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I don't have an oven; is there any way to simulate what an oven does with any other tools available at my home? In particular I would like to be able to bake cakes.

10
  • There are plenty of non baked cakes/desserts :)
    – nico
    Apr 9, 2012 at 12:39
  • That's not I want to achieve, I want a equipment to bake :) Apr 9, 2012 at 14:26
  • 3
    What tools are available at your home?! Sure you can simulate an oven... if you have a fireplace and a römertopf, for example.
    – rumtscho
    Apr 9, 2012 at 15:06
  • 4
    When in doubt, there's always thermite. Bake a cake in 5 seconds flat*! *Edibility not guaranteed.
    – BobMcGee
    Apr 13, 2012 at 2:17
  • 2
    This is a very interesting discussion but... why can't you just buy a $30 dollar electric oven? Small, cheap and works pretty much like its big brothers.
    – nico
    Apr 28, 2012 at 12:09

17 Answers 17

13

Microwave + Coffee Cup = Awesome

A few years ago I was looking for a project for some cub scouts when I came across this recipe to make chocolate cake in a microwave. It's delicious and easy. Best of all you can make it in the office.

Check out this link: http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Make_Cake_in_a_Mug

10

Rice cookers can be used to bake cakes. I've cooked them using a store-bought mix and my Panasonic DE 102 fuzzy logic unit. It actually has a 'cake' setting. The cake came out fine; tasted like a regular oven prepped cake. Similar cookers will likely work as well, but the way to really find out if a particular cooker will do the job is to give it a try.

1
  • what are key concepts of working of oven? what does it actually does? Apr 9, 2012 at 14:36
8

Wow! Wayfaring that is a great answer. You inspired me to look up a cake recipe using a pressure cooker. I lose power all the time and will keep that in the back of my mind.

Anyway, if a burner is what you have, then make your own oven. I learned from camping that all you need is heat and a plain cast iron Dutch oven (without feet for the stove) and a heavy lid. Ok, I wasn’t me, it was my friend who is a chef, but I was really impressed. You could try garage sales, antique stores, and camping stores. Make sure you put a rack on the bottom, preheat and put your pan in. Could be a little tricky getting out, but they have tools for that too. The reason for plain cast iron, I feel it is the only material you can use without water that is safe, will not damage the pot, or any coatings and will not throw off toxic fumes. As a matter of fact, I just now talked myself into getting one for the powerless days. Last time it was 4 days due to the October storm.

enter image description here

7

Cake is a broad term and "a cake" is going to mean different things to different people.

The fluffy, chemically or egg risen, low protein-flour, dessert that "cake" means in the US is going to require even, dry heat that an oven provides.

  • If you can only cook on a burner then you will be restricted to fried or boiled desserts. Delicious but they wouldn't be called "cake" here.

  • Some cake varieties can be cooked in electric appliances such as slow cookers.

  • If you have access to a fire, a dutch oven can be used to make delicious cakes.

  • If you have sunlight you can fashion a solar oven that you can bake anything in. http://solarcooking.org/plans/

7

You can cook it in a pressure cooker! My mum used to make it that way i remember. Just put some sand into the cooker first and place your cake tin above it. Close the lid and cook on a medium flame. The texture might be slightly different but it's one way to make a cake.

4
  • Even my mom used to make cakes in a pressure cooker.. it would take hours though!!!
    – Zeba
    Feb 5, 2013 at 6:51
  • Also the whistle on the lid should be removed.
    – Rolen Koh
    Jul 15, 2016 at 9:55
  • 2
    @Zeba:- No it doesn't take hours. For a 600 grams cake it only takes about 25 minutes. And then you can turn that 600 grams cake into 1 kg cake or even more after creaming it and all the decorations.
    – Rolen Koh
    Jul 15, 2016 at 9:56
  • An example recipe Boston Brown Bread in a Pressure Cooker
    – J. Starnes
    Oct 26, 2017 at 23:49
4

It's definitely possible to bake cakes using a BBQ, although it may require some changes in technique from cooking meat. This recipe for Chocolate Souffles for example, uses a kettle BBQ (which uses briquettes (as compared to a gas burner BBQ which I'm sure could also be used with some modifications to the technique)) using indirect heat.

