Cake Cooking Time: Burning on outside - raw in the middle I am doing some work in a volunteer kitchen and as part of our meals we provide cake that we bake in a big tray, we can only fit two on a rack in a commercial gas oven at a time.  Full gastronorm trays I think they are called.

All our recipes call for a temperature of 180 degrees C (356 F) 40 mins - we rotate them in the oven after 20 mins.

The depth of the cake mixture prior to baking is about 5cm (2 inches) - not unusual.

The cakes are vegan - no egg or butter, we use oil. The lack of egg would affect binding which may be relevant.  Essentially the recipes are vegan variations of a pound cake. (roughly by volume: 2 parts flour, 1 part each of oil, sugar, soy milk. Add in flavor, fruit etc. )

The problem is that by the time the cakes are cooked in the center, the outside is always burned. This seems to occur regardless of recipe to the point that our floor staff consider it normal to have to carve the burnt bits off the cake before serving.  It works - just not a good solution...

Things I have thought of:

1) Use a lower temperature - but longer time.  I don't want to go below 160 degrees or no maillard reaction (browning). But can't work out how much extra time I would need if I dropped the temperature by 10 or 20 degrees.

2) Chaining up the nameless idiot who keeps opening the oven door to see if the cakes are cooked yet. Said idiot swears that if he had an answer for number 1) then he would be able to restrain himself...

The tray size must have something to do with the problem, but I can't figure out what. I looked at the diffusion of heat - but it seems that the heat would be dominated by energy coming in from the top and bottom.  

Possibly diffusion of steam?

Any other ideas?
This might have something to do with the amount of oil in your recipe. There is a lot of liquid - traditional pound cakes are traditional, but that doesn't mean that they're a good ratio. 

Reduce ratio of oil to at least 1/4 and experiment from there - another factor is the type of oil that is being used. Certain types and qualities of oil have lower smoking points, and so burn at a lower temperature. I have tried recipes that use no oil (fat) whatsoever and remain successful. 

Do you use any leavening agents? Baking powder/baking soda? If not, I would add 2tsp baking powder and 1/2tsp baking soda. As well as a pinch of salt.

Experiment by reducing the oven temperature to 160C or 325F, cook for an additional 15 - 20 minutes. To test done-ness, the traditional toothpick method is good (putting a toothpick into the thickest part of the cake and removing to check for crumb - crumbs mean more cooking) otherwise; if you press lightly on the surface of the dough and it 'springs' back, as well the cake should have pulled away from the outsides of the pan (I am a pastry chef and find this method most helpful).

If you continue to have difficulty, get that oven checked out.