Although fruit can be quite expensive to buy in Japan, bananas are normally the cheapest you can get. Our local supermarket sometimes even has very good deals were you can buy large amounts of bananas (15-20) at a time for really cheap. Too good a deal not to buy! But we do end up eating a lot of bananas...
So, we have been trying different banana-recipes, and off course we also had to mix it with our favorite cake recipe. It turned out the be a really delicious cake, with the banana giving the cake a nice soft, smooth texture and sweet taste. Just like our other recipes, the cake is really easy baked (steamed) using the rice cooker. Absolutely fail-proof!
Ingredients (makes a cake with approximately 19cm diameter, and 3 cm height):
125 gr flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
50 ml oil
100 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 or 3 bananas
First, mix all ingredients (except for the bananas) together. Make sure the batter is smooth.
Mixing the batter
Then, you add the bananas. Normally we just 'break' the banana into small pieces and mix it in the batter. No need to make it completely smooth, the banana-pieces should still easily be visible
Batter with the banana pieces mixed in
Put the batter in the rice cooker, put it on cake-setting and let it bake for 30 minutes. (or what your own rice cooker requires) After the rice cooker has finished, wait until the pan and the cake has cooled down. Then you can turn over the pan and with a little shake the cake will come out perfectly.
Our next cake recipe will be for carrot-cake form the rice cooker. Just as easy as all the other cake recipes, and the carrot gives the cake a sweet taste, a soft texture and some extra vitamins (so you don't have to feel too guilty if you eat a bit too much from this cake ;-)
Ingredients (makes a cake with approximately 19cm diameter, and 3 cm height):
125 gr flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
50 ml oil
100 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 carrot, grated
The baking process is pretty much the same as all our cake
recipes: mix all the ingredients together. Grating the carrot can be a little tedious, but really gives the cake a nice taste.
Grating the carrot
Mixing the batter, gets a nice orange colour
Put the batter in the rice cooker, put it on cake-setting and let it
bake for 30 minutes. (or what your own rice cooker requires) After the rice cooker has finished, wait until the
pan and the cake has
cooled down. Then you can turn over the pan and with a little shake the
cake will come out perfectly.
One again we would like to share one of our easy rice cooker cake recipes. This time it will be an apple-cinnamon cake!
Ingredients (makes a cake with approximately 19cm diameter, and 3 cm height):
125 gr flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
50 ml oil
100 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 apples
cinnamon
Peel the apples, remove the core, and cut them to small pieces. Cover the pieces in cinnamon.
The rest of the baking process is pretty much the same as all our cake
recipes: mix all the ingredients together until the batter is smooth. Add some extra cinnamon to the batter for some more cinnamon-taste to your cake! Also add the apple pieces to the batter, and make sure they are evenly divided.
Put the batter in the rice cooker, put it on cake-setting and let it
bake for 30 minutes. (or what your own rice cooker requires) After the rice cooker has finished, wait until the
pan and the cake has
cooled down. Then you can turn over the pan and with a little shake the
cake will come out perfectly.
A new recipe in our very populair 'rice cooker cake'-recipe series: Japanese matcha cake. Matcha, fine powder green tea, doesn't only make for delicious tea but can also be used to make all kinds of sweets (matcha-taste chocolate is also one of our favourites) and desserts. And this time, we we share a recipe to make your own matcha cake!
Delicious pieces of matcha cake
Ingredients (makes a cake with approximately 19cm diameter, and 3 cm height):
125 gr flour
2 eggs
4 tbsp sugar
50 ml (coleseed) oil
100 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
1,5 tbsp of matcha powder
The rest of the baking process is pretty much the same as all our cake recipes: mix all the ingredients together until the batter is smooth.
A tip for adding the matcha: add it little by little as the last step, so you can taste and adjust the amount of matcha powder if you think the taste is too strong (or too weak).
The cake batter mixed with matcha powder
Put the batter in the rice cooker, put it on cake-setting and let is bake for 30 minutes. After the rice cooker has finished, wait until the pan and the cake has
cooled down. Then you can turn over the pan and with a little shake the
cake will come out perfectly.
