Ever bake a cake with steam??

[Tony from Ohio]

I recently started doing an old time favorite of mine, baking cakes with steam instead of oven heat. If you have not tried this you really should, the cake comes out so moist it's well worth the effort.

All you need is a pot, pan, anything you can heat some water in, drop something in to hold the cake above the water level a few inches (you can use cans with rocks in the bottom for weight) and a cover for said pot or pan. At work I used a chafing pan, we put one on the stove Friday night to hold our prime rib. I used a cooling rack to support the cake pan, worked beautifully. I realize most people don't have a chafing pan, but even a roasting pan with lid can be used. Most of the time I use a stockpot since most are fairly deep. You do need something that when covered isn't right on top of the cake if your pan or pot is tall enough you can even cover it with foil. The lid or cover need not fit tightly, as long as you use several inches of water in pan so it doesn't go dry, some steam loss is not important.

After assembling your steaming chamber on the stove and heating up, mix your cake batter as you normally would, I still grease and flour my pan altho only greasing may be needed, I've never tried it without the flouring. Place pan in cteaming chamber, walk away, if you have intense steam coming off you can lower the heat a bit so as not to boil the pan dry. This method usually take as long as baking with heat but one of the pluses is you don't get a hard edge as with baking so it's not a battle to get someone to eat an edge piece lol.

OK, there ya go, give it a try and see, this can also be done over an open fire outside, what a great way to make a dessert camping out, I usually take the canned frosting, warm it up and glaze the cake with it, some reason it's better than icing the cake and you don't run the risk of ripping a section out like frosting a cake with a knife. LoL, remember those old commercials where the housewife was frosting a cake with a paper knife? Anyways, enjoy, I recently did a pumpkin bread mix this way, it was sooooooo moist, so yes, you can do your pumpkin and zucchine breads this way too.

[joyce1954]

This is great! I have been looking for bakings types for when there is no oven. Think this would work with any quick bread? Biscuits? Yeast Breads?

[Saul Mine]

Steamed bread is an old tradition, often called "hobo bread". There is a trick: it works best with batter recipes, not dough. There is a special danger: the can tends to turn over and dump the batter. You have to think of some way to keep the can upright, either by using a can that is too tall to turn over in the pot or by using several cans side by side. Oh, and cover the can with foil to keep out large drops of water.

[roamal]

Thanks for the idea Tony!

One of my issues here is the elevation-baked goods just never seem to come out quite "right". Going to try and see if I am more successful with the steam method.

Thinking my canner would be a good pot for this-do you think the canning rack is high enough or is that not going to allow for enough water?

[Tony from Ohio]

Roamal, I think your canner would be an excellent device for making this and your canning rack should keep it high enough. If the water level does seem to be getting close to gone you can always add some hot water to it, it won't effect the cooking process, just slows it down a tad.

Saul is right, this isn't a good method for dough type breads, I think you'd wind up with something closer to a steamed dumpling in the end, some things just require dry heat to aid in cooking/browning. Any kind of batter type breadstuff or cake will work nicely though, you could even try muffins, I'm sure they'd turn out really moist if dryness has been a past issue with dry heat baking.

On the other hand, if you're brave and making a yeast product, you can always try just a small sample and see what the results are Joyce, like I said tho, I fear it will be more like a dumpling in the end since one of the desired qualities of bread/biscuts is the browning.

I hope all of you that try this method like it, any other questions I'll try my best to answer, God bless and enjoy!

[roamal]

In the canner now....will let you know how everything goes! Thanks again Tony

[Disastercat]

I loved steamed bread and its close to the old way of making most "baked" sweets. Until the mid 19th century, most people did not have ovens (the more so in Europe) so the way to make a "pudding" was to put the dough in a buttered bag and boil or steam it in a pot. If it was a savory "pudding" this was done in the same pot as the stew or chicken, for sweet puddings water or juice was preferred.

I've made these steamed "puddings" (which are really steamed cakes in a bag) and they are very good. Most people today only see them as British Christmas Puddings, if they see them at all. You can buy special "pudding" dishes if you don't want to use the bag or use the above method with a rack.

Both cake mixes and yeast breads work well steamed, and wheat free bread tastes a lot better when steamed if you have someone in your family who simply can not have either wheat flour or even spelt.

[roamal]

Oh my....
Tony, this is absolutely wonderful!
The cake is so moist and flavorful it does not even need frosting!
I made a yellow cake mix and I am not even a fan....figured I'd make some kind of chocolate frosting for it. Luckily, I tasted a corner of the cake before making the frosting though....ended up just throwing a bit of whipped cream on it and served it like that.
My sons both were laughing at me this afternoon when they saw me put the cake in the canner but now I have the last laugh :D

One pointer for anyone trying this: I put my canning rack in the bottom, then a wire rack on top of that, then the cake pan. I had the water right up to the bottom of the pan. The cake did not want to come out of the pan at all. It was done (clean knife in the center, edges slightly pulled away from the sides) but the bottom did not want to release. Reading back through Tony's post, I think maybe I had it a bit to much "in" the water. Incredible taste but could not get it out in one piece to plate it. Guess I'll have to make another soon and see if having it up a bit higher makes a difference for me :)

Thanks again Tony!

[Mr. Inspector]

Some years ago I bought a "Turbo Cooker".I have cooked food in the bottom and baked the cake on the wire rack( in a spring form pan). It takes about 30 minutes and must add a cup of water to the covered pan every ten minutes(three cups total. I do the cake mix without oil and it comes out very moist. The children enjoy it. Type in "Turbo Cooker" on the net and look over the receipes on the site.

[Tony from Ohio]

You're most welcome Roamal. Glad I could share this with everyone. Yes, having the water too close to the bottom of pan will cause sticking, sorry I omitted that tidbit of info, try again sometime and keep your water level lower and as I said, if you need more you can always add some hot water to the canner to keep it from boiling dry. I've never had any problems getting the cake to release, when I did the pumpkin loaf, we don't have any loaf pans at work so I improvised and used a loaf size hard rubber type type food grade pan like you see in deli departments at stores. All I did on this was greased the inside well and the loaf slid right out after I cooled it some. I'm also curious to try yeast products, thanks for the input Disastercat, years ago my uncle found a recipe for suet pudding, it was a steamed pudding that was soooo good, you also made a sauce for it that was quite tasty, if anyone would happen to have a recipe for suet pudding I'd love to have it. Have to check out that Turbo Cooker too. Once again, I'm glad you enjoyed it.