How to modify your use of the kettle BBQ to get indirect heat is linked in the recipe.

4

There are also many slow-cooker recipes for cakes -- an online search should pull up dozens, and I've done so several times. I've also used a rice cooker, as a previous poster suggested.

3

look up solar cooking, there should be recipies and instructions altrenatively if you can use a fire pit of some sort (or charcol barbique) look up cast-iron pot recipies

2

This post describes how my grandmother would make cakes in an electric frypan.

1

If you have space for a microwave, you can bake full-sized cakes (rather than an individual serving of cake in a coffee mug) in a convection microwave. The "convection" part provides more even heating so you can do things like make cakes or roast meat or vegetables. Just make sure you read the instruction manual for the microwave thoroughly so you know what kind of equipment is safe to use in it.

1

Many breadmakers also have a "cake" program.

1

In the 1960s/early 70s, there used to be something called a Wonder Pot in Israel which baked cakes. This was a circular contraption made of metal with a heating element; one poured the cake mix into the pot, closed it and turned it on (ie started heating). That's how I remember it although the linked Wikipedia article suggests that the pot was heated on a stove and did not have an integral heating element.

1
  • Remoska...,....
    – Sentinel
    Jul 6, 2019 at 20:40
1

I made cake with oven cake mixture without oven.

I took a big container with dry sand and heated for a while and after that kept the cake mixed bowl in sand container on top of sand. As per oven cooking specification, cake will be done in 35 minutes in oven @170degrees Celsius, in sand heating method, it took 55 mins for me @200 degree Celsius.![A delicious chocolate cake]. I used Induction stove for preparation. Key here is, sand keeps heat very well. (https://i.stack.imgur.com/EeGtI.jpg)

1

When I was in scouting cardboard ovens heated with charcoal were a thing. (Outside only!)

  1. Cardboard box.
  2. Lined with alluminum foil
  3. Heated with charcoal briquettes. The ones I remember used two alluminum pie pans to hold the briquettes with one upside down as a base, the other on top to hold briguettes.
  4. Temperature was controlled by how many briquettes are used.

I've eaten food out of a cardboard oven, but never operated one myself. If I remember correctly it was a fruit cobbler, so I do not know for certain if it has the temperature stability for cake.

More detailed instructions by one who has operated cardboard ovens: http://www.usscouts.org/scoutcraft/oven.asp

0

Throw it on the BBQ! (Experimentation required).

Here is one blogger's successful (and some not-so-successful) attempts at baking stuff on a bbq: http://pattycake.ca/node/188

Here is another:

http://sharon-russell.suite101.com/cooking-cake-on-the-grill-a136001

Looks like fun :).

0

You can bake in a pizza oven or brick oven or double boiler without water, but when you use pots with closed bottoms you'll end up with smoke and blacken the inside of your large pot.

If you can find a large pot and make a hole at the bottom so that flames can pass through, that will be better. Use a rack at least 5 inches above the open fire. That's where you'll place your baking tray. Better to place few stones or bricks inside so that you can retain the heat to be able to reach at least 400 degrees. You can use any enclosure, just make sure to have bricks or stones to retain the heat and reach a high enough temperature. If you just use the flame, the metal around it will still reach the temperature but it will go down quickly when you open it; all the heat trapped inside will just dissipate. This DIY oven can help you.

0

Here in the Philippines, not a lot of people have an oven. We bake cake with an improvised pan oven with stones or use a steamer. Not the same as the baked one but is good enough to cover with butter cream or fondant. I wrote a pretty good list of how to make a cake without an oven in my blog!

Using a:

  • Wide pan with a loose lid
  • Rice cooker
  • Steamer
  • Oven Toaster
  • Pizza Oven
  • Turbo Broiler
2
  • Please do not write 'answers' that just link elsewhere. Can you include the essentials here?
    – user34961
    Oct 27, 2017 at 8:09
  • I bake them in my gas grill. Top rack. In a sheet cake pan. 350f I think. Or hold hand over vent at top for 3 seconds & need to remove hand. 2 inch's above vent. Philippines way. Close lid. doubled tin foil over the top of grill. For even heat. Bakes like a oven with a little practice. Yes few have a oven there to bake in. Live there also.
    – J Bergen
    Oct 28, 2017 at 0:37

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