I’ve been baking for a very long time, and consider myself something of a jack-of-all-trades. I don’t specialize in any particular type of baking, and I’m no pastry chef, but years of working in kitchens and recipe development have made me a pretty nimble baker. All of that said, everyone has their Achilles’ heel, and mine is cake.
I can bake simple bowl cakes, but anything even slightly fancy is beyond my abilities. On those occasions where I find myself needing to make a cake — a birthday or other celebration — I’m often crippled with worry over how it will turn out. That is, until I realized I could cheat the system.
Why You Should Check Cake Batter in the Microwave Before Baking
The microwave gets short shrift in the kitchen, maligned as a Band-Aid appliance for lazy chefs, or shunted to the side as something you only use to reheat leftovers or defrost frozen items, but it can do so much more than that.
For years I’ve used the microwave to test savory foods like meatball mixtures and homemade breakfast sausage for flavor and consistency. You can’t taste the raw mixture to check that you’re happy with the seasonings, but you can pop a tiny bit in the microwave until cooked through and taste that. It took me far too long to realize that I could apply the same quick-check treatment to cake batter as well. A quick turn in the microwave, while not a perfect window into the final cake’s texture, is a good indicator of whether or not the cake will rise, lets you know if the texture is wildly off, and allows you to taste it. I consider it a minor miracle.
How to Check Cake Batter in the Microwave
- Mix your batter. Once you’ve reached the point in your cake recipe that the batter is ready to be poured into a cake pan and baked off, you’re ready to test it.
- Test. Dollop a small spoonful (about 1 tablespoon is all you should need) onto a microwave-safe plate and heat at full power for 15 to 30 seconds.
- Cool and taste. Let the cooked batter cool for a few seconds before tasting it, depending on the strength of your microwave it can get quite hot in that short amount of time. I usually pull it apart first to check the crumb, and then taste.
- Repeat if necessary. If something seems off, you can now adjust your batter and test again before committing the whole batch to the oven. Ta-da!
If You’re Testing Cake Batter in the Microwave, a Few Tips
- Don’t zap it for too long. If you heat the batter for too long in the microwave it will become dry and tough — not a good indicator of how the final cake will turn out.
- Disclaimer: It’s not perfect. Consider this more of a general indicator than a perfect window into the future. The microwave and the oven apply different kinds of heat. The final cake texture won’t be exactly the same as what comes out of the microwave, but it’s a useful tool for catching big problems.