How to Bake a Cake at Home Without Oven

Why Bake a Cake at Home Without Oven?

You must be wondering why bake a cake  at home without  oven  when all variety of ovens are so easily available in the market, right! Well, first of all, not everyone can afford an oven but everyone has the right to bake and eat a cake.

Then there are situations where you can’t have an oven – for example, too small a kitchen or dorm room living. And then last but not the least, this current coronavirus situation has made us realise that desperate times can happen any time in life and they always require desperate measures.

Life Happens!

This last crisis happened to me recently, when my electric oven decided to stop working just a day before my city went into lockdown. Since there is no  way we can transport it to a person who can fix it for us any time soon, I started to think of ways to bake a cake without oven.

And it’s not just the issue of baking a cake, I bake a lot of stuff at home – breads, pizzas, croissant, muffins, brownies and puddings.  So it was as if my life in kitchen came to a halt.

Then my teenager’s 15th birthday is coming soon too and I’ve always baked cakes for both my daughters ‘ birthdays – oven or not, this time it could be no different too.

Not So Modern But Smart Solution:

While thinking about the issue, I remembered how my mom used to bake creme Caramel on stovetop.  Then I went crazy doing some research on google about how through centuries people baked before these modren ovens became popular.

I came to realise that in our villages and small towns, many people still bake in pressure cookers and dutch ovens on stovetops. So I decided to use a few of my own tried and tested cake recipes for this experiment.

I’m happy to report that the results were delightful, the procedure pretty simple and taste totally fantastic. Here I’m sharing with you all the tips and tricks that I learnt about how to bake a cake without oven. It can be done!

Ingredients:

Check My Recipe For

• One-bowl Chocolate Cake 
• Orange Ginger Pound Cake

You can choose any of your tried and tested recipes or even a box mix cake to make the batter.

This Is What You Need:

• A pan with lid, big enough to fit in your cake mold.
• A metalic or ceramic bowl to invert inside the bigger pan. If there isn’t any that fits,  just make a thick coil with foil sheet.
• Water
• Prepared cake mold
• Ready cake batter

This Is What You Do:

There is no special equipment needed just a deep pan , big enough to hold the pan, with a  lid that closes nice and tight, that keeps the steam inside for stovetop baking. There really is no magic that happens.

The moist heat cooks the  cake batter into a  delicate, rich, velvety deliciousness which is never dry.  Even if you own an oven, this is a foolproof way to bake a moist cake.

Video  for better  understanding:

Steps to follow:

1. Prepare ahead the baking pan. Grease and sprinkle with flour.
2. Pour the cake batter of your choice into the prepared pan.
3. Place a dutch oven/deep sauce pan/handi on stovetop. Make sure the pan is big and deep enough for the cake to rise with the lid on.
4. Lay an upside down bowl, plate, saucer, sieve or thick roll of foul sheet in the bottom of  the bigger pan.
5. Fill with water until it  is almost 1.5 to 2 inches high from the bottom.
6. Bring the water to a simmer over medium low heat. The inside of the pan should be hot before you put in the cake pan, just like you preheat an oven before baking.
7. Once simmering, carefully place in the cake pan over the  inverted bowl or plate inside.
8. The cake pan shouldnt be immersed in water but should  be just over it.
9. Shut the lid of the dutch oven/sauce pan. Steam for as long as mentioned in the recipe you are following for cake batter.
10. It’s important to add more  hot water if you see it drying up during the cooking process.
11. Do check the cake by inserting a wooden skewer or knife in the centre, ten minutes before the mentiined time because different stoves have different temperature.
12. Once the cake is risen and firm in the middle, wear oven mitts or using two pairs of tongs carefully remove cake pan from the bigger pan.
13. Leave to cool in the cake pan for 10-15 minutes and then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
14. Once cool, serve as is or top with your favourite frosting.