Let the oven preheat thoroughly before cooking baked products. Allow lo-15 minutes preheat time. Avoid opening the door too often to check the food during baking as heat will be lost. This may result in poor baking results. Cakes, cookies, muffins, and quick breads should be baked in shiny pans - to reflect the heat - because they should have a light golden crust. Yeast breads and pie crusts should be baked in glass or dull (non-shiny pans) - to absorb the heat - because they should have a brown, crisp crust.
Use proper pan placement Place pans on the oven racks with 1%� - 2� of air space on all sides of each pan. Avoid overcrowding the oven. Pans too close to each other, to oven walls or to the oven bottom block the free movement of air. Improper air movement causes uneven browning and cooking. Oven temperatures should be reduced 25 degrees below recommended temperatures if you use dark pans or oven proof glass. There may be some odor when the oven is first used. This is caused by the heating of new parts and insulation. Do not cover the oven bottom or an entire oven rack with foil. The foil can block normal heat flow, cause cooking failures, and damage the oven interior. In gas ranges the use of foil in the oven could cause incomplete gas combustion.
4 cake layers
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2 cake layers
9 Most baking should be done on the second shelf position from the bottom. When baking several items, use two shelves placed on the second and fourth rack positions from the bottom of the oven. Stagger pans so that no pan is directly above another. Bake angel food cakes on the first shelf position from the bottom of the oven. If your range has a folding oven rack it is recommended that you place the folding rack in the lower position when using both racks.
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