I need to know about baking wedding cake in one.

I have a cake this weekend and the church I am going to only has convection ovens. I have heard they could be hard to use for cakes. It is right.

Any pointers?

My convection oven has a regular bake options, I am guessing all convection ovens should be this way. You might want to check first.

Also with baking in a unknown oven you always risk not getting the same results you are used to.

Good Luck.

I just switched to one a few months ago. After much experimenting (and much cake thrown in the trash!), I found the combination that works for me: I keep a pan of water on the bottom rack (adds moisture), use baking strips on all cake pans (I always did anyway), and bake at 275 (I baked at 325 in a regular oven, reduced it to 300 in the convection and had to reduce it even more. Cakes bake in about the same time.)

i love baking in a convection oven! i have recently starting baking out of a caterers kitchen that i rent. she had gas ovens and a convection and i tried both. hated the gas, but the convection is a dream! i bake at 300, and the cakes bake in almost half the time. an 8" white cake is done in about 18 minutes. i did find out that baking time varies by flavor. my red velvet takes the same time as it did in a regular oven, and my chocolate is somewhere in between.

This may only apply to home-sized convection ovens, but I found using convection-only baking caused too soft a bottom crust to form, and made it difficult to remove from pans. I found if I allowed the cakes about 5 minutes on "regular" baking (bottom element heating), they baked enough on the bottom to turn easily out of the pans. So, for 30 minutes baking time, I'd do 25 convection, and 5 "regular."

I am very happy with the results, and find, as above, different cake recipes vary widely (white being the fastest to bake). Good luck!

I have an electric convection and it's great. I do have the regular bake option, but I never use it. Get an oven thermometer to see exactly how hot that oven is and adjust the temp as needed. I have to reduce temp by 25 degrees when I bake on convection. I've never had anything stick or turn out undesirable. Good luck!

I don't have a convection, but I want to know more. Do they bake more evenly, no hot spots? Obviously a lower temperature is needed from above posts. What else is great about them so I can convince hubby we need to start saving for one?

when you bake 25min on convection and 5 min. regular is it in that order?
Michelle if you have a Lowes near you watch their clearnce isle. I now have 2 convetion ovens one in the wall and the other is a normal range unit. One I got for about 1/3 the orginal price and the second was less than 1/2 the orginal. Both are stainless steal I haven't used the oven with the range I always use the wall oven. I like the convection for almost everything I do I just have been causious of baking a cake in it.

So you can bake more than one tray of cookies or cake because there are no hot spots and the temperature is the same throughout the oven? Do I have this right? That would be awesome because right now I'm baking one tray of cookies at a time. Stinks.

Sorry, I should clarify. A convection oven is the same as any other oven -- but there is a fan and heating element in the back, in addition to the heating element on the bottom. When you switch to "convection" the fan kicks on, and the back heating element. So, instead of a cookie sheet "blocking" the rising heat from the bottom, you get hot baking air sent all over the oven, evenly. Thus, you can load up 3 even 4 cookie sheets at once.

In mine, I noticed that the bottom of cakes were a wee bit soft (I like a moist cake) on my 12" and larger pans, mostly. So, I just switch back to 5 minutes of regular baking actually -- anytime during the process. It sort of toasts the bottom a bit (since you are going back to regular botton-heat baking). No problem with removing from pans.

When I mentioned about the bottom baking up nice and light brown, that is my oven -- another poster had no problem.

I got my convection oven 4 years ago (GE) and it works wonderfully. Never a problem. Now that they are more common, a "scratch and dent" sale is a great way to go.

I think the key is bake a few favorite recipes before the critical wedding cake! I read the manual carefully -- that helps too. They may be more plentiful now, so the price difference may be less. When shopping, bring some pans with you (or a measuring tape). Try to find the largest oven capacity. Some are rather small inside (when I was looking, the KA model was smaller). Now that electricity prices are rising, I think it makes sense to bake 6 dozen cookies in 12 minutes, instead of an hour (a quote for your DH.... )

Hope this helps.

Chances are if you are baking in a church kitchen the equipment is commercial grade. Many commercial convection ovens do not have the option of turning off the fan. It might have a hi and low setting on the fan, go with the low setting.

As a general rule, bake about 25 degrees lower than you usually do and check more often since it probably will bake more quickly. Even convection ovens can have not spots, so make sure you check that they're baking evenly.

If you have an oven thermometer bring it along and use it for extra insurance.

Thank you for the info! I'm looking into a double convection because I can only have one oven at home (department of agri. laws in Ohio).

Good luck with your wedding cakes, gma1956!