Oven

Ovens vary enormously: no 2 are the same and you are very familiar with yours. It is very useful to have an oven thermometer, to check if yours is too cool or too hot. Always preheat the oven and have the shelves at the correct heights. (It is best to bake a cake in the centre of a fan oven, or on the top shelf of a conventional oven.) This way, you won’t have your cakes sitting around while you fiddle with the shelves and lose valuable heat... sound familiar?