Which Oven Is Best for Baking Cakes and Pastry?
One of the questions I hear most often isn’t about recipes at all – it’s about equipment: “Which oven should I buy?” And it’s a fair question. Mixing a batter or lining a tart ring is rarely the hard part; getting the temperature and baking time exactly right is. That’s where your oven comes in, and you want to know you can rely on it every single time.
Electric or gas?
For pastry, the answer is without hesitation: electric. Gas ovens have two major drawbacks for baking. First, the temperature is hard to control precisely. Second, the flame sits at the bottom of the oven, so the heat concentrates in one area and baking is uneven. For a home oven, I’d also recommend looking for a larger capacity, so you have room to manoeuvre when baking several trays at once.
An electric oven holds its temperature steadily, heats evenly, offers more settings, usually retains heat better and lets you set the temperature far more accurately.
Static or fan-assisted?
I’ll split this answer into two categories:
- For home use, the ideal oven offers both a conventional top-and-bottom heat setting without the fan, and a fan-assisted option. With these two, you can bake practically any pastry product. You don’t need countless functions or programmes – top-and-bottom heat plus a fan setting is more than enough. You don’t need a steam oven for cakes, or any other sophisticated programme!
- For professional use, you have two options: a convection oven and a conventional (deck) oven. A convection oven usually comes with a built-in fan, often adjustable to different speeds, and suits most pastry products. A conventional oven uses top-and-bottom heat and works like a classic static oven – it is excellent for products such as éclairs. In the Pastry Workshop kitchen we’ve been using a convection oven from Horecons Profesional for more than six years. We bake everything in it – sponges, biscuits, cookies, macarons, brioche-style breads and meringues – and I’m more than happy with it.
Want to go further? Our online pastry classes cover the techniques, and if you’re based in Romania, one module of our accredited Cofetar qualification course in Bucharest (taught in Romanian) is dedicated entirely to pastry tools and equipment.
Want to bake like a pro? Learn professional layered cakes step by step with our online courses and ebooks – from Red Velvet to Caramel Carrot Cake. Browse the courses →
