newbies...this website is VERY addicting. Welcome!!

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Softangelkisses Posted 26 Jun 2006 , 7:40pm
post #16 of 16

My oven is a little electric one and does great for the size of cakes that I can bake in there! However, I am glad you brought up this topic, because we have been looking at getting a bigger over that would hold my larger pans!

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