Lindsey Nair

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Click. Whoosh!

Click. Whoosh!

Click. Whoosh!

That sound should have been a warning to me as I tiptoed around my kitchen last weekend, waiting for a homemade chocolate sheet cake to finish baking in the oven.

It is an unusual recipe that calls for a very low oven temperature of 300 degrees for 45 minutes, but I've made it before and it came out just right -- rich, fudgy and delicious.

This time, despite cooking it for an extra 5 or 10 minutes, it came out more like the mud pies I used to make as a kid to accompany my dandelion soup. It was literally a flop.

I checked the recipe again, and I'd followed every instruction to a T. To add insult to injury, the manicotti I baked the next day came out perfect.

How had I managed to waste flour, sugar, cocoa, eggs, milk and some expensive organic vanilla extract, not to mention my precious time?

I blame the oven.

That clicking and whooshing noise, according to commercial oven repairman Tim White, was the sound of my gas oven desperately working to maintain the correct temperature. And judging by the results, it wasn't happening. White, who co-owns Rapid Repair of Roanoke, said even the best ovens will naturally fluctuate in temperature, and they may work fine one day but be off the next.

"Most manufacturers are going to tell you ... that's acceptable in their range. Plus or minus five percent is pretty standard."

He added, "The better quality oven or range you buy, you are going to find those temperature variances go down."

If my oven is going to have the temperament of a 14-year-old girl, I don't know how I'm supposed to maintain my reputation as a decent cook.

To begin with, it might be a good idea to stop trusting what it says on the dial; to ignore it when it insistently beeps that it is preheated.

In order to trust my oven again, we will have to completely break down our relationship and build it back again.

Watch what you're cooking

When John Berardi was attending the Culinary Institute of America, he had a teacher who purposefully turned ovens off or adjusted the temperature when his students were not paying attention.

Now an instructor for the Culinary Institute at Virginia Western Community College, Berardi doesn't use such heavy-handed measures, but he distinctly recalls the lesson it taught him: Always keep a close watch on what you're cooking.

Berardi teaches a number of classes for the institute, including basic baking. He always warns his students about temperamental ovens.

"We talk about ... what are the best ways that we can use the ovens and have a successful product come out," he said.

At the institute, they also always keep oven thermometers hanging inside the ovens. That way they can check the internal temperature against what the dial says, something that's extremely important in an atmosphere where oven doors are being opened and closed frequently.

"Check the oven temperatures," Berardi said. "Don't just stick a product in the oven and let it go based on the time."

Both White and Berardi suggested that I use an oven thermometer regularly to determine whether my gas oven is performing up to standard. The same holds true for electric oven owners, they said.

"Say you are baking at 400 degrees," White said. "If you throw your thermometer in there, it might only be 375."

In addition to natural fluctuations, an oven's age and condition can influence whether it performs accurately. It is important to check the heating elements inside, as well as the seal on the door, if your oven is mysteriously temperamental.

"If I can't find a problem with an oven, the next thing I do is ask about the product you are putting in the oven," White said. "How hot was it when you put it in there? How cold was it when you put it in there? It is going to take longer to bake cold than at room temperature."

In his classes, Chef Berardi teaches his students, above all, to use their instincts and learn those telltale signs, such as browning, bubbling and edges that have begun to pull away from the pan, in order to know when to reach for the oven mitts. My oven and I made up

On Wednesday night, I went home and faced my cold, dark oven. It was time to make that sheet cake all over again.

Before cranking the oven to 300 degrees, I positioned a brand-new oven thermometer inside. Then I went about the work of sifting flour and sugar, mixing the baking soda and buttermilk and melting butter in a saucepan.

Before long, my oven went "Beep beep beep!" indicating that it was preheated.

The red light was on. I peeked inside at the thermometer.

"Two hundred and ten!?" I squawked.

That lying dog.

After preheating for another 10 to 15 minutes, the oven had still achieved an internal temperature of only 275 degrees -- a full 25 degrees lower than I needed to bake my cake.

In these cases, White suggested, it's best to simply adjust the dial in order to find the right temperature. I cranked it to 325, and we finally compromised on 310 degrees as a suitable baking temperature.

The cake was perfect, my oven and I made up and a valuable lesson was learned.

"Especially in a student environment," Berardi said, "I often tell them it is good at times to have recipes not come out the way we would like for them to come out. Then we can go back over the recipe and go step-by-step and see what happened. It is a good learning tool."

I have always been a big proponent of facing my kitchen mistakes head-on. The quickest way to suck the fun out of your kitchen is to get bent out of shape over errors and refuse to try again.

Just ask Evie Robison of The Wildflour Market and Bakery in Roanoke:

"I still have mishaps and have to go back to the drawing board at times," she said. "Thanks to the Internet and many books on the subject, you can usually track down the problem. But sometimes, the best thing is to just redo it and hold your breath!"