When talking about baking you might assume that you need to have a fully functional oven. This is not the case. Especially if you live in a student flat that that doesn’t come with an oven, you don’t need to despair. Baking in a microwave or a combined microwave oven is not only simple and but also possible.
A microwave works by getting water molecules in the food to vibrate. It does this by radiation of a certain type of electromagnetic waves, called microwaves. This is where the microwave got its name from. The agitated water molecules begin to generate heat energy. They pass on this energy to the surrounding molecules. The heat energy forces the food to cook. Since it is water that gets agitated by the electromagnetic waves, solids such as plastic don’t warm up when used in a microwave.
Note that there is a difference between a solo microwave and a microwave oven. The latter lets you bake any cake and the likes whereas a solo microwave is only able to cook a selected few bakes. If you try to bake in a normal microwave you will need to use microwave safe cookware. In a microwave oven which is set to the oven function mode you can use your normal metal tins and moulds.
If you bake in a solo microwave you don’t need to preheat it as you would do with an oven. Simply set the temperature and the timer and press start when you’re ready. To use a combined microwave oven you need to preheat the oven but it shouldn’t take long at all.
The easiest way to bake something in the microwave is by using a mug. It’s microwave safe yet you won’t get a big portion out of it. Cupcakes and brownies are the best examples of mug baking. The main ingredients for mug brownies are flour, sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, milk and butter. Mixing these together in the mug, place the mug in the microwave and within two or three minutes you can eat your brownie. It is best to eat the brownie as soon as possible as warm brownies are tasty.
Taste is another issue. It really comes down to experimenting. Baking in a microwave is only possible to a certain extent, but baking in a microwave oven should be fine. But there are a few problems. Even though the combined microwave oven will reach the same temperature as a conventional oven, be aware that the heat may not be as evenly distributed. This may cause a cake to get brown on the top early on leaving it unbaked in the inside. This could mean that your cakes tastes burnt or that is has a soggy bottom.
Michelle Heinrich
Picture 1:
http://www.wikihow.com/images/6/6c/Make-Cake-in-the-Microwave-Step-3-Version-2.jpg
Picture 2:
http://livelovepasta.com/2011/05/nutella-mug-cake/
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