Time for another cake made by the rice cooker! Our previous chocolate cake recipe was a big success, so this time we want to share another favourite of our cake recipes. Again it is very easy to make in the rice cooker.
This recipe is for Japanese sweet potato (satsuma-imo) cake. We have already posted several dinner recipes made with satsuma-imo (sweet potato rice & steamed sweet potato), but it's sweet taste makes it an excellent ingredient for cake too.
Ingredients (makes a cake with approximately 19cm diameter, and 3 cm height):
125 gr flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
50 ml (coleseed) oil
100 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
1 satsuma-imo
Mix the flour, eggs, sugar, oil, milk, and baking powder together until the batter is smooth. Cut the sweet potato in small pieces, and add to the batter, then mix together.
Sweet potato cut into small pieces
Sweet potato cake batter in the rice cooker pan
Put the batter in your rice cooker, and make sure the potato pieces are evenly divided. Put the rice cooker on cake-modus,
and turn on for 30 minutes.
After the rice cooker has finished, wait until the pan and the cake have
cooled down. Then you can turn over the pan and with a little shake the
cake will come out perfectly.
Finished Sweet potato cake
The cake will be a little heavy, but that makes it also perfect to enjoy at a picnic or put in a bento box.
(recap from last cake recipe: No need to grease the rice
cooker-pan, it already has (should have) a
very good anti-stick layer and the cake will come out easily. Our rice
cooker has a cake option in the menu, which will ask for the
amount of time you want to cook your cake. All rice cookers are probably
different, so check the options in the manual. Apparently, you may even
be able to make cake in a rice cooker with only an on-button, but we
haven't tried that so we can't say anything about it.)
We have found a new way to use our rice cooker: to make cake! We love the easiness and convenience of the rice cooker for cooking many delicious meals, and we love cake, so combining the two is perfect. It makes a delicious, and very easy to make cake!
We now have summer vacation from school, so lots of time to experiment with making different kind of cakes, and just in time so we can eat them for our birthdays :)
Making cake in the rice cooker is truly very easy and fast, and the taste of the cake is great. We will share our favourite recipe to make cake from the rice cooker, plain cake or easily converted to make chocolate cake (our absolute favourite taste)
Piece of chocolate cake, topped with extra chocolate sauce
Ingredients (makes a cake with approximately 19cm diameter, and 3 cm height):
125 gr flour
2 eggs
1 tbsp sugar
50 ml (coleseed) oil
100 ml milk
1 tsp baking powder
For chocolate cake: add chocolate powder or syrup to taste
Mix the flour, eggs, sugar, oil, milk, and baking powder together until the batter is smooth. For the chocolate-cake you can now add the chocolate powder or chocolate syrup, and mix with the batter.
Mixing the batter
Adding chocolate syrup
Chocolate cake batter in the rice cooker pan
Put the batter in your rice cooker. No need to grease the rice cooker-pan, it already has (should have) a very good anti-stick layer and the cake will come out easily. Put the rice cooker on cake-modus, and turn on for 30 minutes.
Our rice cooker has a cake option in the menu, which will ask for the amount of time you want to cook your cake. All rice cookers are probably different, so check the options in the manual. Apparently, you may even be able to make cake in a rice cooker with only an on-button, but we haven't tried that so we can't say anything about it.
Finished rice cooker cake
After the rice cooker has finished, wait until the pan and the cake has cooled down. Then you can turn over the pan and with a little shake the cake will come out perfectly. (Something we have experienced as much harder when you bake cake to traditional way in the oven!)
Rice cooker cake, ready to eat!
Top it with some whipped cream, chocolate sauce, jelly, or just enjoy plain!
Although fruit can be quite expensive to buy in Japan, bananas are normally the cheapest you can get. Our local supermarket sometimes even has very good deals were you can buy large amounts of bananas (15-20) at a time for really cheap. Too good a deal not to buy! But we do end up eating a lot of bananas...
