Bake A Carrot Cake In A Slow Cooker

Carrot cake is tasty, but it’s not the easiest cake to bake. This trick from America’s Test Kitchen doesn’t cut down on the cooking time, but it does shrink the prep to only 15 minutes, uses your slow cooker, tastes delicious and is healthier to boot. Here’s how it works, and where to get the recipe.

The key to a really good carrot cake is making sure that it’s nice and moist — something that’s difficult to do without a lot of oil or fat in the recipe. Test cooks at ATK discovered that the slow, even heating of a slow cooker turns out an exceptionally moist cake, takes only a few minutes of prep, and turns out perfectly every time. Plus, it’s actually lighter than traditional recipes (not that you’re usually considering how healthy a freshly baked cake is, right?)

Another benefit of using the slow cooker is that the recipe is actually healthier. All too often this cake dries out in the oven, unless you use a lot of oil. It turns out the slow cooker makes it far easier to produce a moist carrot cake without using all that oil. For a flavorful carrot cake with a moist, but not wet, texture, we tested different amounts of grated carrots and oil, both of which can weigh down the batter. In the end, 3/4 cup of shredded carrots and 7 tablespoons of oil provided enough flavour and richness without making the cake soggy or greasy.

The real takeaway here is that it’s amazing what you can do in a slow cooker; soups and stews are given, but a cake is a really clever use. Hit the link below for the full recipe.

Slow Cooker Carrot Cake [America’s Test Kitchen]