Baking Help, Please!

[boxtops]

As some of you know, I've started baking, with mixed success.

I have just made some brownies, but although the cake is beautifully cooked on the outside and round the edges, it's still uncooked in the middle/bottom - so I have to turn it out of the tins and finish it off upside down, to cook the middle base.

What am I doing wrong? I have two ovens - a small electric job, and a fan/convection oven. The outcome's the same in both, although the convection gives a somewhat better result.

[gness]

Boxy...my oven did that when the thermostat was way out....180 was in fact 200+.

I solved it with a hanging thermostat that was accurate......x

[boxtops]

Aha. Thank you, gness (where do you get one of those?)

The convection oven does need a damned good cleaning :-( I wonder if that can affect the temperature?

[gness]

I suppose it can if it needs cleaning but I shouldn't think enough to have the result you're getting. Experiment on a lower temp. to begin with.

Try Lakeland.....I don't know where mine came from but it saved MrG's life and our marriage....☻
He and the Zanussi engineer with his dangly thing said my oven was spot on it must be my baking.
I refused to use the oven......prick and ping it was.
MrG who was always right bought the hanging thermometer to prove me wrong....he ended up with a red face....☺

[boxtops]

Just found them on eBay, gness, I'll order one.

Thanks for this..... it's been working fine with cooking meat etc. until now, but coincidentally OH was cooking pork chops at the weekend, and they weren't cooked after the appropriate time, so we put them back in again. That could be the problem!

[jim360]

The lesson there is that gness is always right.

[EcclesCake]

It does sound like that you oven is a tad hot. If you are using an oldish recipe does it give the temps for a static oven, if so are you adjusting for a fan oven?

It's also worth remembering that brownies aren't like a sponge cake, they should be gooey.

[gness]

Jim must be after something.....Lemon Drizzle Cake?...x

[EDDIE51]

Not cooked in the middle suggests that they have not been cooked long enough.
Not cooked on the bottom suggests the fan is not working and circulating the heat.Is the oven one of those with a combined grill/element at the top of the oven.
Both ovens the giving the same result also suggests that it is the cooking rather than the oven that is too blame.
Are we talking small individual cakes or one large one.
What happens if you just put the cakes back in and cook for another 10 mins or so?

[boxtops]

Eccles
TBH no I didn't adjust - and one recipe I used was all in US cups so I did wonder if the ingredients combination had been a fault, converting to UK weights with my ancient cookery book...

Brownies are indeed chewy, but not runny!

Eddie

Is the oven one of those with a combined grill/element at the top of the oven. - Yes.
Are we talking small individual cakes or one large one. Large - tray size
What happens if you just put the cakes back in and cook for another 10 mins or so? The top and sides burn .... but turning it over means the middle cooks.

[boxtops]

I wonder if I would do better if I stood the mixture on a low rack in the convection oven, to get the heat to the underneath?

[EDDIE51]

Those element at the top ovens are not really suitable for baking as the heat is always higher to the top of the cake/bread whatever. That is why the bottom is uncooked it is not getting any heat. Cake cooks by the heat rising up through the mixture as happens in a conventional oven with the elements at the sides
You could try putting a baking tray on the top most shelf to block the direct radiant heat to the cake, put the cake on a lower shelf so it is shielded from the direct heat.

[boxtops]

Good idea, Eddie, but there are no shelves, it's a combi oven......

[boxtops]

...and ps the other (non-fan) electric oven is the same result, I do have a shelf in that one.

[EcclesCake]

I'm struggling to get my head around your oven. Can you tell me the make model so I can familiarise myself with it?

[gness]

Ahhh...if you have no shelves are you putting the tin on the oven floor?

[China Doll]

When I have cakes that have reached the colour I want but still looking a bit wet in the middle, I cover the cake with foil so that it doesn't burn on top, and cook for a little more time. So far it's not let me down. Also, I read to be careful when loading your mixture in to make sure it's even as if not then will cook at different times, (you probably already know that)

[mccfluff]

a combi oven is usually a microwave & an oven, i use one its brilliant for basic stuff, i wouldn't use one for baking

[boxtops]

I like china's idea.

I have a low shelf on the electric oven which is a tiddly desktop Belling, and the combi oven is a deLonghi - stuff goes on the turntable unless I put a rack in.

[gness]

I see...well the dangly thermometer won't be of any use and I never had success with my old combi....I think the air needs to circulate for even baking but I could be wrong.

I bake in my main oven and tend to load it....six loaf tin cakes at a time but enough space around for even baking...so I'm of no help am I?...:-(

[boxtops]

I'll experiment with your ideas (but not immediately, I have enough cake here to last us for a week!) - thank you for all your input!