As I continue my adventure in "cooking" cakes in the rice cooker, there was something that I had been wondering - how will the same chiffon cake recipe "perform" in an oven and a rice cooker? From the previous rice cooker chiffon cake experience, I know that the rice cooker can do the job well and save the hassle of heating up the oven and watching the temperature (and keeping my fingers crossed that the cake will rise). But it seems like the rice cooker "Cake" function took quite some time to finish "cooking" the cake.
Curiosity kills the cat. This time, I followed Happy Home Baking's Lemon Lavender Chiffon Cake recipe. Many thanks to HHB again for sharing the recipe! :) Please refer to her blog for the full recipe. I had made very slight changes: omit lemon; soak the lavender flowers in the hot water first. Somehow, I think soaking the flowers first will help bring out the flavor :D The 7" chiffon tube pan recipe fits my two 12cm (or 5") disposable chiffon pans nicely.
I put one into the oven, and the other into the RC, and waited anxiously for the results. The one in the oven finished baking after about 25 mins at 170 degC. The one in RC continued through its long process and took almost double the time. I forgot to set the timer but it took roughly double the time. Anybody has tried taking the timing before? Please share if you do.
By the time the RC finished "cooking" (in fact, I stopped it before the "cooking" cycle was completed), the oven twin had already cooled down. I put them side-by-side to compare - I can't tell who is taller :D Although it is obvious that the one that was baked in the oven has a nice brown top, while its twin has a "white" top.
After turning them over, I found that the oven baked cake's bottom is "fairer" than its twin. After slicing them, I started to get confused which was which (haha). Is that how parents of twins feel sometimes? :) Texture wise they seem similar. The only small difference I could see was that, the RC cake looks a little bit denser near the top of the cake.
If you ask me then which method will I use next time, I will say if I need to do something else and cannot afford the time to keep checking on the oven, I will choose the RC. But in other cases, I may just use the oven as it is faster and supposed it will save some electricity?
Nevertheless, it was an interesting test. This recipe is really yummy and the sweetness is just right, there is no need to reduce the amount of sugar :)
Happy baking and "cooking" :)
For rc the heat is mainly from the bottom and sides so the top won't brown as nicely whereas the bottom is more brown compared to the one from the oven. The rc appears to take longer as it also needs to 'pre heat'. If only the chiffon cake can be flipped over half way then it will be perfect. I have used my rc to bake salt baked chicken I flip it over so that the whole chicken is evenly baked.
ReplyDeleteInteresting :)
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