My Cake Fell Apart In A Million Pieces...
Baking By SugarMama5 Updated 1 Jul 2010 , 3:25pm by tracycakes
The last 2 times I tried to bake a cake (cake mix cake) with convection turned on in my oven, the cake completely did not cook properly. When I went to take the cake out of the pan, it totally fell apart in a million pieces! The only thing I did differently both times was that I used convection instead of bake. Anyone else have this happen to them??
When I first got my (commercial) convection ovens, I threw out the first two batches of cakes because they were too dry. After some experimenting, I found the perfect mix was 275 degrees and a pan of water in the oven to add moisture. Cakes came out perfect after that.
Convections usually need to be set at a lower temp than a standard oven anyway, so you may have to play with it a little to see what works for you.
To piggyback on Indydeb's message, you back it for less time too. I think I read about 25%?
Indydeb has the experience, I only know what I have read. 
I would go with the experienced one, but wanted to mention the cooking time because you could be cooking it too long and drying it out.
The instruction booklet that came with my convection oven states that cakes should not be cooked with the convection option on.
I also read this in the book "How Baking Works". But in that book it states thin batters. So I think your oven mfr is assuming a thin batter. Most scratch recipes are a thick batter. Therefore, I think it would work for those kind of batters.
There was a discussion on here a while back about people getting the tops of the cakes and cupcakes all askew because of the fan. So this is correct depending on the thickness of the batter to withstand the fan.
I wonder how professional bakers here handle their commercial convection ovens and baking cake and cupcakes.
My mom baked her cakes in a convection oven for a very long time. She made both scratch and box mixes and had no issues!
She never had to rotate though because her convection oven was also a microwave. It had a 2 tier rack that rotated constantly.
Very interesting to know that about a convection fan in a large oven!
I wish that it would work on convection, it's so nice to fill the oven and just walk away instead of having to cook only a couple cake pans at a time. I'm not sure if I'm willing to try doing it again at a lower temp, I hate throwing food away (which is what I did with the last 2 attempts). Good to know about the convection oven, I'll use bake instead from here on in!
I use a convection oven in my house and I've never had a problem. I bake at 325 instead of 350. It usually takes about the same about of time but I also bake them until they are done. My cakes are even and moist. I hope it works for you cause I love mine.
I hate the fan in the commercial oven I use. I have to set the timer to rotate after 15 - 20 min, depending on the size of the cake. Cupcakes get rotated after 10. What a pain. My own oven, someday, will NOT have a fan - at least it will be able to be turned off, unlike this oven.
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