Ran into an old catering baker at a garage sale last Saturday

She mentioned she stopped using convection ovens years ago because they dried out her pound cakes. I always thought fan forced was better, but now I am testing my standard recipe at 325 without the fan. Has anyone else noticed a big difference skipping convection for certain bakes?

2 comments

2 Comments

markl7525d ago

Look, I've been baking professionally for about 12 years now and I'm going to push back hard on this one. My bakery runs almost exclusively on convection ovens, including for pound cakes, and I've never had a drying issue that wasn't user error. I ran a test back in 2019 with 4 identical pound cake batches, two with fan and two without, and the fan versions actually came out more tender on the inside. The trick is you have to drop your temp by about 25 degrees and keep a close eye on the bake time, which most home bakers don't do. Your old baker friend might have been running the fan at too high a temp or opening the door too much during baking, both of which will dry things out fast. I'd say stick with the fan but cut your temp to 300-310 and check it 10 minutes earlier than normal. That's what works for me anyway, your mileage may vary.

karenlee25d ago

Sorry but I've had the exact opposite experience. Every time I've tried convection for pound cakes they come out denser and tougher, even after dropping the temp.