Why I don’t open the oven door on a rising cake

The cake is already in the heat — the top just starting to hold, and the hand reaches for the door “to look”. Easy: the heat escapes, the middle sinks, the crust tears. I watch through the glass, I don’t tug the handle while it rises — the warmth stays inside, the top holds.

Why I don’t open the oven door on a rising cake. The fan when the top stays pale is about colour at the end; pricking a jacket potato before the heat is another food; greasing the tin before the batter is about the tin. Here it is only the door on the rise: don’t let the heat out while the middle is still soft — not a speech about other ovens from the aisle.

If I already opened early — I shut it at once, I don’t jump the heat. I don’t soothe myself with the timer “just one more peek” every time. I’m not comparing a new mode on the panel — only the tin already in our heat.

I don’t need a cake that sank from curiosity at the door. I need a quiet rise behind the glass. In your kitchen while the cake rises do you keep the door shut — or already open it “just to look”?