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Banana Cake in Rice Cooker
You can bake a delicious banana cake with your rice cooker, and the texture is just like a sponge cake! Now you use your rice cooker to bake a proper cake.
I often end up with a bunch of overripe bananas that are too mushy for eating, yet I cannot bring myself to throw them away. Luckily, banana cake is one of my favorite, so I never toss them away, instead, they turn into this delicious banana cake.
And not just any banana cake, but one that you can easily bake with your rice cooker. So don’t be sad if you don’t have an oven at home, bake this cake instead. :)
What do I need for the banana cake?
For this banana cake, you will need the following ingredients:
- 2 ripe bananas, about 240 gram/8 oz
- 4 large size eggs, separate yolks and whites
- 100 gram (1/2 cup) sugar
- 100 gram (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted but not too hot
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup (120 gram, or 4 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/8 teaspoon salt (if you are using salted butter, you can skip this)
For the tools, you will need:
- whisk, either a hand-held one or an electric mixer with a whisk attachment
- a food processor/blender, to puree the ripe bananas
- a rice cooker, mine is a super basic 10 cup capacity rice cooker with only an on/off button
How do I prepare a rice cooker banana cake?
The step-by-step to prepare the banana cake batter and to bake the cake in a rice cooker is as follow:
- Puree ripe bananas with a food processor/blender.
- If your rice cooker pot has a Teflon non-stick coating, there is no need to grease and flour. Otherwise, please lightly grease and flour the pot.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until medium peak, while adding sugar in 3 batches.
- Add egg yolks, pureed banana, melted butter, and vanilla essence to the egg whites. Mixing completely one by one before adding the next ingredient.
- Gently fold the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt) to the wet ingredients with a spatula. Stop once the dry ingredients are just mixed to make sure we don’t collapse the airy batter.
- Pour the batter into the rice cooker pot and place it into the rice cooker. Press the “cook” button. Once it turns to “warm”, wait for 10 minutes. Repeat “cook” and “warm” cycle for another 3 times for a total of 4 cycles of “cook” and “warm”.
- Open the rice cooker lid, and use a cake tester to make sure the cake is fully cooked. If your cake is still not cooked, repeat the “cook” and “warm” cycle again until the cake is fully baked.
- Remove the pot from the rice cooker, cover the pot with a plate wider than the pot opening, flip upside down, and the banana cake should easily drop onto the plate.
- Cut the cake into serving portions and serve.
Tips for baking the perfect rice cooker cake
Just like baking a cake in an oven, there are ways to improve your chances at baking a perfect cake in a rice cooker. Here are my tips, and hopefully, they will help you bake a perfect rice cooker cake:
- Make sure your eggs are all large size and at room temperature.
- Make sure your baking powder is still active. You can mix 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder with 1/4 cup of boiling water. If it bubbles rigorously, it’s good to use, otherwise, please use a new can of baking powder.
- Make sure to beat your egg whites to medium peak. This means the peak should hold its shape pretty well, but the tip or the peak curls over on itself when the whisk is lifted.
- Make sure the melted butter is not too hot. The best way to test is to dip a finger and if it feels lukewarm, it’s good.
- When you add the dry ingredients, be sure to fold very carefully and gently. Do not overfold, or the cake will be tough and dense. Just fold enough to incorporate the dry ingredients.
- Once you have finish folding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Immediately pour the batter to the pot and cook/bake the cake. The batter should not sit too long before baking.
- Do not open the rice cooker lid to check on the cake before 4 cycles of “cook” and “warm”. Doing this may cause the cake to deflate.
Other rice cooker cake recipes to try
If you love baking this banana cake with your rice cooker, you may want to try my other rice cooker cakes too:
Banana Cake in Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- Wet ingredients
- 4 large size eggs, separate the whites from the yolks
- 100 gram (1/2 cup) sugar
- 2 ripe bananas (about 240 gram/8 oz), pureed with a food processor/blender
- 100 gram (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Dry ingredients
- 1 cup (120 gram, or 4 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt (omit if you are using salted butter)
- Tools
- 1 whisk, either a hand-held one or an electric mixer with a whisk attachment
- 1 food processor/blender
- 1 rice cooker (mine is a basic 10 cup capacity rice cooker with a Teflon coating pot)
Instructions
- If your rice cooker pot has a Teflon non-stick coating, there is no need to grease and flour. Otherwise, please lightly grease and flour the pot.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until medium peak, while adding sugar in 3 batches.
