Mini Rice Cooker Sour Cream Cranberry Cake

A small cake baked in a mini 1.5L rice cooker. The concealed space of the rice cooker helps to hold the moisture within the cake during baking. This small volume cake also makes electric mixer dispensable. A hand whisk and a spatula are all you need to whip up the batter ^^

A not-so-rich velvety butter cake just nice for afternoon tea. No over eating assured ^^

Yield: one 13cm round cake

Appliances needed

Mini rice cooker, 1.5L, 200W

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter, softened 

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg, room temperature

50g fine sugar

80g top flour

1 tsp baking powder

30g sour cream

50g milk, room temperature

10g chopped dried cranberry 

Direction 

1. Grease the rice cooker inner pot with either butter or cooking oil spray. 

2. Mix and loosen flour and baking powder. Set aside.

3. Use a pair of scissors to cut the cranberry into smaller bits. Toss the cranberry bits with some flour. Set aside.

4. Cream the softened butter to pale yellow using a hand whisk. This will take about 1 minute.

The softened butter is not advisable to reach glossy stage. If the outer layer of the butter becomes glossy, return it to the fridge for 5 minutes before whipping. 

5. Add sugar and salt, mix till the sugar is well incorporated with the butter. This will take about 3 to 4 minutes. Scrape down the butter on the side once in a while.

6. Add in beaten egg, in about 5 additions, and blend well.

7. Add in the sour cream till well incorporated.

8. Add in 1/3 of the flour mixture from (2) into (7) and mix using the hand whisk. Add in 1/2 of the milk and blend well. Alternating between flour and milk till you finish all the ingredients.

Stop mixing once no flour can be seen. Extensive stirring will result in gluten formed and a harder cake.

9. Pour in the dried cranberry bits and fold in using a spatula.

10. Preheat the rice cooker by turning on the "keep warm" mode for about 3 minutes.

11. Pour the cake batter into the rice cooker. Give the pot a few jolts to get rid of trapped air and to even out the surface.

12. Put the pot into the rice cooker, close the lid and start the cake baking process by selecting the "rice cooking" mode.

After awhile, the rice cooker will switch to "keep warm" mode. Wait for 3 minutes, then switch on the rice cooking mode again.

Repeat this process for about 25 minutes, or till an inserted stick came out clean of the cake. Check the readiness of the cake when you start to smell nice butter aroma. 

Avoid opening the rice cooker too often, as this will extend the baking time.

13. When the baking process is over, open the lid and invert out the cake onto a cooling rack.

14. Cut and serve when the cake has cooled down :)

Sharing corner 🌻🐝

1. Stir the ingredients, especially after  flour has been added, in alternating clockwise and anti-clockwise directions. This helps to prevent the build up of gluten in the batter which will give rise to a tougher cake texture.

2. Minimize the mixing time for the same reason as point 1. As long as about 80% of the flour has been incorporated, you can stop stirring. The subsequent mixing will eventually take care of the remaining unmixed flour.