Luxor4u

Have been cooking in the oven a lot but not much baking. I did a cake on Christmas it was quite fine although it was a little bit burned below, but I cut it off. I baked it in around 170 C. Cooking I do mostly in 150-170 C and put them up enough so they won't burn from the bottom.

But now I tried muffins, in 200 C. Result: totally burned from below and from the top still raw. I use the heat below (because it says "grill" if you put fire on upper part). Should I use that too??????? I just can't imagine how to get these muffins right. I put them on the upper part of the oven.

Just now I hate gas ovens

Oh Dear, G!

Do you have the piped gas or a gas bottle?? My oven was like a beast when it was connected to the gas pipe. Right now it's back on the bottle and finally after all these years I finally seem to have got a hold on it!

But it sounds like your oven is seriously unhappy. Try getting a gas man to come out and look at it - I've had him come and look at mine a few times and mines been recalibrated so it actually is the temperature it says it is now. I only get burnt stuff if I put things on the floor of the oven - if yours is burning at those temperatures and higher up there's something wrong with it.

Oh, I even didn't think that gas would need recalibrating The stove/oven is connected to gas pipe. But I do have an oven thermometer inside, it showed 200C.

Oooh! A Mystery!

Maybe it's what you're cooking your muffins and cakes in then? I have two muffin trays, one big metal one and a smaller silicone one and I always have problems with the silicon one because it seems to be in there for double the length of time.
Are you putting things on the shelf like a grate or the solid metal tray thing? I always leave the solid metal thing right down at the bottom - on the occasions when Mr G has moved it near the top and the silver shelf below it - it has caused all sorts of burning issues.

If you are burning cakes on the bottom and they are not properly cooked on top then obviously your oven is too hot. You can cure this problem in a number of ways. l) Move the regulator on your gas bottle completely in the opposite direction. this should regulate the flow of gas to your oven from maximum to minimum. You can check for the amount of the flow by turning on one of the top burners. You need the minimum setting possibly. Your regulator might need changing. If it does then get a German one for around 50 e.l. The others are Chinese, are often faulty and can be dangerous, so avoid the dark red coloured ones.

2) you could always try turning your oven down so that the flame is not so high as you are cooking with your oven set too high.

3) put a metal tray in the oven with about half an inch of water in it, then bake your sponges etc resting on a couple of metal objects so that the bottom of the baking tin is sitting in water, but not directly in contact with the metal tray. The bottom of your cakes should never burn if you do this.

4) warm your oven before you try making delicate things like sponges, and turn the flame down a little and the heat will be more evenly distributed.

5) when making cakes like sponges, it helps if all the ingredients are warm before you put in the oven. People often make the mistake of using eggs and butter from the fridge which you should never do. The batter takes longer to heat up and cook, and with a fierce oven which is not easily controlled they will burn on the bottom and the tops will not be cooked through.

So many good advice! Thanks, will try muffins again soon.

Phewww I think I've officially had it I am too old to learn baking all over again, this is a skill one needs now, not after ten years learning and waiting god it was so long since I got home made bread or coffee bread...well anything like that baked in the oven. Gas oven is too much effort, too much watching (can't leave the kitchen at all or everything is ruined). Just too difficult, electronic ovens are just so easy, even if you're just learning how to cook. The best thing is that heat comes both down AND up the same time.

I heard someone else had these problems obviously too and she has a mini oven (electric). Never thought of that! Will go and write that to my shopping list, thank you very much

(I also saw that there are combinations of gas stove and electric oven but this is too expensive to buy since we already have a huge gas stove/oven.)

We bought a combination microwave/convection/grill oven (Kelvinator) from the government duty free shop last year and it has certainly helped with convection cooking as it controls at accurate settings. It is, of course, a fan oven so some things will not cook perfectly but it is a great improvement over the big unregulated gas oven that we have.

I don't know what to tell you other than it might be the size of the pan itself. Temps/times in recipes are designed for a certain size of pan. A cake in the oven cooks from the outside in so if the pan is not the same specified in the recipe then it can cook too fast or slow. Are you also greasing your muffin pans first before putting the batter in?

Remember that every time you open your oven that you change the temperature inside so it is best to resist the temptation to peak all the time.