- Then add the egg yolks, pureed banana, melted butter, and vanilla essence into the egg whites. Mixing completely one by one before adding the next ingredient.
- Gently fold the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt) to the wet ingredients with a spatula. Stop once the dry ingredients are just mixed to make sure we don’t collapse the airy batter.
- Pour the batter into the rice cooker pot and place it into the rice cooker. Press the “cook” button. Once it turns to "warm", wait for 10 minutes. Repeat "cook" and "warm" cycle for another 3 times for a total of 4 cycles of "cook" and "warm".
- Open the rice cooker lid, and use a cake tester to make sure the cake is fully cooked. If your cake is still not cooked, repeat the "cook" and "warm" cycle again until the cake is fully baked.
- Remove the pot from the rice cooker, cover the pot with a plate wider than the pot opening, flip upside down, and the banana cake should easily drop onto the plate.
- Cut the cake into serving portions and serve.
Comments
What a clever idea. I'm going to have to try this method out soon. Thanks!
Me too, look forward to try this method out ;-)
Waaa... Seems tempting, i wanna try to make this banana cake. Btw are u using mixer to mix all d ingredients? And which butter r u using? The plain one or the salted butter? Thanks :) Cant wait for ur reply :D
Hi Patty, you can use a mixer, but I just use a whisk, so everything is done manually by hands :) I am using unsalted butter for this. Happy baking!
Hi, Thanks for sharing your recipe with us.Got some qns though: 1)why do my cake turn out to be dark brown but yours is while yours is light brown? 2)I added baking powder but cake doesn't rise as well as yours.
Hi Sylvia, I don't know why your banana cake has a dark brown color, but my best guess is the ripeness of bananas used, the riper the banana, the darker the color, or perhaps the bananas that I used is different from yours. But as long as your banana cake still tastes good, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I am really sorry your cake doesn't rise as well as mine, but I really have no idea why since it always work for me :(
Hi Anita, I am glad I found your website. Very well done. Clean and easy to navigate. So keep up your great work. Regarding the question from your visitor about the leavening agent, here is my thought. Perhaps, the baking powder is too old, thus it has lost its leavening power. Therefore, if your baking powder is older than 6 months old, it's better to test it out first before preparing other ingredients. That's my 2 cents.
Hi Tuty, thank you for your feedback and suggestion. In my experience, when a cake doesn't rise, it is either the leavening agent, or not whipping the egg (especially egg white) to the proper stage. I am very happy you find my website easy to navigate :)
Hi Anita, Glad to see another fellow blogger who is so interested in rice cooker cakes! I am holding a rice cooker challenge this month and hopefully for another few months. Would you like to join? Here is the link : http://everybodyeatswell.blogspot.be/2014/03/rice-cooker-cake-challenge-1-are-you.html For more info, you can drop me an email at everybodyeatswell[at]gmail[dot]com Hope to see more of your RCC bakes! cheers, Miss B @ EEWIF
just wondering why your rice cooker cake did not form a dome-shaped ?
I think the infamous dome shape rice cooker cake is due to the shape of the rice cooker pot. I noticed that as the rice cooker capacity becomes bigger, like my 10 cup capacity, the pot tends to become flatter at the bottom, hence I managed to escape the wrath of dome shape rice cooker cake :)
no wonder. the cake shaped exactly like out from oven. lucky u... :>
Hi Anita, Can I use those convention rice cooker where the pot like standard steel type and the rice would stick on the pot? It just has very basic function, Cook and Warm only. If yes, do I need to put any oil or paper to prevent the cake from sticking on the pot?
Hi Yan, mine is also standard cook and warm only, but with teflon coating. I think greasing your pot and/or using parchment/baking paper to your non-teflon pot is a good idea. :)
May i know 1 cup of purpose flour is equivalent to many grams?
Hi Joey, 1 cup all purpose flour is about 125 gram :)
My cake turned out to be pretty hard. escpecially after i stored it in the refrigerator overnight. what could have been the problem? Or should I do more cookimg cycles? Or my baking powder wasnt enough?
