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Sometimes a baking disaster happens even when you’ve put the utmost care into making your batter or dough, and that’s because the reason for the failure might not be your baking skills at all… It just might be that you’re not using your oven correctly! Using your oven properly is just as important as a good recipe, so here are 8 tips to ensure that your baked goods always come out perfect.

Here’s our first tip:

1. Know your oven.

Every oven has its quirks. Some spots get hotter, other areas stay cooler. If you know where all those spots are, you can adjust your pan placement to account for it and ensure that everything you bake comes out just as expected. To find your hotspots, just cover a baking sheet evenly in shredded coconut and let it bake at 350°F. The coconut that browns first reveals where the hotspots are in your oven.

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