Banana Rice Cooker Cake

I’ve never been thrilled with single use kitchen appliances, but it turns out a rice cooker can be used for several things, including making cake! This is a low power option to bake if you don’t have an oven. They can also be used as a slow cooker for soups and stews, oatmeal, quinoa, pasta, beans, lentils or even hard boiling eggs! There are “fuzzy logic” rice cookers popular in Asia that have several different functions, often including a cake setting. Since rice cooker sizes vary so much, I’ve included half recipe measurements for smaller cookers.

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe bananas

  • 4 large eggs, yolks and whites separated

  • 1/2 cup sugar

  • 7 Tablespoons butter, melted but not hot

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1/8 teaspoon salt (omit if you are using salted butter)

  • Half Recipe ->

  • -> 1 ripe banana

  • -> 2 large eggs

  • -> 1/4 cup sugar

  • -> 3 1/2 Tablespoons, melted but not hot

  • -> 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • -> 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

  • -> 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • -> Pinch of salt

Directions

  • Puree ripe bananas with a food processor or blender.

  • If your rice cooker pot has a Teflon non-stick coating, there is no need to grease and flour. Otherwise, lightly grease and flour the pot.

  • In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until medium peak, while adding sugar in 3 batches.

  • Add egg yolks, pureed banana, melted butter and vanilla extract. Combine each completely one by one.

  • Gently fold the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt) into to the wet ingredients with a spatula. Stop once the dry ingredients are just mixed to make sure the airy batter doesn’t collapse.

  • Pour the batter into the rice cooker pot and place it into the rice cooker. Press the “cook” button. Once it turns to “warm”, wait for 10 minutes. Repeat “cook” and “warm” cycle for another 3 times for a total of 4 cycles of “cook” and “warm”.

  • Test that a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. If not, repeat the “cook” and “warm” cycle again until the cake is fully baked.

  • Remove the pot from the rice cooker and invert onto a plate. The cake should easily drop from the pot. Slice and serve.