Best oven for baking cakes - without spending a fortune?

Si_Clist

Having just made another 24 cupcakes in our 5 year-old Stoves fan oven, I've finally realised that it's not me, it's definitely the oven. Invariably the back left-hand cakes are done quite a while before the rest, and however carefully and quickly I open the door, turn the tray round and close it again, the rest of them sink. Makes no odds which shelf/shelves I use nor what temperatures. And to give you a clue of the sort of baking I'm talking about, this is Mason Cash bowl, wooden spoon and 1963 Good Housekeeping Recipe Book baking

So maybe it's time for a new oven. But is there such a thing as a standard-size built-in oven which actually gives an even temperature throughout? One that really is the biz for baking? Gas or electric, I'm not bothered, and to be honest the lower-tech the better.

If you do a lot of baking and swear by your oven rather than at it, do please tell what make and model it is!

monnagran

I'll be reading the replies to this with interest. I hope to have a new kitchen this year and long for an oven that bakes evenly all round. I've never found one yet, they all seem to have their idiosyncrasies.
It would be beyond brilliant not to have to keep turning things round. Surely, in the 21st century this is not too much to ask.

TravellingAbuela

This must be a common problem amongst ovens I think. I have never had one that cooks evenly either. I got a new one last year when I had a new kitchen fitted and that doesn't bake any more evenly than previous ones!

pattypan4

my CDA double oven is giving me good results. I was prepared not to like it after having had a very good expensive oven, cda is cheap but tbh it is nice to use and my cakes are all even. I like the ability to use conventional oven or fan in the top oven.

Si_Clist

pattypan4 wrote: »

my CDA double oven is ... nice to use and my cakes are all even

Not interested in a double oven, but CDA is worth looking at. I'd never heard of them! Do you get your evenly-baked cakes using fan or conventional oven?

CRANKY40

I had a Belling duel fuel range type cooker in my last house and I have a Belling gas cooker in this house. Neither of them built in obviously but I haven't had any problems with either of them and I make a lot of cakes.

pattypan4

I have been using conventional and just the small oven so far, also makes very good bread on conventional. Fan is better for 2 or more trays at once. I only do one big tray at a time. Bread rolls are lovely and well risen, fan blows the steam away, not so good for bread on any make

Si_Clist

Hmmm ... I was wondering about gas ovens. Looks like you can still get them, and IIRC the only variation my old Mum used to get with her cakes was (inevitably) from top to bottom of the oven.

That I could live with, I reckon. It's the side to side, front to back variation that's the PITA.

monnagran

This is all good to know. I am moving into a small bungalow, as befits an ancient lady on her own, and the kitchen is tiny so it will have to be a built-in cooker and probably in a tower.
I like Belling as a rule but don't know what they have in those specifications. I will certainly look into CDA. I think I will probably have to be all electric.

You are all most helpful.

shirlgirl2004

I have an electric belling range cooker and it most certainly doesn't cook evenly and is by far the worst oven and indeed overall cooker I have ever had the misfortune to buy. I know they're cheap but really I wish I'd spent the extra.

no.1swimmum

I do a lot of cooking/baking, I currently have a hotpoint electric fan oven, I have never had to turn cakes around when cooking them (theres currently a banana bread cooking - have found that it cooks very evenly).

When I have my new kitchen I would love a range, ive always wanted one, but due to my osteoarthritis in my spine and hips weve decided to get a built in one, in a tower, so that I don't have to keep bending down ;-(, I'm quite interested in the Neff ones as I've heard good things abouth them.