Here lies the sad attempts of my slow cooker cake experiment. :-( LOLOL. It actually tastes quite nice (other than being a little burnt around the edges). BUT, it stuck (even though I did spray oil in there first). Me thinks some greaseproof paper or alfoil lining the pot might be a good idea.
The good news is that I did indeed bake a cake in the slow cooker. :-) I need to do some experimenting and fine tuning with the high and low settings to see if I can in fact bake it without burning the outsides. Otherwise, we can just trim those bits off.
I do have a reason for attempting this *other* than electricity cost (and being able to bake in summer without heating up the house). When we do our 3 month trip in the caravan, we are not likely to have an oven (oven's aren't common in caravans these days and we'd prefer the cupboard space). I would like to take my slow cooker with me anyway (since it provides such easy, fuss free meals) so this would be a bonus if I could bake in it.
Funnily enough, this reminds of some of my disasters when I was a new bride. My DH had a single mate who would drop in from time to time and I'm sure every time he came I would have some kind of disaster in the kitchen. One time I attempted an apple cake in the microwave (my 1 and only attempt to bake a cake in the microwave) and it was sitting on the bench looking a little like the photo above (only not brown) when he dropped in one afternoon. It's a bit of a joke between us. I can cook....honest!!!! Just not everything I make turns out quite how I'd planned.
As for the above disaster. DH turned it into a masterpiece by making some chocolate sauce, heating it up and serving with chocolate sauce and cream. Waaaayyyyyy too yummy for my waistline! :-) The kids don't seem to mind eating up the rest of the *bits* either. So, not too much will go to waste (only to waist).
To tie this back in with my kitchen electricity usage audit posted earlier today - total cooking time in the slow cooker was around 2 hours so cost approximately 4c. To bake a cake in my oven would have cost around 30c (plus heating up the house).
IF I do better with my next attempt, I'll be sure to proudly show off my efforts. If not, you may never hear me say another word about baking a cake in a slow cooker. :-)
7 comments:
Lightening - if you can, source some cooking info for the humble old camp oven. I'm sure they would be a similar cooking experience. From memory, when cooking cakes in a camp oven (big cast iron pot in the coals of a campfire) you put a wire rack (cake cooler would do) in the bottom (so your cake doesn't burn) and you place the cake in a caketin on top of it. Not sure if this would fit in your slow cooker but it might be worth an experiment. I had a similar disaster a few weeks back using a food processor to make a cake. When I arrived at the party for which it was made, the whole lot had cracked and virtually disintegrated into a crumby mess. The cream and strawberries made it edible but it wasn't fit to be seen!
Thanks Lisa. Perhaps I need to do some research before I attempt this again. I'm a "jump in without any instructions" type person. :-) Oh well, at least it provided a funny photo for my blog.
Oh dear about your own disaster....we all have them. :-) (well, *most* of us do anyway...)
Ditto on the cake pan - perhpas you could find one that fits inside your slow cooker, depending on the shape. My mum also used ot amke cakes in an electric frypan when we lived ina caravan for 6 months - I think she had a special mat that sat int he bottom of the frying pan then the cake tin sat on that so it wasn't in direct contact with the base.
As far as microwave cakes go I used to make the "no name" cake mixes up in my microwave with great success using a microwave cake ring. Somewher I also have a make it form scratch "yellow cake" (buttercake) type recipe that is from an american website. Email me if you want to try it.
-hugs-
Lisa
I have baked or should I say "nuked" a cake in the microwave before. It wasn't as good as if I cooked it in the oven, but it wasn't that bad. Thanks for dropping by my blog :o)
Good luck to you as well! I figured that the blogging will be a great deal easier to do than novel writing...I plan to blog about my experiences in writing - who knows how these things will turn out, though!
On another note, I noticed your calculations on electricity usage! I used to do the same thing when I was a stay at home mom lol...I bought a book called The Tightwad Gazette - unbelievable how far a buck can stretch when you are determined!
http://www.tightwad.com/
detached - thanks for dropping by. I've read the Tightwad Gazette. Borrowed it from the library and took copious amounts of notes. Amazing lady - not sure I could quite do what she did but I did get some great ideas. Don't think I've seen that website before though - thanks for that. As for blogging vs novel writing. I *think* for me the blogging might be hard because people actually read that. With the novel, I can write whatever and it doesn't matter. What am I saying? With the blog I write whatever too! LOL.
Tammy - hi and thanks for dropping by. :-) Yeah, I'm not overly fond of microwave cakes myself but there are probably better recipes around now than back when I first tried it.
Lisa - hmmm....not sure I have a pan that fits in my slow cooker (it's oval shaped). But I do want to get some of that squishy bakeware stuff (not the technical terms there) to go in the caravan as it won't take up too much space. Of course, we need to *buy* a caravan first.....otherwise I'll end up with a house full of stuff *for* the caravan we don't actually have. LOL. Actually, that sounds exactly like what I would do! LOL.
maybe you could cut it up into small bite-size pieces and put it in one of those clear glass dishes...mix it with some whipped cream, or ice cream and chocolate sauce and nuts or something...then it would look like you did it on purpose!
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