My father recently got a bread maker. As someone who’s determined to make my life harder than it needs to be I was skeptical at first – using a machine for something you could do yourself with twice as much work in double the time? But I do have to admit it has slowly been winning me over. It probably won’t be my go to, as far as baking goes, but it’s fun and much less messy when it comes to making a single loaf of bread.
This week we tried the cake setting on the bread maker, and I think it has some pros and cons.
Pro? It was very easy. I was using a cake mix that I got as a stocking stuffer for Christmas (an unusual choice, but I found it fun) which already had bread machine instructions on the back. Once I put in the liquid and the cake mix all I had to do was pop it in the bread machine, set the machine to the cake setting, and then hit start. Two hours later I had a fresh baked cake I could pop out of bread maker and let cool. I think the shape could even be a pro when it came for making things like tortes, especially since the bread machine we have makes the cake as a tall square shape (which feels like a given, since it is supposed to make a bread loaf, but you get the point). Most importantly the cake tasted good and was light with a very fine crumb. Truth be told I’m not sure how I feel about that, mostly because while the cake wasn’t dense in any sense it was tight and I prefer an airy bake when I’m making cakes.
The cons on the cake is that it came out a touch darker on the crust than I would prefer. It wasn’t burnt, but I found the dark brown color of the cake off putting. If I was frosting the cake it likely wouldn’t be noticeable, but if I was doing a naked cake or something like a torte I would want to remove the sides so that it wouldn’t be so dark. One flaw in using the cake mix is that, what I didn’t realize at the time, there were bits of candied orange peel in the cake mix. They taste fine in the cake, but due to the baking machines mixing process most of the extra bits ended up settling close to the bottom of the cake. The bread machine we have does have the option to add nuts or fruits later in the baking process, but unfortunately since the bits were already in the mix I didn’t have that option. I’ll have to keep it in mind if we use another baking mix like this one again.
I finished the cake with a simple orange glaze, made with fresh orange zest, orange juice, and powdered sugar. The cake mix was mildly sweet so the glaze added just a little extra sugar to the cake which I really liked. I’m not sure I would serve the cake to guests for a party or other special event but when it comes to a simple sweet treat for the family I think it’s a success!
