I hate my oven

Hey Veeky Forums, total amateur at baking here. I made marble cake last week and while it was very nice tasting, an annoyingly hard and dark crust formed around it, even tough I stuck to the temperature and time the recipe had. I figured there's something wrong with my oven and I was gonna do it again today, so I wanted to either reduce the heat 20 degrees celsius or put a little pot with water in the bottom of the oven to somewhat simulate a steam oven like my cooking instructor told me to do with berad eons ago.

Are those bad ideas? Is this inevitable and is always fixed with sugar or frosting? What would you do?

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Get a thermometer for your oven so you can see what the actual temperature is, the one you set the oven to and the actual temperature are often two separate things

I found a thermometer and checked exactly how hot my oven got, it was a bit off and adjusted

Also make sure the thermometer is at the same level that you're baking at, different levels in the oven will be at different temperatures

Crust quality is more about your pan than the oven.

I see. Mine does not have one and I need to make it right now, but I'll start lower, open it and use my cooking thermomether to check it from time to time.

It's a square crystal mold. Plus the charring was on the outside, the part it wasn't touching.

>open it and use my cooking thermomether to check it from time to time.
no, you need to get an oven thermometer. put it in the oven, turn it on to whatever temp the recipe calls for, let the oven heat for a while, then check the thermometer. adjust the baking temp based on what the thermometer reads.

>Plus the charring was on the outside, the part it wasn't touching.
you mean the part that was exposed to the hot air? that means you left it in too long. did the recipe recommend a glass dish?

>you mean the part that was exposed to the hot air? that means you left it in too long. did the recipe recommend a glass dish?
Yes, and I left it too long because it was still raw on the inside. I have a more narrow metal mold but it doesn't fit the recipe, last time I tried that one the batter flowed out, It was such a huge mess.

Man, I'm really unequipped for this.

>I left it too long because it was still raw on the inside
a metal pan will let it cook faster in the middle and prevent the top from over-baking. if you're going to bake, you really need to get the correct pans.

cover it with tin foil or use a cake pan with a cover.

So I tried to do what you guys told me and since I can't get a thermometer, I unearthed a good metal mold I didn't remember I had and reduced the heat 20 degrees like I thought I would and holy shit, the difference between this and the other one is like night and day. It looks so much better. Didn't get charred and tasted just like good. What do you guys think?

A slice.

You realize that people have baked for hundreds of years without ever knowing the temperature of the oven. (They used their senses).

I kinda do that too. And I don't give a shit about time either, I just watch it till it's done on the inside. But it's nice to have a starting point at least, if I had set the oven to max it would have probably burned on the outside and stayed all goey inside. These things are nice to know and they sort of work.

Yeah, but they probably fucked up a lot first, before they finally got it perfect.

Reduce oven temp
Reduce baking time
Check whatever's baking before the time the recipe says, if it's getting brown but still isn't cooked all the way through, cover the pan with aluminum foil

thats a good looking cake mate

If the insides are raw while the top is crusty, your temperature is too damn high. Most cakes bake around 350 fahrenheit.

Don't bake cakes on the top rack either. The top of the oven gets a lot hotter than the middle and bottom.

Looks great, glad it turned out alright. A good oven thermometer is great though because it lets you know when your oven's preheating stage has actually stabilized and also lets you check the stated temperature vs. actual reading every now and then since the oven will drift over time. I bought this particular model that was judged the most accurate, visible, and durable by America's Test Kitchen and it has serve me well for a few years now. It's also only ~$8 w/FS:
amazon.com/dp/B000095RC5/
youtube.com/watch?v=sVy8g_xx10k

What he said. Also your oven will tend to have pockets of both relatively hot and cool spots depending on inconsistent radiation from the heating elements so to insure an even bake, it's always recommend that you rotate the pan 180° (turn the front to the back) halfway through the prescribed baking time.

That looks good man I want a slice :3

Preheating oven
>you heat an oven
HEAT

Thanks anons! If only I had know switching to a metal pan and ever so sightly decreasing the temp would make such a difference. Taste was perfect, my friends and family demolished it. Texture was relling fucking good too, a smidge harder on the sides but al perfect and muffin-like on the upper part. Much better than store bought. Next time I'll try to make some frosting.

>your oven will tend to have pockets of both relatively hot and cool spots depending on inconsistent radiation from the heating elements so to insure an even bake, it's always recommend that you rotate the pan 180° (turn the front to the back) halfway through the prescribed baking time
I also already do this, I noticed it by myself. First couple times I made poundcake, I noticed one side got too hard and dry, so the next ones I flipped it and got much better results. More or less same thing with the oven racks. You really do learn these things by experience.

I'll get an oven thermometer for sure now, thank you all for the advice.