Easy Cooker Cake

Yep! You read that right! You don't have to save money for buying an oven anymore! ;-) A friend of mine, Janani Kannan, mentioned that her mom bakes cakes in the Rice Cooker. I went fishing for the recipe so that it could be a substitute for the oven. And the cakes that I cookd in the Pressure Cooker came out really soft! However, I was a little scared for the first time, so I only made 3 cupcakes in the cooker. The rest of the batter, I baked in the Oven. Read about the marble cake I made with the left over batter here. But now that I know this works, I'm gonna bake most of my future cakes in the cooker!

Baking a cake in the cooker is not very different from baking it in the oven. The batter-making process is the same. You only have to be careful while placing the bowl containing the cake mix in the cooker. But, we'll worry about that later.. ☺

So, here's what you'll need - 
Plain Flour/ Maida - 2 cups (200 grams)
Wheat flour - 1/2 cup (50 grams) (I just wanted to know how it tastes. Skip it if you want)
Powdered Sugar - 2 cups (200 grams) (you can add more later according to your taste)
Butter or Oil - 100 grams (I used butter)
Baking Soda - 1 teaspoon
Baking Powder - 1 teaspoon
Milk or Water - 200 ml (I used milk)
Vanilla Essence - 1 teaspoon
Cocoa powder - 2 tablespoons
Orange Color - 1 teaspoon (or any color of your choice // or skip & make plain vanilla or chocolate cake)
Chocolate Chips - handful or as per taste (optional)
Almonds - a few (optional)

To proceed - 
1. In a vessel, mix the milk (or water), butter, vanilla essence.

2. In another vessel, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda. (Sifting ensures that the flour is a smooth mixture. But you can avoid this step & plainly mix the ingredients too)

3. To the milk-butter mixture, slowly add 4-5 spoons of the flour mixture & beat well (either manually or with an electronic beater) Keep adding until the flour mixture is finished. Also add nuts & choco chips if you want.
** If the flour is too thick, you can confidently add 2-3 tablespoon of milk. & if it is too thin, add more flour & sugar ☺

 

*** Since I was trying the cooker cake for the 1st time, I decided to make it in small cups. But you can go ahead and transfer the mixture into a vessel & bake it right away!

4. Separate the mixture into 3 bowls. In 1 bowl, add the Orange (or any other) color. In the other, add the cocoa powder. And let the 3rd be plain vanilla. Beat all the mixtures separately.

5. Take as many number of cups as your cooker can take in. Grease them with butter.

6. Pour the vanilla into the 1st cup, chocolate into the 2nd & orange into the 3rd cup.

7. Take a pressure cooker. Keep an inverted plate. Add very little water. (ideally, it should reach only upto the bottom of the inverted plate)

8. Keep your cups on the plate. Let them cook WITHOUT THE WHISTLE for about 20-30 minutes. How quickly the cakes are done depends upon the size of your cooker & amount of the batter.

9. After about 15 minutes, check to see if they are baking.

10. Remove after 30 minutes, let it cool & Enjoy!

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Instead of cups, you can take any vessel that goes into the cooker, grease it & pour the batter in. You'll get a full plain cake! ☺
NOW you don't have an excuse of 'NOT having an oven to bake a cake', do you? :-D Its really very simple. Whatever flavor you decide to make, keep all the ingredients ready BEFORE you start preparing the mixture.  You'll find that making a cake is not rocket science after all. Plus, it tastes so delicious that you'll probably end up making the cake ever weekend.