Hi,

Firstly, I must adamantly recommmend that if you have a busy baking week -hold off on getting a new oven! My old oven was such a PITA that I thought nothing could be worse, but 4 cakes later, I see that the 'new-oven learning curve' is!

I baked my chocolate cake (Hershey's cocoa can recipe) in a 10" pan at 350 degrees it sunk in the middle even though it tested done (the top was a little mushy, but it was totally cooked through). I had opened the oven door a few times starting at the 30 min mark because it was the first time I had used the oven and had no clue what to expect. I baked another layer but did not open until the 45 min mark and it was less sunken but still so. Third cake was baked with a heating core and the oven was not opened until 50 mins and the cake was still really sunken. Fourth try for 70 mins at 325 (as per instructions on the Wilton site) still resulted in a sunken cake.

It's an LG oven and I'm wondering if I got a lemon or if this is just a learning curve. I put in an oven thermometer and it appears that the temp is dead accurate. A caterer friend of mine said that it might not be the temperature but the way the heat is circulated. Should I try the convection setting? I thought that might dry out a cake too much.

What would Cake Central do?

Either try upping the temperature a few degrees, or try the convection setting. All you can do is experiment until you find the right combination, I guess.

Even new ovens can be miscalibrated, so I always utilize an additional oven thermometer.

Is the new oven the same type of fuel as your old oven. (I only ask because my new electric oven bakes a little differently than my old gas oven.)

And lastly, was the baking powder fresh?

Deffinately use the convection if you have it! I sometimes have the same problem with that recipe. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's very fickle.

JanH: yes it is the sane fuel as my old oven (electric). How fresh does baking powder have to be? Mine is a couple of months old.