I had already had a few cake failures, so when one finally worked, I tried making it in an oven and found the result much better than the rice cooker—both flavor and texture. Wednesday night I got the urge again. I put all the batter into foil bowls, scattered white sesame seeds on top, and was ready to bake. Then I turned the temperature knob and noticed something was off: it would only go to 90°C. No matter how hard I twisted, it would not budge. Strange, because I had used it the weekend before with no problem. I tried several times; still stuck at 90°C. I decided to make do and keep an eye on it. The oven seemed to be heating, so I left it.
I checked every so often. The first row of cakes rose fast. I remember thinking, this does not look like 90°C. They were supposed to take 40 minutes, but after just ten-plus minutes they were already tall. Soon the risen tops split, and the top row turned black. I could smell burning. I shut it off and opened the door: the top row was scorched and smoking. Annoying.
Then it hit me: the dial might say 90°C, but the actual temperature had to be way higher—probably around 230°C. At 200°C for 40 minutes they should have been fine; this oven just wrecked them. Luckily I had plenty of batter left, so I poured it into the rice cooker and went back to the old method. The second row did bake through, but it cracked and never rose properly; we ate it anyway. The free oven really was unreliable, always pulling a surprise at the worst moment.
Now we had no usable oven, so I started looking for another one. My sister recommended Hauswirt and Changdi, but the prices were not cheap, and I did not think it was worth spending that much. My partner liked a Bear model. I was fine with that too—our stew pot and air fryer are both Bear. The brand is not spectacular, but it is decent. We ended up with a 40L one for 259 yuan.
When it arrived and I opened the box, it was big. The old free one was only 12L, with single-tube heating top and bottom. The new one has dual tubes top and bottom, separate temperature controls, and each set of tubes can be switched on or off independently. That is much more practical. The height is just right, too; proofing bread will not be limited anymore.
With the new oven here, I had to test it right away. We had made bread not long before, so I thought about chicken wings. New Orleans-style is my favorite, but we did not have that seasoning at home, so I used leftover barbecue rub. The wings looked fine when they came out, but the flavor was a bit off. It really showed that the seasoning is half the battle.
That meant another shopping round: foil, cake flour, barbecue seasoning, and so on. The cake flour arrived that evening, so we all made another batch of cakes. The bigger oven really made a difference. This time we baked both large and small cups, planning to let my daughter take some out and share them with her friends.