Hi Yuan, I assume you mean your cake has a dense texture, which usually caused by either not beating enough air into the cake batter (i.e. the egg white is not stiff/airy enough), or not enough baking powder. I hope this helps :)
Alright thank you so much Anita! Anyways I love this recipe, it's easy and at the same time yields really yummy cakes. Thanks for sharing, will definitely try out more of your recipes!:)
Yay! So happy it finally works for you Yuan. :)
i just tried it too , mine didn't rise either :(
Hm... I have been wondering if the problem arises due to the difference in rice cooker model used. Not trying to promote or anything, but this is the exact model I am using at home, just for reference. I hope this can help a bit. http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/SR-TEG18.
nice idea for a cake im gonna try this one
I haven't tried this yet. Purely because it would take hours! My standard setting is around 50 minutes, so that is 1 x 4 =4 hours. Although they look delicious recipes it just isn't worth it in both time and electric surely?
Hi Pauline, I would say give it a try at 1 cycle and see how it goes :)
Will do Anita. Itching to try the yogurt one, but too many itty bitty things at the moment going on. Will get there eventually though:-) Great site by the way.
Hi Anita, May I know did you grease your pot with butter or use parchment/baking paper ? Wonder will the paper burn ?
Hi Kris, my pot already has a teflon coating so I didn't grease nor use parchment paper :) I think using parchment paper to line the pot should be safe since the same paper doesn't get burned in the oven with much higher cooking temperature, right?
Thanks Anita.
Hi Anita, Am wondering how to cook this cake in Rice Cooker with Auto Function; mine needs to choose what type of cooking; such as Plain Rice, Porridge, Brown Rice, Steam. Shall I choose Steam for cooking this cake? Tks a lot! Ps: I love your recipes and web, keep them coming..:)
Hi Michelle, I own a technologically backward rice cooker ;) I think with yours, steam is probably the best choice. Good luck with the cake!
Hi, Anita, I have tried this recipe but the cake texture looks like kuih texture, what is wrong. And how long take to whisk egg white till medium peak? Thanks
Hi Penny, I manually whisked it, so it took some time, more than 10 minutes I can tell you that. I think a visual guide like this article here is a better guide so you know when the egg white has reached medium peak. Cheers! ♥
in Jc...thanks for recipe..can i use durian rather than banana in this recipe?
Hi Jc, I haven't tried it with durian, though after you suggested it I am really itching to give it a try next time :) If you do give it a try, please let me know how it turns out, okay? :)
Hi , love your recipes . Do you think I can replace butter with vegetable oil ? This is because I doesn't like to clean the mess if I use the butter . Thank you
Hi Lay Ean, you can use vegetable oil like canola or even olive oil, but the cake texture tends to be denser when made with oil instead of butter :)
Hi, I hope you can advise me on this. Each time I bake with my rice cooker (butter and banana cake - using yours and other recipe), I always have this problem - the cake is too oily (extremely oily) to consume, I have reduced the butter used and tried salted and unsalted butter but still have the same result. Skewer came out clean so the cake should be well cooked. There are times I 'cook' it again even after the beep and ended with slightly burn base but still an super duper oily cake. What is wrong?
Hi Josephine, sorry your cake turned out oily. I have made this and other rice cooker cakes for a lot of times and have never encountered this problem. Perhaps if you let me know the kind of rice cooker you are using, other readers who happen to have the same kind of rice cooker can give a better insight. Cheers :)
Hi can i use a spoon instead of a whisk?
Hi Pei Jun, maybe a fork (though I imagine it will take even longer to mix everything than using a whisk), but definitely not a spoon ;)
I made it n it was damn gud..thnx for such an amazing post anita :)
Hai Anita, would you like to tell me what kind (merk n type) of your rice cooker? Or give me a picture.... My cake turn to forming dome n dark brown...
Sure Marin, my rice cooker is this one http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/SR-TEG18
Hi Anita, the cake looks nice n I want to try it. May I know the quantity of 100 grams of butter n sugar in terms of measuring cup/spoon?
Hi Kashfia, 100 gram butter is about 7 tablespoons butter, and 100 gram sugar is slightly more than 7 tablespoons sugar (well, 7 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon if we want to be exact ;) ).
