When invited to a dinner party, I always blurt out “I’ll bring dessert.” I love to bake, but I often regret offering: I don’t always have time to bake a cake when I say I do. Add to the mix that it’s hotter than hell’s hammer lately and the idea of turning on the oven has sent me directly to my fainting couch.
For the challenge of making a fast, crowd-pleasing cake that also didn’t require heating up the oven, I turned to photographer and cookbook author Yossy Arefi for inspiration. Her hit book Snacking Cakes is full of simple, one-bowl snack cakes with fun flavors like lemony currant and rosemary; chocolate-orange beet; and my personal favorite, coconut lime. It’s a simple yellow sponge cake, cleverly composed of a triple dose of coconut — coconut oil, coconut milk, and toasted coconut — all pantry ingredients I always have around.
To turn it into an 8-inch microwaveable cake, I started researching “microwave cake” online and came up with nothing but mug cakes. Fortunately, the internet trend is dying down, but in its prime, there were a zillion bloggers promising delicious results for a single-serve microwaved cake in a mug. To me, most of them taste like a hot, sweet omelet. That’s not the failing of the authors, it has more to do with how a microwave cooks food.
Microwaves superheat water molecules that create steam that in turn cooks the food: Essentially, cooking a cake in the microwave is really more like steaming than baking it. And because microwaves heat somewhat unevenly, microwave mug cakes often have an uncooked center, something over-optimistically labeled “gooey” or “lava,” using lots of chocolate and sugar to pretend that texture is intentional.
But this experiment required more than a mug. On the first try, I made Arefi’s coconut lime cake in the standard 8-inch square glass Pyrex dish I always bake it in, microwaving it in bursts for 4, then 5, then 6, then 7 ½ minutes. The edges ended up rubbery but the center was gooey, and not in a good way. Next, I tried an 8-inch silicone round cake pan and got the same batter lake in the center.
Then I was reminded of the brilliant design of the Bundt pan. It’s a pan made with a hole in the center so big cakes will cook quickly and evenly because there’s no stubborn center; instead, it’s all edges. I bought an 8 ½ inch diameter silicone Bundt pan for $10 online and I was in business.
I did have to tinker with the recipe a bit to get the right texture. In Snacking Cakes, Arefi does everything in one bowl. I get the convenience of it, but as a former pastry chef, I always whisk together the flour and leavening in a separate bowl to make sure it’s well blended for the most even rise. Because microwaving a cake takes only 4 to 5 ½ minutes, the baking powder doesn’t have as much time to activate and cause the batter to rise, so in the final version I increased the amount by half a teaspoon.
To get even more lift, I used solid (instead of melted) extra virgin coconut oil (it has more flavor than refined coconut oil) and creamed it with the sugar using a hand mixer to trap extra air into the batter. It makes the cake just a little more spongy. I also added vanilla extract, which added one more flavor dimension. I left out the coconut in the cake batter; it’s a texture thing for me.
Since I was essentially steaming the cake, I found that covering the pan with plastic wrap helped cook it more evenly. As for the timing, I hate to say it, but your mileage may vary. Microwaves differ in wattage and how they operate: Some have a rotating carousel to even out the cooking, some don’t. Some have terrible hot spots, modern ones are more even-steven. The times in the final recipe are a range because we’re all using a different tool. After the initial 3 minutes, I recommend rotating the cake pan and then microwaving the cake in 1-minute bursts until the cake looks done.
To check for actual doneness, it’s not as simple as inserting a toothpick. I found that pulling an edge of the cake away from the center and tilting the pan is a better indicator. If batter pools in the bottom of the pan, microwave the cake in a few more 30-second bursts until it passes the flood test. (Once you make this recipe a few times, you’ll know exactly what time is right for your microwave and pan combination. Write it down.) Once the cake is done, I let it rest for 5 minutes out of the microwave. This last bit of carry-over cooking will finish any stubborn batter patches that refuse to be converted to cake. After that, it’s super easy to invert the cake onto a plate to cool completely.
As for the frosting, I added a little lime juice to the confectioner’s sugar-coconut milk mixture in the original recipe. The citrus adds a little zing to the very sweet glaze, and poured over the cake, it creates tempting oozes down the side. To finish, I toasted large coconut flakes in the microwave until golden brown in places. Microwaves are a great tool for toasting nuts, breadcrumbs, and coconut, it turns out.
The final cake is one I still love, even after 11 tests. It’s delicious, pretty, and party-ready in 20 minutes (not counting cooling time) — plus I didn’t have to turn on the oven at all.
Coconut Lime Microwave Bundt Cake Recipe
Adapted from Snacking Cakes: Simple Treats for Anytime Cravings
Active time: 10 minutes Total time: 20 minutes, plus cooling time
Serves 8
Ingredients:
1 ¼ cups (160 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ cup (112 grams) solid virgin coconut oil
¾ cup (150 grams) sugar
1 lime
2 large eggs, room temperature
¾ cup plus 1 to 2 tablespoons well-stirred full fat coconut milk, divided
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (120 grams) confectioners’ sugar
½ cup large flake unsweetened coconut flakes
Instructions:
Step 1: Mist a 8 ½-inch silicone Bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Step 2: Put the sugar in a large mixing bowl and zest the lime with a Microplane over the bowl to capture the aromatic oils and zest. Add the coconut oil and beat with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy, 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Do not over-beat or the cake will be tough.
Step 3: Pour the batter into the pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap and place in the center of the microwave. Microwave on high for about 1 minute. Stop and rotate the cake and microwave for 2 more minutes. Carefully remove the plastic wrap (beware of steam) and pull the outside edge of the cake away from the edge of the pan. If liquid batter pools on the bottom of the pan, re-cover and microwave in 30-second bursts until done. A cake baked in a 900-watt microwave will take 5 ½ minutes total.
Step 4: Use oven mitts to remove the cake from the oven. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Discard the plastic wrap, place a large plate on top of the pan and quickly invert the set up so the cake falls onto the plate. Let cool for at least 30 minutes.
Step 5: Meanwhile, place the coconut flakes on a microwave-safe plate and microwave on high, stirring occasionally, until golden brown in places, about 3 minutes; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, 1 tablespoon of lime juice, and the remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut milk to make a thick glaze; cover and set aside.
Step 6: When the cake is cool, spread the glaze over the cake and sprinkle with the toasted coconut. Cut into wedges and serve. Leftover cake can be stored at room temperature, tightly covered in plastic, for up to 4 days.
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