Retail bakers know how temperamental cakes can be. And producers
of any volume of cakes know that consistency in cake size,
shape, texture and flavor are the keys to minimizing waste while
keeping both decorators and end customers happy. Too many retail
bakers, though rely on the eyeball test to maintain consistency-
making minor corrections on the fly. The problem with this is
twofold. A bakery can, over time, distance itself from the
central formulations that made the bakery successful in the
first place. And even for those that stay true to what brought
them, often the owner or head baker is the only one with the
requisite skills to successfully make on-the-go adjustments. It
thus behooves bakeries to formalize the troubleshooting process,
making the process more accessible for all skill levels while
helping with quality control. According to Kirk O'Donnell, vice
president of education at AIB international, troubleshooting for
cakes requires benchmarking three categories: temperature (of
both oven and final