My Attempt at Cooker Cake Making

Documented below is my attempt at preparing a cake this past weekend..The results impressed me so much that I felt the need to blog it! :D

To be honest I am not much of a baker and am a complete "newbie" when it comes to cake making..I have prepared it once or twice in the past, and it turned out okay taste wise (NOT shape wise!)

I set out to prepare a cake this Sunday, thanks to the immense inspiration I have been getting from Masterchef Australia of late.. :D Ive never been a great viewer of cookery shows in the past, but Masterchef Australia has always been an exception.. Every series just happens to be better than the last.. and I do love the MasterClasses!

Anyway getting back to my cake, I originally wanted to make a cheesecake (like the one prepared on last week's episode) but had to change plans at the last minute due to lack of a variety of cheeses (and fear that it wouldn't come out right). I then decided to make a simpler vanilla flavoured cake.

I am no Masterchef contestant, so I can safely admit (I hope) that I took help from a little vanilla flavoured cake mix I had at home, and combined it with flour, sugar, an egg, powdered almonds and cardamom, a little oil, milk and cream, all combined together and hand whipped to a fine mixture with no lumps.

I then transferred the mixture to a baking dish greased with butter, after which I placed it in a pressure cooker.. I guess I forgot to mention it-this was a Pressure Cooker cake. :)

You just need to have a little water in the pressure cooker, and there should be a steady stand inside the cooker that separates the baking dish from the cooker bottom. If this isn't done you will end up with a burnt cake. I used two strong metal stands that we use to keep vessels on (forgot what they are called). In the past I used an inverted vessel, and the cake would always end up crooked or bigger at one side and smaller at the other. So I would recommend using a metal stand, preferably two, upon which the baking dish is placed inside the cooker, and with a little water present (again not too much).

I then covered the dish with foil (I prefer it that way, you can even do without it I guess), closed the lid of the cooker, and waited in anxious anticipation...and waited, and waited, and waited... for 30-35 minutes..until I could bear it no longer, and finally opened the cooker lid..

After 5 minutes of cooking it without the lid on and another 10 minutes of struggling to take the piping hot dish out of the cooker (!) and another 5 minutes of letting it rest, I finally faced the moment of truth.. opening the foil... and voila.. the end result is in the pics here!!

I must say, I surprised myself with the way this cake turned out.. I didn't expect it to turn out so well look wise, and in consistency too..it came out so soft and fluffy..and was out of the baking dish in a trice with no bits of struggling on my part!! I guess it would have turned out to be fluffier if I had not covered it with a foil..

While I praise myself a bit about this personal achievement, can I also say, it tasted absolutely heavenly!! Everyone loved it, lemme tell ya.. :D

This successful attempt has inspired me and given me courage..to try out a cooker made cheese cake...hope I succeed! If the cake turns out good, it will find a place on this blog! :D