Fan assisted oven and baking

HomeJames_3

I started off yesterday full of enthusiasm to make my christmas cake i followed the instructions to the letter and reduced the temp from 170 to 150 to compendsate for the fan assisted oven) and baked for 2 1/2 hrs as per instructions the top had cracked but it was still moist in the middle i then let it cook for another 30 mins and it was still slightly moist when i let it cool and cut it in half (im making 4 small square cakes out of the large one for gifts) it still looked part cooked but was cracked and drying on the top help where am i going wrong and what can i do to stop it drying out!

susank

Think you have to scale down the temperature of the oven for a fan oven as it cooks it quicker due to the oven being the same temp all round. I did not have much success last year as dried mine out rather and this year I have a new oven to try me again. I will put some greasproof on the top to protect it this time for a while and see if that helps

saving-grace

I know that it is recommended that you lower the temp by 10 - 20 deg with a fan oven but I find that is not the case with mine. I just use the temp given in the recipe and things turn out fine.
It sounds as if your cake was undercooked but well browned on top. Next time why not try cooking at 10 deg hotter and putting some greased brown paper or greaseproof paper on the top to stop it getting over browned.(This is a normal thing to do with a rich fruit cake which is in the oven for a long time. I also fasten a band of brown paper round the sides of the tin to stop the sides overbrowning)

LizEstelle

Fan-assisted ovens have minds of their own. I wish I'd never got one. I can use the identical recipe 5 times in a row and get 5 different results, ranging from half baked to blackened brick. As soon as I can afford to, I'm having mine ripped out and a proper, old-fashioned one put in.

susank

Oh I love mine but I have still to adjust to the changes I need to make

Essex-girl_2

I may be wrong but I thought with fan ovens you had to reduce the cooking time as well as the temperature?

dannahaz

Do you have your instrcution manual? Mine has a chart with the equivalents in, and for us it's just a case fof using the new temperature, no need to adjust times as well.

I never have a problem baking rich fruit cakes in mine (and I bake a lot for xmas), but I use the "greasproof on the top" trick as mentioned by saving grace.

Are you planning to feed your cakes between now and giving them away (or icing them)? That will certainly keep them moist.

I keep mine wrapped in double greasproof then double foil. Every week I unwrap it all, and pour n generous amounts of brandy. One week I do the top, the next week I do the bottom. I have holes poked in the top (and bottom) with a skewer so the alchohol gets drawn into the cake.

rls1973

hi
to avoid cakes drying out, place a baking dish or something similar in the bottom of the oven at the same time you put the cake in, full of water, will warm up and turn to steam as the cake cooks, i always do this with christmas cakes and they stay moist. (and then if youre feeling really energetic, it makes it easy to give the oven a quick clean after, as a couple of hours of steam lifts all the grime off !)
i have a fan oven, i have given up with it, i now use it on non-fanoven setting ,or i use the combi-microwave thing which is brilliant!