How to Bake a Cake in a NuWave Oven

Marketed to save you time and space, the NuWave oven has the ability to cook any part of your meal, from appetizer to dessert. This appliance is approximately the same size as a large food processor unit and is made to sit on your countertop in a similar fashion. The NuWave oven is promoted as a way to get dinner on your table in a jiffy and with an easy cleanup, but you can also purchase an additional baking set that allows you to cook some yummy dessert items, including cakes. However, you may need to make some adjustments to your recipe amounts and cooking times.

In a process termed Triple Combo Cooking Power, the NuWave oven uses a combination of conduction heat, convection heat and infrared heat to cook your foods quickly, without heating up your kitchen the way a conventional oven does. Conduction cooking provides direct heat, convection cooking generates heat that circulates around the cake and infrared heat penetrates the cake to cook it inside and out. Your cake will rise and brown naturally while cooking.

When using the NuWave oven to bake a cake, you have to think a bit outside the box. Although it can handle any type of oven-safe bakeware, the unit is circular, so choose a pan that fits inside. Use the separately purchased extender kit to fit a 10-inch pie plate inside the oven. The company also sells a baking set that includes a square 8-inch by 8-inch silicone pan made specifically for baking brownies and cakes. Another consideration is cake layers -- you can only fit one pan at a time inside the NuWave oven, so you are limited to baking a single-layer cake unless you make other layers individually.

The NuWave oven doesn't require preheating, so wait until your batter is prepared and in the unit before turning it on. Some cooks prefer to make the cake batter from scratch using recipes included with the unit, but you can also use store-bought cake mixes. Simply prepare the cake batter according to the recipe or box instructions, fill the baking pan and set any remaining batter aside for later use. With the Extender Ring in place, set the filled cake pan on top of the 1-inch rack inside the oven. Close the dome and secure it tightly with the dome holder.

Once the dome is secured, bake the cake at the required setting for the appropriate amount of time. Bake a yellow cake mix batter in an 8-inch by 8-inch pan for 25 minutes to 30 minutes on power level 8. Bake the NuWave Death By Chocolate Cake in the 8-inch by 8-inch pan on power level 10 for 30 minutes to 35 minutes. If you follow the NuWave recipe, baking a pineapple upside down cake is a three-step process. First, bake the cake batter in a 10-inch pan set on the rack at 4 inches for 5 minutes at level 10. Add pineapple rings and a sprinkle of brown sugar to the top of the cake and continue baking for another 15 minutes. Finally, move the cake pan to the 2-inch rack setting and bake for the final 15 minutes.