Pot Baked Rich Butter Cake – A Homemade Delicacy

~ Baked Rich Butter Cake ~

I am not a regular baker and baking is never my favourite thing to do. I only bake because it is a great activity to do with my little 3 years old pre-schooler girl. Occasionally, her cousins and friends. While I am spending precious time with her, I get to feed the family with some baked treats. Not too bad at all!

I have never owned a conventional table top oven nor a built-in oven for two reasons. (1) I do not bake regularly and never in large scale. (2) We tend to move from place to place, domestically or internationally. So, getting an oven on the kitchen top would seem to be a white elephant. Let alone, the costs of having an in-built oven which will be a hassle when there is a call for move. So, how do I bake then? I bake with the cooking system I already have for my day to day cooking, the AMC Premium Cooking System. I used the AMC Navigenio, which is the heat source on hotplate I used to cook, for all my bakes. It is a complete system that I could do any cooking and baking with it.

My recent many failures in baking simple cakes has resulted in harsh comment from my hubby. He believes that the AMC Navigenio is not able to bake a reasonably nice cake as my bakes always turned out dense with gluey streaks. Being the AMC Premium Cooking System die heart fan, I was very upset. I told him the problem is not the Navigenio but me. I have seen my mum baking uncountable times of cakes successfully and I have tasted spongy soft cakes from friends who bakes with the AMC Navigenio. He was not convinced.

On my last bake of a dense and gluey streaks butter cake, I have decided to take a photo of it and share it on the SHC Clubhouse Facebook Group in hope to find an answer from the fellow members. Many responded. One look at my photo, some experienced bakers are able to tell where the problem lies, a few laughed at it and another member even said that it looks like “kuih”. Nevertheless, I gathered some valuable comments and I have concluded that the main reason or all my failed cake baking is due to the batter being overmixed.

The “kueh” alike, over-mixed butter cake. It is dense and shows gluey streaks, as though it is underbaked. It is actually completely baked.

The Rich Butter Cake without over-mixing with exactly the same recipe.

Have you ever seen a cake that looks like “kuih”? The photo attached above is how it looks like. It is rarely seen floating around because most people do not share if they are unsuccessfully baked or they are not available for sale if they are not nicely baked. I only learnt the techniques when I asked on SHC Clubhouse. I am truly grately that I understand some of the basic steps and logic behind basic baking. Now that I am equipped with a bit more knowledge, I baked another butter cake this weekend. I have also attached the photo of this successfully baked butter cake above for easy comparison. Although it may not be the best cake, depending on one’s level of professionalism, I am utmost happy that I managed to bake this. I have proved my hubby wrong about baking with the AMC Navigenio. ✌

My 3 years old little girl has always been pretty diplomatic. Whenever I asked her if my cake is nice, she will say “Yes, nice!” with some positive gesture like shaking her body but she had never finish a slice. So, I would not dream of her asking for another slice. When this butter cake was baked just in time for tea this afternoon, on the first bite of the freshly baked butter cake, little missy said, “Mmm….”. Well, I was not so happy yet with her reaction as she has always been saying all nice. A few seconds later, she turned back and said, “Mummy, can I have more please?”, I know that this is the recipe that I would want to share here. It is so moist, soft and buttery, you will never stop at one slice. Of course, my little missy did not stop at one slice.

Baked Rich Butter Cake Recipe :

A. Ingredients

225 grams Butter (room temperature)
120 grams Castor Sugar
4 Eggs, 60 grams each (room temperature)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
200 grams All Purpose Flour or Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Powder (add to flour in 5 above & mix well)
4 tablespoons Greek Style Yogurt

B. Instruments

Cake Mixer
Whisk/Plastic Spatula
Baking sheet (one round sheet for 24cm diameter pot)
AMC 24cm 5.0 litre Pot
AMC Navigenio

AMC Baking Method :

A. Making The Batter

Add butter and castor sugar to the cake mixer and mix well on medium speed.
Add eggs, one at a time to the butter mixture on the same speed.
Add vanilla essence to the batter.
Sift in the flour and baking powder mix to the batter in 3 batches. Fold in the flour with a whisk or a plastic spatula in 3 batches.
Add yogurt and whisk gently into batter.

B. Baking The Cake

Place the baking sheet in an AMC 24cm 5.0 litre Pot unit, cover with lid and preheat with the AMC Navigenio heat level “3” to 50°C or “Meat Window”. Use the Audiotherm as an indicator by turning it on, place on lid knob, indicating 50°C or “Meat Window”.
When Audiotherm beeps, turn off both Navigenio & Audiotherm. Remove lid and place pot unit on the up-turned lid.
Pour the batter into the Pot unit and gently spread evenly in Pot unit.
Cover Pot unit with Navigenio turned upside down. Turn Navigenio on low heat level “-“ with Audiotherm activated to bake for 15 minutes.
When Audiotherm beeps, turn off both Navigenio & Audiotherm.
Continue to bake for another 5 minutes with the residual heat from Navigenio.

Tips :

Beware of overmixing the flour added into batter. Use a whisk or a plastic spatula instead of the cake mixer if you are unsure of the power of your cake mixer which may be capable of overmixing the batter.
To prevent cake from sinking, continue to cover pot unit with Navigenio after turning it off for the last 5 minutes. The residual heat from Navigenio gradually reduces heat in pot, avoiding sudden drop in cake temperature which may cause sinking.