High surface area, nanostructured solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrode scaffold materials were prepared at traditional sintering temperatures by heating hybrid inorganic-organic gels in an inert atmosphere. The prepared materials were yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ, 8 mol% Y₂O₃), gadolinium doped ceria (GDC, Gd_0.2Ce_0.8O_3-δ) and strontium titanate (STO, SrTiO₃). YSZ, GDC, and STO were prepared via the citric acid gel (Pechini) method; in addition, YSZ and GDC were prepared via the propylene oxide gel method. Gels were sintered between 1050^oC and 1350^oC in argon, leaving behind a hard carbon template which created and preserved the scaffold nanostructure. This carbon template was completely removed upon heating in air to 700^oC. Surface areas up to 83, 95, and 99 m²/g were achieved for YSZ, GDC, and STO, respectively. The tunability of this method was assessed by varying the carbon template concentration. For the propylene oxide gels, this was accomplished by controlling the amount of glucose added to the gel formulation while the amount of citric acid was controlled for the citric acid gels. In all cases, the surface areas increased with increasing carbon template concentration. In some cases, amorphous or impure phases were obtained upon sintering as determined by x-ray diffraction. However, the desired phases formed upon heating to 700°C in air (Fig. 1). This in situ carbon templating approach creates high surface area, nanostructured SOFC scaffolds at traditional sintering temperatures without unusual processing steps or complex deposition techniques. As expected, preliminary data suggests that SOFC electrodes comprised of these materials have improved performance (Fig. 2).