I was wondering if you have several ovens in your house or manage with just one? I would appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks in advance.

I live in an apartment so I only have one gas oven and it works fine for me because I'm only a hobbyist. I also have a portable oven toaster/convection oven in one. That helps with small batches that I do.

that is a great question I would like to know too. I find it hard to manage sometimes. how do others do it.

I have just the one oven. It can be a pain in the patootie, especially when I'm bound and determined to have my cakes fresh and not frozen.

I also have just one pan for my larger sizes. so to do the three 12x18 cakes for last weekend, it required me to get up at 7 am to begin mixing and baking. Each cake took 45 miinutes to bake, then wash the pan, prepare the pan, and bake again.

I did not start decorating until 6 pm, to ensure all the cakes were cooled completely.

For me it's not so much about oven space, but getting to the point where I can afford more pans in standard larger sizes.

In order to fall under the "cottage foods" law in Ohio, I can only have one oven and it can't be a commercial oven. So I do the same as pp w/ the larger cakes, bake one layer and then bake the second layer while that one is cooling. I do freeze cakes though otherwise i'd just never be leaving my kitchen lol.

I have a Gemini, two ovens. It helps, a lot. The low oven is a bit inconvenient, but I can live with it.

I am the same as missmeg, I only have one but I do have more than one pan therefore when one comes out the next goes in.

I am also in Ohio and I have a Frigidaire double oven both convention.

Helps quite a bit, and is easier when you have a large cookie order. You can almost, depending in the size of the order, bake them all at one time.

ladiva

One oven...dumpload of pans. I hate to stop production to wash in order to continue. for the same reason, I have lots of mixer bowls, paddles and whisks.

I prefer to do all my washing at the same time...at the end!

I only have one crappy one! I have a brand new gas/convection oven sitting in my garage, but the house we bought doesn't have gas! I would love to invest in a new one when we have the $$$$
Stephanie

I only have one, but dream of someday getting a second one.

I have only one, and only one of each size pan, so I try to alternate so I always have one in the oven. Kind of a pain. I keep them rotating in the fridge cooling off too. I won't freeze either, but will keep one in the fridge overnight.

Sadly I have only one-that is why I have to designate a day to bake when someone orders. Some day, some day.....

Well I have one oven it's not comercial but it is large enough to hold a large tin sheet with space on the side. I also have two racks in the oven. I make sure I buy all my pans in two. I either bake two layers or if necessary I bake one cake and cut the layers myself. Some times I mix up or measure while something is in the oven to speed things up a bit. I generally do not frost or ice while baking cause my little kitchen is hot. As well as I live in Jamaica so you can imagine the heat.

I can mix a large amount as I got a 20 Quart mixer last year. Can you believe I was working with a 3 qrts and a 7 qrts for about 10 years. I can not recommend the mixer to anyone though I am not please with the brand it was a cheaper model than Hobart. It gets the work done it was not a totally bad investment but not necessarily a good one either.

I hope all this will change this year I want to move out of my house. Pray for me.

I only have one and I only have one size of each pan...very time consuming but I'm just a hobbiest

One home oven but 2 sets of round & square pans. I can only fit one 11 x 15 sheet pan so I bake, wash and bake if I need 2. On the round & square I fit 2 small sizes on one rack & bake, then do the larger sizes one at a time. I do freeze mine when needed--letting them cool completely then wrapping each layer in at least 4-6 layers of clear wrap ( I use Sam's brand-huge role, less expensive and sticks well to itself). I have NEVER had any complaints from freezing my layers--always nice and moist with repeat customers. If I had a shop with vast amounts of counter space I would probably not freeze my cakes, but with multiple cakes or cakes with multiple tiers, this works best for me.
While cakes are baking this is when I make icing, wash up supplies, make fondant or other decorative pieces ......or post on CC!

Thanks everyone!! It sounds like most of us have one oven. I myself like MCook freeze my layers and wrap with lots of plastic wrap from Cosco! Everyone is surprised when I tell them that the cake layers were frozen. Also, I read on Baking 911 that freezing/thawing a cake can add to the texture/moisture of a cake. I am also a hobbyist but hope to have a small business someday.......I was wondering if I should buy another oven when the time comes. Thanks again!!

thank you for posting that question I was wondering too.

I have electric double ovens, which is great, but they are small. The largest size that I can bake is an 11X 15. For the largest square pan that I have, I travel down the road to my neighbor's kitchen--that's a 6 mile trip because I truly live in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. I'm in the process of redoing my kitchen and hope to have a full size oven in additon to my double oven. I do freeze cakes occasionally if the orders mount up too much and have been very pleased with the results. I usually fill and then freeze double layers and the flavors just seem to seep deeper into the cakes--Yummy. I only freeze for about a week though!

I have an electric convection oven. I love it. I can bake several cakes at one time. Even though I probably wouldn't have to, I do rotate them about half-way through baking... some habits die hard. Also, my lower drawer doubles as an oven as well! I don't do so many cakes that I have had to use it for a cake order, but it sure has come in handy during the holidays! Especially when particular dishes bake at different temps. I am not at home right now to double check but I am pretty sure it is a GE (isn't that sad... I only look at hours and hours everyday and I have to scratch my head to remember the brand name!?!)

I have only one oven in my house. I have multiples of some sizes of pans, but just one of others. If I need multiple cakes and have just one pan I don't wash my pan in between cakes, I just wipe it out with a paper towel and wipe in a little more crisco and then flour. Cakes come out perfectly and I don't have to wash until they're all done.

My darling youngest brother is a contractor and people often don't want appliances that he removes. He recently got me a very large double oven for free! Now when my shop is finished we will have an oven to install and I won't have to buy one!

I have one (1) electric convection....largest oven well I could find. I can bake (3) 12x18's at once in under an hour! I wish I had two of them!

I have a tiny little German oven in a tiny little German kitchen. It makes life interesting as I shuffle cakes and pans around my house. I do have doubles of many pans and double mixing bowls and paddles. I dream of the day I get to build my dream house with my dream kitchen. Great question.

I only have 1 oven too, but I have a partner and it helps because we each can bake at our house and cut baking time in half. There have been days where we both are baking for 8-10 hours.

single oven here...hope when i open shop i can afford a bigger one or 2 cheap ones or maybe just run to the house illegally and throw one in

i have a maytag two oven.top smaller than the bottom.but i do a lot in the top oven.so i can get a lot done.love my stove.