Baking a Cake without an Oven (IN INDIA!)

          So, this is my first adventure into food blogging. I write this mostly because I figured out how to make baked goods without an oven and I need to tell all my Indian and Fulbrighter friends about it. This is also a great trick if you’re poor and live in an apartment without an oven OR if we experience another heat wave on the East Coast like last summer and you need to bake without using an oven. I took lots of pictures to explain what I did, but my Internet is too slow to upload them now. I’ll try again later.

            I spent much of last night and this morning surfing my crappy Internet for non-oven baked goods recipes. Even though this took hours, it was still a fun distraction. The inspiration was boredom, but then I realized that Monika and Lucky (my landlords’ kids) had their last day of finals today, creating a perfect excuse for baking. I came across several options for non-oven baking:

·      Dutch oven—this in India translates to putting a pot inside another pot on a stove.

·      Water bath—this in India is an Indian Dutch oven with water in the first pot.

·      Pressure cooker—I actually found this on a bunch of Indian cooking web sites. It seems like a cool idea, but my pressure cooker here isn’t big enough. I have a larger one in Dehradun and might try it there.

I selected the water bath, because it does not require the lid of the vessel to be kept warm, unlike a Dutch oven. The idea is that the boiling water heats the bottom, while the steam heats the top. Therefore, you get an evenly cooked and moist product. This is a good option for cakes or custards, but not for cookies or other things that you want crispy.

I could not find the type of cake that I wanted to make specifically mentioned in a water bath recipe, so I combined a couple different recipes. I decided that an apple cinnamon cake would be best for Joshimath, because cinnamon and apples are easily available here. Your ingredients might change based on where you are in India. IF you are in the South, I recommend trying a pineapple upside down cake. That can be made in a thick skillet on a stovetop.

Here is the recipe that I came up with. I did not have measuring cups, so I used chai cups instead.

·      Two apples, peeled and diced

·      Cinnamon (to taste)

·      Nutmeg (less than cinnamon)

·      1.5 chai cups of granulated sugar and then some to mix with apples

·      2 chai cups of regular flour

·      1 tablespoon baking powder

·      1 pinch salt

·      ¼ of a block of Amul butter, melted

·      Milk (added until desired consistency was reached)

·      Eggs (optional-I did not use eggs, but you can use one egg and add less milk)

·      2 pots, one small enough to fit inside the other.

1.  Mix diced apples with cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Then sprinkle liberally with sugar, mix, and put aside.

2.  Mix all dry ingredients (including more cinnamon and nutmeg) together. Go easy on the nutmeg, too much can taste bitter.

3.  Take melted butter and mix it with about 1 chai cup milk. Add into dry ingredients and lightly stir, then decide how much more milk you need. If this seems vague, it’s because I cobbled this recipe together. You want a consistency that slowly pours out of a spoon. It should be thick like molasses, but not as thick as cookie dough.

4.  Take one big pot and a smaller pot that can easily fit inside it. Put about 2-3 inches of water inside the big pot.

5. Now coat the inside of the smaller pot with butter and then sprinkle with flour. Put half of the apples on the bottom and then pour in a little less than half the batter. Put the rest of the apples on top of this layer and then follow with the rest of the batter. OR you can mix the apples into the batter and pour it all in together.

6. Bring the water in the larger pot to a boil; then reduce heat to a medium-low flame. Place the smaller pot inside the larger one and cover with a large plate or lid (if you’re fancy and have lids.)

7.  It took about an hour to cook my cake. It might have taken less time if I didn’t check on it every ten minutes and let steam out. I’d suggest being cautious and checking a lot. The cake was very moist even with lifting the “lid” and Indian stoves are notoriously hard to control. As usual, I just tested the consistency with a knife or toothpick.

8.  Let cool for about 30 minutes and then use a knife to separate the edges from the bowl. After that it should come out easily when turned upside down.

            My cake turned out very well. If you have cake flour, it will probably be even better. You can get granulated sugar at most stores even if they don’t have it displayed. If I could change one thing about my recipe, it would be the amount of nutmeg that I put in the batter. I got very excited about having nutmeg and went a little overboard. This resulted in a stronger taste than I would’ve liked. I also think that raisins would’ve been a nice addition.

            I hope that this helps my friends without an oven do some baking. The weather in the mountains is very fall-like now and it was wonderful to have a cake that reminded me of autumn back home.