Home › Cake-Making › The Oven

The Oven

Too much care can not be given to the preparation of the oven, which is oftener too hot than too cool; however, an oven too cold at first will ruin any cake. Cake should rise and begin to bake before browning much, large cakes requiring a good, steady, solid heat, about such as for baking bread; layer cakes, a brisk hot fire, as they must be baked quickly. A good plan is to fill the stove with hard wood (ash is the best for baking), let it burn until there is a good body of heat, and then turn damper so as to throw the heat to the bottom of oven for fully ten minutes before the cake is put in. In this way a steady heat to start with is secured. Generally it is better to close the hearth when the cake is put in, as this stops the draft and makes a more regular heat. Keep adding wood in small quantities, for if the heat becomes slack the cake will be heavy. Great care must be taken, for some stoves need to have the dampers changed every now and then, but as a rule more heat is needed at the bottom of the oven than at the top. Many test their ovens in this way: if the hand can be held in from twenty to thirtyfive seconds (or while counting twenty or thirty-five), it is a "quick "

oven, from thirty-five to forty-five seconds is "moderate," and from forty-five to sixty seconds is "slow." Sixty seconds is a good oven to begin with for large fruit cakes. All systematic housekeepers / will hail the day when some enterprising Yankee or Buckeye girl shall invent a stove or range with a thermometer attached to the oven, so that the heat may be regulated accurately and intelligently.

If necessary to move the cake while baking, do it very gently. Do not open the oven door until the cake has had time to form, and do not open it oftener than necessary, then be careful to close it quickly and gently, so as not to jar the cake. Be sure the outside door of the kitchen is closed so that no cold air may strike it. If the oven bakes too hard on the bottom, place the grate under the pan; if too hot on top, set a pie-pan of water on the top grate. If one side bakes faster than the other, turn very gently. Be careful not to remove from the oven until done; test thoroughly before removing, for if the cooler air strikes it before it is done, it is certain to fall. Allow about thirty minutes for each inch of thickness in a quick oven, and more time in a slow one. Test with a broomsplint or knitting-needle, and if the dough does not adhere, it is done. Settling away from the pan a little, and stopping its "singing," are other indications that the cake is ready to leave the oven. When removed, set the cake, while in the pan, on an inverted sieve to cool; this secures a free circulation of air all round it, and cools it evenly. It should remain in the pan at least fifteen minutes after taking from the oven, and it is better to leave the "cap" on until the cake is carefully removed from the pan and set away, always right side up. A tin chest or stone jar is best to keep it in. Coffee cake should be put away before it is cold, and so closely wrapped in a large napkin that the aroma will not be lost.