.. because 90% of the time it is right!
For the longest time I have told myself I need to buy an oven thermometer.. what are they, like $4? We rent an apartment, and our oven is always messing things up. It doesn't even have a WINDOW!!
My little boys birthday party is tomorrow, and I was making 'simple' cupcakes because last year I almost killed myself over a 3 tier cake. I wanted 3 flavors.. strawberry shortcake, s'more, red velvet. The first go around I burned the vanilla cupcakes. Then I ruined the graham cracker crust. I tried the s'more again, and it wasn't AS bad, but not great. Then I went to my trusty red velvet recipe, and burned those. 8 dozen cupcakes later, I ran out of some ingredients and had to run to Walmart. While I was there, I bought a oven thermometer, and hurried home to see if it worked. And it worked alright... 50 DEGREES HOT! I have been baking at 400 degrees for over a year now
Now its 12:55am, and I am starting over fresh... as for the first batch of cupcakes? My husband is taking them to work frosting free, and whoever wants them, can have them.
For the longest time I have told myself I need to buy an oven thermometer.. what are they, like $4? We rent an apartment, and our oven is always messing things up. It doesn't even have a WINDOW!!
My little boys birthday party is tomorrow, and I was making 'simple' cupcakes because last year I almost killed myself over a 3 tier cake. I wanted 3 flavors.. strawberry shortcake, s'more, red velvet. The first go around I burned the vanilla cupcakes. Then I ruined the graham cracker crust. I tried the s'more again, and it wasn't AS bad, but not great. Then I went to my trusty red velvet recipe, and burned those. 8 dozen cupcakes later, I ran out of some ingredients and had to run to Walmart. While I was there, I bought a oven thermometer, and hurried home to see if it worked. And it worked alright... 50 DEGREES HOT! I have been baking at 400 degrees for over a year now
Now its 12:55am, and I am starting over fresh... as for the first batch of cupcakes? My husband is taking them to work frosting free, and whoever wants them, can have them.
and end up wasting a big chunk of cake. (Note to self: need a level ASAP!) You also make a good point on the oven temperature. All ovens are different and they may be off and you wouldn't know it unless there is a major difference on how things bake like in your case. 
I guess it takes something like this to happen when you finally realize you definitely need an oven thermometer or in my case, a level. This could have saved us all that wasted time and cake. lol.
It became extremely difficult to bake large cakes with long bake times. Finally, the poor thing died. My new oven runs about 10 degrees hot, but it's blissfully dependable!!!!
