Has anyone ever bypassed the low high swith on Duke oven to turn off? I recently purchased a Duke convection oven for our new cupcake shoppe. Wish I had not because the fan on low blows the batter over the tops. Duke just says there's nothing I can do and would void warranty. The oven is brand new and useless. Thank you
Kasqe
Its a common problem with convection, Duke is correct in that restricting air flow will overheat the element but that doesn't mean theres nothing you can do, thats silly of them.
We used to souffles in convection.
.you can place an inverted hotel pan over the cupcake mold to shield it from the blast, remove to finish once the cake starts to set, it will need to bake longer than straight convection but it works.
If you don't have hotel pans just buy a foil roasting pan and put a 1lb weight on top to keep it from floating around when the blast hits it.
You can then cut some holes in the foil pan to allow limited air flow.
If you bake on sheetpans place a second sheetpan inverted over the top, you may or may not have enough clearance if the cupcakes are tall. I have perforated trays that would be ideal for that.
If you do cupcakes exclusively then a more engineered solution would be better, something like baffles to redirect the airflow.
Air is sucked in through the center of the fan, its called a squirrel cage, and redirected out the sides across the coils, so intake air cannot be reduced without risking overheating the coil. But the output can be deflected as long as it doesn't create backpressure, just deflect it up or down. a simple deflection will slow the blast down. It would need deflecting on both sides.
A long piece of sheet metal from the bottom of the over to the top, 3 inch wide, cut slits to make baffles, alum snow and ice shield from home depot is perfect, cuts easy with tin snips or heavy kitchen shears. Be careful not to choke the air flow, just redirect it.