Hi Anita, banana cakes and rice cookers are made for each other! But I'm also looking for other cakes to make so that my friends and family don't think banana cake is the only thing I can make. I find that adding grated granny smith apple to the cake gives it a nice more 'rounded' flavour (not sure what the right way of putting it is). What I use is: 1/3 grated apple and 2/3 banana; in fact even 1/2 grated apple and 1/2 banana isn't too bad either.
Hi Pauline, thanks for the suggestion! I have never thought of combining apple and banana myself, but you have definitely made me want to give it a try :)
Hi Anita, This looks lovely. I'd like to try today. Can I do the same cake in a 5 cup philips rice cooker? or do I have to use half the ingredients? Thanks!
Hi Hans, I think it is better to halve the ingredients since your rice cooker capacity if half of mine :)
Hi Anita! Do I really need to use butter? Or is there any substitution? It is because I can't eat dairy.
Hi, you can try using the same amount of canola oil :)
Hi, i tried it and it turned out really great! Thank you so much.
You are very welcome Stephanie :)
hi Anita, after beating the egg whites to medium peaks, how do you add the rest of the wet ingredients? banana, essense etc...if adding one by one wont it disturbs all the airs that we just created? I was thinking of combining the rest of the wet ingredients , makes sure they mix well and then add into egg whites and fold them in...will it be better?
Hi Lilis, your step will definitely be better in terms of not disturbing the egg whites :)
Hi i tried your recipe already but using only 3 eggs and peanut oil because i dont have butter. Very pleased with the result!! Yay thanks alot for posting. I have no way to upload my results. But pretty stoked! Thx
Yay! I am so happy it works for you Lilis :)
Hi, tnx for the great idea using rice cooker to bake a cake. I really like 2 bake cake, but my problem i dont have oven. But now ill try using rice cooker....tnx 4 the great idea.
hey I loved ur idea of baking in a rice cooker so I tied it today. it was a disaster to say the least. the top half of my cake didn't cook at all. and I did like 8 cook n warm cycles. the bottom part was close to being burnt so i turned it off. I was so disappointed. where did I go wrong?
Hi Mercy, I am so sorry your cake didn't turn out well. I honestly don't know where it turned wrong. When I use my rice cooker to bake cakes, it usually takes an average of 3-4 cycles to bake the cake. But I understand that there is a wider variety of rice cooker models compared to oven, also with an oven we get standardize controlled temperatures, which of course is lacking in a rice cooker. So my best guess is probably it has something more to do with your particular rice cooker than technique or anything else. Again, I am terribly sorry the recipe didn't work out for you.
Hi Anita Thanks for the amazing recipe. I tried this one yesterday using my small rice cooker (capacity 4 cups or 0.7L). Since I use the smaller rice cooker, I halved your recipe. But I still used 2 ripe bananas, instead of 1 banana for half recipe. It turned out great. Soft, moist, and tasty. But I would say if I bake the recipe using oven, it would be much tastier. What can I say since I don't have oven. That's what rice cooker is.hahaha I would suggest a bit about the recipe. I would use only a quarter or maximum half of sugar in the recipe since I found it too sweet. The ripe banana itself is already sweet, so we don't need to add a lot of sugar into the butter. But, still, your recipe using rice cooker is great!! Keep sharing! Regards, Ade
I forgot something. I only pushed the 'cook' button once more, then it was done. I think it was because I used smaller rice cooker, hence I don't need to do 4 cycles of cook&warm. Thanks
Hi ms.anita, Since i read your banana cake ricecooker recipe, i always want to try it I just try to make one today and very pleased with the result Although i altered the recipe a little bit.. I used 100gr of all purpose flour, 15gr of chocolate milk powder and into the mashed banana (only about 180gr of "pisang kepok") i added 2tbsp of fresh orange juice & orange zest from 1 medium size orange It really smells like heaven Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe
So easy and yummy. Thank you for sharing the wonderful recipe.
You are welcome Gladys.
Your one cup flour is how much ml cup exactly?
I use standard 250 ml for 1 cup.
Teflon is VERY BAD for our health. It leaches into the food and is a likely cause of cancer. Get rid!
Most commonly found rice cookers have teflon pot. If you happen to have one that is non-teflon, please remember to grease and flour the pot first to reduce the risk of your cake sticking to the pot.
