Help! I went into the place I am renting from for the first time this morning with plans to make 5 different cupcake recipes. First up WASC when I put it into the oven which had been pre heated to the 350 setting on the dial. They became volcanos with the outers ones rising towards the wall and the tops browned quickly. This also happened with another recipe that uses a white cake base.

My chocolate, carrot, and coconut came out perfect. What's going on? The owner of the shop thinks it is a temperature thing which I agree with.Why didn't the other recipes would have do the same thing. Can someone help with this? I wasted so much time and money today!\\

P.S. these are all recipes I have made many many times at home with no problems.

Is it a convection or confection? Is there a fan, if so can it be turned off or is it one that can only be on low/high with no option of turning off?

The ovens I use at work have a fan that I can not turn off. I put it on the low option. I then drop the temperature down otherwise the cakes will have issues such as baking like a volcano or being as dry as sand. I turn the temp. down to 275 to 300 when baking a cake (I normally bake at 325 in a home oven)

I have a Blodgett commercial oven in my shop, (gas convection) and we bake at 275 degrees. (at home I always bake at 325). We have found that the lower temp works better and since it is a commercial unit, it bakes faster so there is little time difference even though we are at lower temp

I agree with pattycakes..............I have a commercial oven at home and bake at 275 degrees, I can have the convection on or off, but both ways the 275 degrees bakes best

Pattycakes and surgery2, do you bake with the fan on? I have a big Blodgett that has a one speed fan...it seems to me that the fan speed is high. I can turn it off but can't adjust the fan speed. when I bake with it on, the cakes with egg-whites-only get crispy on top and I have to rotate the other cakes to keep them from cooking too fast on the side closest to the fan. What do y'all suggest?

my blodgett has 2 speeds for the fan and I use the lowest speed. There is no option not to use the fan (meaning you can't turn it off without turning off the oven.) But the fan is what makes it a convection, it circulates the air for more even baking, if no fan then it is just a gas oven.
As far as crispy edges, I was getting that too until I lowered the temp to 275

I tried the oven today at 275 degrees with the fan on. WooHOO! It worked great! I would never have thought to turn it down that low because my convection oven at home only has to be turned down 25 Degrees from whatever the recipe calls for. Thanks y'all.

Thank you so much for this very timely post!

We have a Duke electric convection oven with two fan speeds: high and low.

We quickly learned that 350 degrees for WASC cakes is NOT good - esp with the fan on high! LOL

Today I baked at 325 and the cakes baked much better but dang, there is so much doming/crowning of the cakes! We make cake balls out the wazoo so the cake is not getting wasted but I sure miss having 3" tall cakes that bake with very little doming like at home.

So I will try 275 tomorrow.

Thanks

I love my convection oven for cookie baking, hate it for cake baking--I shut the fan OFF!

For anyone who may be reading this thread to research your own perfect oven temp, 275 took too long. 300 worked much better. Trial and error.

What I don't like is the uneven tops I get. The fan dries the baking strip way too fast, allowing the cake to bake too fast around the edges and causing a big hump in the middle. And--they're not as moist.

Fan OFF for cake.

But--I bake bread too and it's awesome for that.