I have used electric and gas ovens all my life and never had any problems you describe except due to pan sizes. What is an electronic oven? I have never heard of or seen one of these in my life.

Uups. Heh, eletronic meaning electric

Glyphdoctor wrote:I don't know what to tell you other than it might be the size of the pan itself. Temps/times in recipes are designed for a certain size of pan. A cake in the oven cooks from the outside in so if the pan is not the same specified in the recipe then it can cook too fast or slow. Are you also greasing your muffin pans first before putting the batter in?

Remember that every time you open your oven that you change the temperature inside so it is best to resist the temptation to peak all the time.

I have actually never heard this pan size thing. And mind you, I did cook in Finland a lot, used to make my own bread many times, cooked for a big groups of people. Baking was never hard for me but a joy. If I had sudden guests coming I would quickly make coffee bread, here I wouldn't even dream of it. I didn't notice that pan size had any difference although I had mostly pans of similar size. But gas oven might be different case?

For muffins I use paper forms.

But still I don't get how you get nice brown surface easily, now surfaces look like they are half cooked? For example coffee bread needs this color, I also wish my bakings to look NICE.

Here's something that might help you:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html

Just a thought, I've heard there are different strengths of baking powder in different places before, could that be a factor?

I have an electric oven and I'm very happy with it. I did bake also in gas oven but it's much easier in electric one. Also my gas oven is very big so baking one cake in it and dealing with all the heat wasn't very nice.
My electric oven's size is 40 litres and it's big enough to take 3 loaf pans or two 1 1/2 litre cake pans.

I have my own oven thermometer and it showed my electric oven gets actually 50 degrees hotter than what it says on the switch. So check your oven temperature before baking
I use thermometer in my gas oven too and I will let the oven get hot to right temperature before putting cakes in and keep checking temp while baking.

Glyphdoctor wrote:Here's something that might help you:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html

Just a thought, I've heard there are different strengths of baking powder in different places before, could that be a factor?

Glyph, thanks but it seems my problem is that the bottom of my bakings get burned (really fast) and I've tried numerous tricks given here and read some instructions from gas oven manufacturers' manuals for baking. No luck so far. I still have one idea so I'll try that next. There's still the surface problem, can't figure how to fix it.

Also some said that you could put water on a oven shelf (and put it at the bottom of the oven) but it seems to block all the heat (EVEN if I put it after the oven is hot enough), if I do this, the heat never gets over 150 Celsius. So I guess I should put water on a pan (or two pans because we have large oven) or something.

Sure there is something I'm doing wrong but don't know what.

warda wrote: I have my own oven thermometer and it showed my electric oven gets actually 50 degrees hotter than what it says on the switch. So check your oven temperature before baking
I use thermometer in my gas oven too and I will let the oven get hot to right temperature before putting cakes in and keep checking temp while baking.

I've a thermometer too, it is essential.

Maybe switch from metal to glass pans or vice versa? Grease the pan before putting the cake in? Also, move the shelf to the highest possible position.

I've seen old women when I was young cover the bottom rack with aluminum foil to block some of the heat from an uneven oven. No idea if it works as I've only ever cooked with electric. Have you tried turning the temp down and baking the cakes for a longer period of time?

Hi, Just a tip here for you baking problem(burnt on the bottom and raw on top) turn your oven on the temperature that you normaly use (I think you stated 200) and put your thermometer in the bottom section of your oven to get a reading. After a few moments put your thermometer to the top section of your oven and see if you get the same reading. Some times big ol" ovens such as the "gas monsters" as I call them have a lot of trouble maintaining the same temperature through-out the whole oven. It could be the air flow inside the oven. Try turning your temperature down by 50 to 75 degrees and leaving the oven door open a crack and using the middle rack again And yes I agree 100% with the pan sizes!! it really really does make a difference in baking times and temperatures. Just a suggestion from a professional cook Good Luck!

Thanks Jena, I actually have thought for a while now that there is something wrong with the oven/gas, so we should have a gas man visit us. I don't see any flames from the other hole at the bottom of the oven. But I still want to buy an electric minioven, I've used electric ovens all my life so it makes everyday life easier which is important as I don't have all days to think about this problem. It's not fun when baking is a hard task!