Baking a Cake without an oven...

...or a rice cooker, toaster oven, microwave, crock pot, etc...

Whether you use a cake mix or you make the recipe yourself, here is what I did:

1. Take a pot and pour in a little bit of water (1~2 cups).

2. Insert a metal steamer (one of those ones that folds up really small and then expands). It should be expanded as far as it can go. You are going to do this double-boiler style.

3. Grease and flour a cake pan that is small enough to fit in the pot. I used one of those disposable foil pans that you usually make banana bread or poundcake in.

4. After greasing/flouring the pan and pouring in the batter, cover the pan with aluminum foil, shiny-side-down.

5. Place the covered pan in the pot and cover the pot. Cook on high for the first 5 minutes, then turn the heat to low so that the water keeps simmering. Cook until done (it took me about 45~50 minutes) - when a toothpick (or a chopstick!) inserted in the middle comes out clean.

6. Remove from the pot, cool, and remove the cake.

As for a recipe? Well, I kind of winged it so the ingredients aren't exactly right, but here's what I did:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1.5 cups cake flour, 1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like a sweeter cake), 2 teaspoons baking powder, and a dash of salt.

2. In a separate, smaller bowl, beat 2 eggs, 1/2 cups milk, 1/4 cups vegetable oil (or margarine or butter), and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (we didn't have this, but it was definitely missing in the flavor of the cake later on).

3. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture all at once and mix just until it is moist. If the batter is too thick and doughy, add a little more milk.

4. Pour in a greased and floured cake pan and cook as above!

We hope to try a chocolate cake for TheFry's first birthday next week. I also want to try and make some frosting or some kind of filling. This week, PapaFish made persimmon jam, but it is still a work in progress as it got a little too...hard. Maybe when that problem is fixed, I will make a layer cake with persimmon jam and chocolate frosting.

Until then, eat and enjoy!