Making cake without an oven? Yes! Have your cake and eat it too!
I mention a lot of baking at Relaxlangmom, for non-oven owners, you probably think I’m a snob. But what I haven’t told you (probably because I always forget about it) is that before I had an oven (a hand me down from MIL), I did all sorts of things to bake without an oven.
For an improvised oven, technically, the principle is to provide enough even heat to your batter. So long as you provide consistent heat without abrupt fluctuation you can make a cake and also bake all sorts of things -bake chicken, baked liempo, baked pata, etc. All it takes is a little practice, a bit of patience, and lots of interest.
Here are the things I did -a sort of DIY oven for baking, plus some extra from other mommy home bakers like me.
6 ways of making a cake without an oven
Baking cake on an improvised oven by using a stove top-pan with stones or sand. In this video you can see that after preparing the batter, the baker added sand and pre heated the improvised oven. You can also use small stones. I know a lot of home bakers who start with this and still manage to make a lot of Llanera cakes for selling. (I know they’re amazing!) If you’re concerned about the level of heat, you can invest in a baking thermometer which you can buy for about 100 to 200 pesos. If that is not an option, just play around with your flame and see which one works for you. I also used this once with my Meat loaf recipe.
Baking a cake on your rice cooker? Yes you can make a cake in your rice cooker. This rice cooker cake was baked in a rice cooker and as you can see, it turned out to be pretty awesome. The result is a bit dense -something like the carrot cake.
How about baking a cake by using a steamer? We use the steamer to make puto, which is essentially a rice cake. I used to do this a lot with Enalyn’s Steamed Yema Cake (which I realized I have not shared yet). I always find that a baked cake is superior to steamed ones but my kids doesn’t seem to mind plus the hundreds of clients who buy steamed cakes from mommy bakers. Just frost it and it can actually pass as baked.
Baking on an Oven Toaster. This is where I really began to bake. I bought a second-hand oven toaster at HMR (the one with those big ass converters) and I used this for over a decade for almost everything. Cakes, baked pata, baked hardinera, homemade pizza. If you’re thinking of buying one, these are now cheaper and most are now manufactured for home bakers with an option for baking. Choose the ones with temperature control and the ones that goes up to 400 degrees F. Some already comes with bake pan and crumb tray and a rotiserrie. This Imarflex Oven Toaster is a rotiserrie and convection oven all in one! Though for the price range you can just as well buy a La Germania gas oven (which is what I have) if you’re not concerned about the space it will take in your kitchen.
Bake on a Pizza Oven. Back in, maybe about 5 years ago, I used to sell these Stove Top Pizza Ovens. They’re stovetop ovens with a temperature gauge and goes as high as 400 degrees F. I’m sure these are still around. I only stopped selling them because they’re so hard to ship and I cant deliver outside my barangay. :)
Bake on your Turbo Broiler. This one I have not personally used but since turbo broilers work by convection heat, people get a lot of success with it. In this video, she’s using a turbo broiler to bake banana bread. My cousin has one and she uses the turbo broiler to bake Yema Cakes too.
So there you have it! 6 ways of making a cake without an oven. I hope I inspired you a bit so you can bake a cake even if you have no oven. Don’t stop yourself. Sometimes, these things can go wrong so just practice baking using your DIY ovens until perfect!
