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my oven has recently broken, it turns on but does not heat. On the other hand, my broiler works just fine and I've been able to cook peach cobbler and peach bread, though that calls for a different recipe. Of course. it's a pandemic and I'm unable to get the oven fixed right now, I will be making a 4 tier chocolate box cake for my friends birthday in a square 8x8" pan and I really don't want to mess it up, is there any possible way to figure out how long to bake a cake in the oven on the low broiler setting, should i just check it every 15 minutes? Thank you in advance

Chan
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  • I won’t put this as an answer since I’ve no idea if it would work with a box cake mix, but there are cakes which are built up with 20 or so very thin layers, each poured on top of the last and broiled. http://www.patesmith.co/schichttorte-20-layered-german-cake/ – Spagirl May 06 '20 at 23:52
  • Thank you, I did see this but wasnt sure how it would work with a box cake either – Chan May 07 '20 at 02:27

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I would suggest putting the cake on the lowest shelf your oven has and put a second oven rack above it then put a baking sheet or hotel tray on the upper rack to block direct radiation. If you have an oven steel or pizza stone, you can put that under your cake while you're preheating to help with the bake (leaving it in). It will hold a lot of heat and make the cook more even.

myklbykl
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    oh you know what, thats super smart, I thought about putting the cake on the bottom rack and covering the middle with foil but not about the oven steel or pizza stone actually under the cake to cook it even. That's what I was worried about initially, the cake being like pudding in the middle. Will have to test one first then try it out, Thank you – Chan May 06 '20 at 23:04
  • this is quite enlightening. What about using a cast iron skillet to bake the cake in a broiler oven ? Thanks ! – Lina Jul 07 '22 at 18:03
  • @Lina The high heat from the top is the issue here, not from the bottom - if anything, a cast iron skillet might make things worse, since it'll make it take _longer_ for the base of the cake to heat up. I guess you could preheat the skillet; that works for cornbread but I'm not sure what it'd do to a cake batter. – Cascabel Jul 07 '22 at 19:27