Break Out Your Slow Cooker For Moist Cake Without Fail

Slow cookers are a tool which can make cooking almost effortless, as you can essentially set and forget, leaving your handy appliance to do the heavy lifting. From pork ribs, to stews and soups, slow cookers allow even the busiest families to bring a home cooked meal to the table. You might be saving your cooker for savory recipes, but they also have a valuable place in making desserts, especially cakes. 

If you're a regular baker, you've probably already experienced the disappointment of an overly dry cake. While there are ways to save dry cakes like adding some layers to them, your slow cooker is the answer to getting a consistently moist cake with minimal effort. The premise of a slow cooker is to cook your food for longer on a low temperature, with the steam sealing the lid and preserving any moisture. As a result, your cake will be slowly steamed instead of oven baked, with no risk of burning and a guaranteed moist texture.

If your slow cooker is on the smaller side, you can bake your cake in a double lined case like this KitchenCraft cake tin liner, or you can line your pot with baking paper. If you have a larger slow cooker, you can also use a metal or silicone cake tin. Since your cake needs some breathing room, you can place balled up aluminum foil, or a small baking tin in between the cake and the slow cooker base.

Cakes will release steam when baking, which is why you should tightly secure a kitchen towel under your slow cooker lid. The towel will catch any condensation droplets so that they don't drip back down, making the cake soggy. Make sure any edges of the towel are folded over, as leaving them hanging on the sides can be a fire hazard. You'll also want to avoid using a tea towel that smells strongly of laundry detergent, as this will infuse your cake. The cake you choose for your slow cooker is ultimately up to you, but any cake that needs moisture, like a lemony carrot cake or peanut butter chocolate cake is a good place to start.