Make sure your oven is preheated before you put your food in. A recipe is very much a scientific formula and the amounts of liquid and leavener (baking soda/powder) are there for a reason. When you use a cold oven it defeats the purpose of following the recipe. Using a cold oven will cause things to "melt" before they set or to over-rise and then fall in. If you've ever made cookies and they turn out flat and crunchy, it's likely you used a cold oven. The butter melts and the cookie flattens before the proteins are exposed to enough heat to set. This gives you too much spread and a flat cookie. When baking a cake you expect it to raise in the oven but in a cold oven the leavening agents (liquid- causes steam which makes the cake raise and baking powder/soda- a chemical reaction that causes raising, like when you mix baking soda and vinegar it explodes...) raise and raise and are never stopped so you get a cake that looks like it exploded or it can get deep cracks. In a properly heated oven, the rate of raising is timed to match how quickly the proteins set (which means it won't raise anymore) so it's not a good idea to mess with those proteins!
An oven that is too hot will cause the proteins to set too quickly and then it can't raise at all. You will end up with a dense, likely burnt and under-cooked product.
Best of luck with your ovens! Coming next..... high altitude cooking! Simple adjustments for baked goods!
