Lowering oven temps

Lowering oven temps - Brown Bread on Black Tray

Can you start a cake at 350 F (180 C), then lower the oven to 325 F (160 C)? What happens to cake? Recipe calls for 350 but the recipe is old. Other recipes I have checked online say to bake at a lower temp of 325.



Best Answer

You can, but I cannot think of a single good reason why you would.

325 F and 350 F are not that far apart; they may even be within the accuracy of most ovens, especially older ones.


When you bake the cake, the two main modalities of heat transfer (radiation and conduction from the air in contact with the surface of the cake) begin to heat up the surface of the cake at the cake/air or cake/pan interface.

Within the body of the batter, conduction begins to transfer heat into the center of the cake.

At the same time, on the top surface especially, water can evaporate, faster than it is replenished from water diffusing from the interior of the batter. This allows crust formation to begin, with drying of the surface, and heating of it to levels above 250 F or so which allow caramelization and Maillard reactions to begin in the crust.

The interior of the cake can never exceed the boiling point of water, and so browning does not happen.

Thus, the higher the temperature, the greater the difference between the surface temperature of the cake as baking proceeds, and the interior of the cake. This has several consequences:

  • Thicker cakes should be baked at a lower temperature to permit them to cook through before the surface is over-baked; similarly, thinner cakes can be cooked at a higher temperature
  • The higher the temperature, the more rapidly crust formation proceeds, and the more slowly the center of the cake bakes

However, 25 F is not enough of a difference to worry about in most cases.

Starting at only a slightly higher temperature, when the water from the surface is not yet evaporated, will have only a minimal effect on any of this. There is little, if any point to doing so.




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Can you bake something at a lower temperature for longer?

Low-temperature cooking is a cooking technique using temperatures in the range of about 45 to 82 \xb0C (113 to 180 \xb0F) for a prolonged time to cook food.

How do you lower temperature when baking?

Just increase the oven temp by 25 degrees F and decrease the bake time by a quarter. In this particular example, since your pan is 1 inch larger, more surface area will be exposed. The liquid in the cake batter will evaporate quicker, which means it will bake faster.

Is it hotter higher or lower in oven?

Most (if not all) ovens are hotter at the top than at the bottom. Thus, if you have two baking sheets in your oven, one on a higher rack and one on a lower rack, the one on the higher rack will cook faster. Therefore, it is important not only to rotate your pans from front to back, but also from top to bottom.

Why would you lower the temperature of the oven by 25 degrees?

Because convection heats food much faster, many types of cuisine can be cooked at lower temperatures compared to the heating instructions suggested for conventional oven cooking. As a rule of thumb, it's a good idea to reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees when baking with convection.



How to Ignite a Wood-Fired Oven \u0026 Manage the Temperatures




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