Re: How do different baking temperatures effect cakes or pasteries??

Hi Aneesa.

Why don't you try an experiment to find out?  Try making something 
(cupcakes, muffins, etc) and cooking batches at different temperatures for 
different times.  Make a matrix of cooking times and cooking temperatures 
to see which one is optimal (best).   A matrix is a row of things with a 
column of things, kind of like when you type things into a spreadsheet 
like Excel.  Try typing in some times across the first row (the "1" boxes, 
ignoring the "A" box, and using the boxes with letters B,C,D 
etc)...perhaps 5 minutes, 15 minutes, the recommended time, 30 minutes, an 
hour, etc.  Do the same with cooking temperatures, but put them in the "1" 
boxes going down, starting with B1, then C1, etc.  Maybe temperatures of 
300F, 400F, 500F.

What do you find?  Is the recommended time and temeprature best?  Someone 
probably has done this experiment too!  What has happened to the cooked 
item when you cook too short, too long, too hot, too cold?

You might HYPOTHESIZE (means "propose") that at high temperatures, you 
cook the outside too fast, and then if you cook long enough so that the 
inside is cooked, the outside overcooks.  If you cook too short at a hot 
temeprature, the inside never cooks.  If you cook too cold, then too much 
cooking time might result in dried out "thing".  

Science is all about asking questions and thinking of good ways to answer 
them through EXPERIMENTATION.

feel free to contact me if you have further questions.  
weibelm@battelle.org

best regards,
Mike