Baking frustration!

[mlucas1]

Every time I bake a cake, whether it is from scratch or a box when I cool the cake it cracks down the middle!

I cooled the cake in the pan on the rack today for a little bit before turning it out to the cooling rack, one of the cakes cracked immediately the other one seemed fine, then when I returned from picking up my son and dropping off my daughter, it had a big ole crack too.....I'm very frustrated about this. Any ideas how I could avoid this in the future?

[Lorraine]

Sure wish I could help, Meg, but a baker I'm not.

[pjcooks]

Meg, is your oven calibrated properly? That's the first thing that comes to mind since you have the same experience each time, scratch or mix.

I had a brand new oven that was off by 25 degrees, took a long time for me to think to temp it, since it was new, I figured that couldn't be the problem. It was.

PJ

[mlucas1]

hmmmm, how would I check that?

I think that the stove is not set evenly on the floor too. So, when I put it on an even surface it breaks apart. I'll have to have Mark check that out too.

[DFen911]

Put a bowl of hot water on the bottom shelf. That helps my cheesecakes from cracking on the top.

[Gourmet_Mom]

I'm not an expert, but I THINK, to calibrate, you set your temp to, say, 350 degrees with an inexpensive oven thermometer in there. I got mine from the grocery store. When the oven indicates it has reached temp, check the thermometer. If the thermometer reads 350, the oven is reading true. Thus calibrated.

[iBcookin]

You should be able to get an oven thermometer at a hardware or a cookware supply store. And as Daphne said, set temp for a certain amount. If after adequate heating time the thermometer does not read that temperature, say you set for 350 and thermometer reads 375, you will need to back off your oven setting by 25 degrees. I don't think that you can physically adjust the heat setting of your oven, probably something that a service person would need to do. But you would be able to reduce the setting required for each item you bake.

If the floor is not level, then the oven will not be level (as mine is). We have adjusted by shimming the stove, but it still a bit out of whack and hubby is not exactly Bob Vila. It is what you get with an old farmhouse. I try to rotate my cakes or breads part way through the baking process to accommodate this leaning and not get the cake with one side higher than the other. But an off-level oven shouldn't result in your cake cracking after baking. I'd lay my money on the temperature being not what you think it is.

[pjcooks]

One other idea, Meg, I checked the temp of my oven when the preheated signal sounded. It was at least 30 degrees off. I checked it 10 min later and it was right where it was supposed to be. My oven needs a longer pre heat time.

PJ

[HomeCulinarian]

I'm not a very experienced baker, but if PJ is on to the problem with oven temp, it also could be your oven is not holding the temperature after it preheats to the desired temp. That happened here and we eventually had the control panel replaced. It was an expensive repair. Hope that's not the problem for you!

[cjs]

and one more idea from a non-baker - do you turn the cake layers back right side up once out of the pans? (so the flat side is down)

Didn't there used to be a slot under the oven dial that you could rotate a little with a knife to adjust the temp? (am I showing my age here?)