Cooking Breads And Cakes

There are a few tricks to remember when “baking” in one of these pots.
First, turn the control to HIGH (or to the setting which is equivalent to
the HIGH used in my recipes). The LOW setting is too low to give breads and
cakes the texture you expect. With breads, remember to cover the container
with a lid or foil. Tie the lid or foil onto the container and place the
container on a metal rack or trivet inside the pot. If you don’t have a
metal rack or trivet to fit your slow cooker, crumple foil and place it in
the bottom of the pot to support the baking continer. Pour 2 cups of hot
water around the container to provide steam for cooking the bread.

When using a deep-dryer type slow cooker, check frequently to make sure the
water hasn’t evaporated. Add more water if needed.

As a rule, it is not a good idea to remove the lid or foil from the bread
container during the first 2 hours of cooking. After that, check the bread
by inserting a toothpick in the mixture. If the toothpick comes out clean,
the bread is done.

When using a standard cake mix, the prcedure is slightly different. Cakes
are “baked” in a pan set directly on the bottom of the slow cooker, similar
to the way you would do it in an oven. It is not necessary to use a trivet
or water. Instead of covering the uncooked cake misture with foil or a
lid, cover the top with four or five layers of paper towels. Becouse there
is more moisture in a slow cooker than in an oven it is necessary to
compensate for this with the paper towels to help absorb the moist top of
the cake mix. Also, leave the lid of your slow cooker slightly open to let
extra moisture escape.

The type and kind of container to use for breads and cakes will depend on
the size of your pot. In addition to molds and coffee cans, spring forms
or small bundt pans make excellent containers.

The containers at the top hold approzimately the same amount of batter so
you can substitute one for another.

From:CROCKERY COOKERY by Mable Hoffman’s