Hi. I was sceptical of the recipe initially but i follow the instructions carefully. It turned out fantastic. The cake was so moist and light. My husband thought i was crazy but after he tasted the cake, he loved it. Thank you so much for posting this recipe. We'll try the honey glazed apple cake next.
You are welcome Tu. I hope the both of you will also enjoy the honey glazed apple cake :)
banana is sweet, i would like to eat that cake thanks for sharing
Hi Anita, just wondering if I could use steam method or baking method for this recipe? Thanks before
If using oven, please use 8" round cake pan, at least 2" tall, lightly greased and floured. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for about 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown, and a cake tester comes out clean. I hope this helps, Leony.
I can make THIS gorgeous cake in my rice cooker??? OMG the texture looks TO DIE FOR! This will be put to the test!
I saw this recipe and was like, "Wha?!?!". But, I tried it, and let me tell you, what a tasty and easy dish! Now I'm a convert and love that I can make this in what I thought was a one-use appliance!
This is really amazing! I had no idea you could make a cake in your rice cooker!
Great use of a rice cooker!
This is such a great cooking method, I need to try it!
Tried your recipe yet I added milk and lessen sugar a bit. Tasted very good though it is cooked in rice cooker. Thanks!
Hi Anita. Can I use self raising flour and sunflower or soya oil (if I run out of unsalted butter as I only hv salted butter)? If I whisk with 2 forks taped together, roughly how long to med peak (20-30mins)? Also my cooker is 5l, do I still repeat 4cycles like yr 10l cooker? Tyvm & stay safe!
Hi Amanda, you can use 1 cup self rising flour and 100 gram salted butter, then omit both the 1 teaspoon baking powder and the 1/8 teaspoon salt.
As for whisking egg whites with two forks, from what I've read, it can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes. Not totally impossible, but be prepare for some aches later on. :)
For the rice cooker, the diameter of my rice cooker pot (not the machine) is about 8 inches. If yours has a similar diameter, I suspect it should need about the same cooking time, though you can always check for the cake doneness in between cycles.
Hello! Would you suggest I halve the recipe if I'm using a 5.5 cup rice cooker?
Hi Michelle, I think halving the recipe will be better.
Hi Anita, I would love to try your banana cake but please let me clarify if you used baking powder or baking soda? under the ingredients, you indicated baking powder but under the step-by-step guide, you indicated baking soda. Can I use 2 eggs instead of 4? Hope to hear from you soon, thanks alot.
Hi Tan, so sorry about that. It should be baking powder, I'm going to update the instructions. :) As for the eggs, you can try using 2 eggs instead of 4, but you may want to increase the banana from 2 to 3 to compensate for the reduction of eggs.
Hi, I'm sorry to ask but if i want to use oven, what temperature should i bake and how long? Anw, tqsm for the recipe!
If using oven, please use 8" round cake pan, at least 2" tall, lightly greased and floured. Bake in a preheated oven of 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for about 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown, and a cake tester comes out clean. I hope this helps, Mai.
I've tried this recipe in my rice cooker as well as the pressure cooker, and it turned out fluffier in the pressure cooker, maybe because my rice cooker has different settings. Both times were just as tasty and delicious!! Thank you for this recipe!! I wanted to make a mango cake and was wondering if I can use the same recipe by substituting the bananas for mango, or any other fruit? The recipe I have for a mango cake doesn't make it as moist and light.
Hi Ira, I have only ever used bananas for this recipe, so I am not sure how it will perform if we substitute bananas with mangos. I think substituting with a 1:1 ratio might work as long as the mango is not super juicy. Or if they are very juicy, you may try reducing the amount of eggs from 4 to 3. If you do decide to experiment, please let me know how it goes. :)
can i add yeast to the batter?
Hi Stanley, you don't need to add yeast to the batter. I don't know what will happen if you do want to experiment since I never add any yeast when making this cake.
Hi Anita, I tried this cake but it didn't raise☹️ and was denser. Should I use baking soda also?
Hi Pooja, I am sorry your cake didn't rise. If you are certain your baking soda is still active, the batter really shouldn't need any additional baking soda. If you really want to, please add just a very tiny amount of baking soda (~ 1/8 to 1/4 tsp). Hopefully you will get a better result for next time.
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