Can I bake a cake in a toaster oven?

Factual Questions
1

I am switching from gas to electric in my house.
I have already cut the gas off. OK. Went out Saturday and bought a nifty new (to me) electric stove/oven. She is a pretty one. Went to buy the cord to attach. OK, how come this cord looks different than my other 220v cord? Oh. If my stove plug isn’t wired for 50 amps, I’ll burn my house down. Well, I’m against that! No big problem, I was going to have some new wiring put in after the new year. The trouble is, I have my electric work budgeted for after the New Year. And, I need to bake a cake before Saturday. Somebody told me that a toaster oven would work for cookies, and even a cake, or cupcakes if I don’t overdo it. Is this correct? What corrections need one make? I’m not talking a megabuck one, I’m talking the little cheapies that are about the size of 4 loaves of bread together, make of, I dunno, stamped tin, or galvanized iron, not stainless steel, etc… You know!

Any rate, how bout it?

Thanks,
hh

2

Mine has a bake setting along with toast, broil, and “keep warm.” As long as you find a decent enough one with bake and the right temperature range, your odds of screwing it up decrease.

Anecdotally, I’ve never done a cake, but do other tasks in there if I don’t want to waste power by firing up the oven. The only problem I can foresee is uneven baking, and that can be fixed by rotating it halfway through.

3

In theory, yes. In practice… well, I’ve done cookies, but I’m nearly certain the top of the cake would get burned before the insides were done. The heating elements are just too close to the rack.

This, of course, will vary from toaster oven to toaster oven, but I’d stick the empty pan in your toaster oven and see how much clearance you have.

4

I agree. In many toaster ovens, both the upper and lower heating elements come on in order to maintain the set temperature whereas in a conventional oven, only the bottom element activates to maintain heat. In a toaster oven, the top of you cake may be pretty crispy.

5

I would try numerous very thin layers (putting 1/3-1/2 of what you normally do in a pan) to try to get around the top heat issue.

6

Looks like a trip to the local bakery is in order. :slight_smile:

7

I know that it doesn’t work in a roasting oven, at least, when set on the same temperature.

8

I’ve baked a tray (half a dozen) of cupcakes or muffins with no problem with burning, but of course, your results may vary. I’ve also baked a small cake in a pan. Maybe buy a little Jiffy cake mix and try that out, to see if your toaster oven can bake things well? (I also pre-heat the toaster oven before baking.)

9

I have baked cakes in an electric skillet.

10

I can bake a 9-inch round, single-layer cake in my toaster oven, but my oven has a relatively high clearance, and I can set it so that only the bottom element comes on. I wouldn’t even try to bake if the top element fired up.

Three big IF factors here.

If you can preheat the oven and it keeps a stable temperature

If your oven is tall enough to keep the pan a few inches away from the bottom elements, and still have clearance on top.

Like salinqmind said, gamble 85 cents on a box of Jiffy mix and see what happens.
If you can set your oven to only heat up from the bottom, and not the top.

11

Ask a neighbor if you can borrow their oven.

12

My grandmother baked cakes in her toaster oven thirty years ago. That thing was big. There must of been adequate clearance from the heating elements.

She’d cook these big meals for the church or lodge. She’d have things cooking in her stove oven and baking in the toaster oven.

Good times. Now I’m hungry.

13

I bake cakes and cupcakes in my toaster over all the time, I just use a slightly lower temp and rotate halfway through. Delish.

14

Whee! It looks like I’m back in business!
Thanks, guys, for all of your help.

Sigmagirl: Did you use a cake pan, or just the skillet itself?

Thanks again, everybody!

Best wishes,
hh

15

Absolutely. My sister used to bake cakes under a light bulb as a heat source in her easy bake oven.

16

I put the cake pan on an inverted custard cup, and put the lid on the skillet, so the batter would be pretty much in the center of the heat both vertically and horizontally. Unfortunately for a layer cake, you have to bake the layers one at a time.

17

If little girls can bake a cake with a light bulb, there’s no reason, you can’t bake one in a toaster oven. All you need is consistent heat, it doesn’t require it be from a source that Kenmore invented.

18

Wise words all!

Thanks,
hh

19

you can indeed bake a cake in a toaster oven. I have done so. There are two things to beware of. The first is that if the cake raises too high, it will burn on top, so check on it frequently during the second half of the baking time. The second issue is that toaster ovens do not hold in moisture as well as big ovens. If you can fit in a small tray of water at the bottom of the oven (on the crumb tray perhaps), the cake will turn out a bit moister.

Good luck.

20

I bake cakes all the time in our toaster over. We keep kosher, and our standard oven is meat, so when I bake a dairy cake, it’s in the toaster oven. It’s a bit bigger than the standard model, and can hold a 9 x 13 pan, but it still makes toast and is also an oven.

The biggest problem is premature browning of the cake and sometimes uneven baking. I bake cakes in the highest rack setting as far as way from the lower heating element as possible and set it on “bake” which keeps the top elements off and the lower element on.