Slow Cooker Gula Melaka Chocolate Cake Recipe

Slow cookers are pretty synonymous when it comes to making stews and gravy-heavy dishes, like chicken soup, mutton korma, fish head curry or even peanut sauce.

It’s perfect for making any dish requiring a lengthy cooking period over a slow fire, especially as it doesn’t require any stirring whatsoever. And being able to pop in some ingredients in the morning and coming home after a hard day at work to a freshly cooked meal – what a bonus!

But besides soups and curries, slow cookers are also great for making cakes. Yes, you read that right, cakes! If you’re a slow cooker pro who has prowled the internet for things you can make with this nifty piece of equipment, then this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

But if you’re a slow cooker newbie, or even thinking of getting one, knowing it can make some pretty good cakes should tip the scales in its favour. And our slow cooker gula Melaka chocolate cake recipe is a good enough reason to lay down some cold hard cash and bring a slow cooker home with you today – if you haven’t got one already, that is.

Anyone who has tried baking knows that cake making is a precision game. Unlike cooking, baking cakes require the right measurement of ingredients, the right method and the right temperature.

Let’s face it, it’s not as if you can have a taste of the batter and tweak this and that without affecting the outcome. Nor can you give it a taste halfway through the baking process and decide it needs a little bit more of insert-ingredient-here.

When it comes to cakes, most of us are content to just leave it to the pros.

Slow cooker baking magic

Enter slow cooker baking. Ok, ok, making cakes in a slow cooker isn’t typical baking as you know it. There’s no temperature knobs to adjust, nor can you peek through the glass door to see how it’s doing – unless your slow cooker comes with a transparent lid, that is.

It’s akin to baking cakes in a rice cooker, something hardcore bakers would probably glare at you for even just suggesting. But not all of us are gifted with cake making skills.

Baking in a slow cooker is so simple that even the most baking-inept of us can produce a legit delicious cake with barely any fuss.

Yes, you’ll still need to get the measurements right, but the technique for our slow cooker gula Melaka cake is so easy you could probably leave it to your kids and still end up with a really good cake at the end of the day.

A word of notice though if you’re new to slow cooker baking – they’re not kidding when it comes to ‘slow’. If you have a single-function slow cooker, patience is required, as most cake slow cooking time averages around 2 to 3 or more hours depending on the recipe.

This is fine if you’ve got the time to spare, but most of us have got no patience when it comes to cake. We want cake and we want it now!

This is where we do a little dance and be thankful for the ‘bake’ function on the Philips all-in-one cooker, because all it took us was 45 minutes cooking time before we were chowing down on this fluffy cake like happy little campers.

That familiar feeling…

There are hundreds of slow cooker cake recipes online but we were not content to try out just another chocolate cake recipe. We’re Butterkicap after all and wanted something infusing local flavours.

So we traded in brown sugar for gula Melaka, made a little tweak here and there, poured the batter into the slow cooker and crossed our fingers and toes as we waited the prerequisite 45 minutes.

The reveal was exciting and we were blown away by this simple cake from the very first bite.

Fluffy and spongy, our slow cooker gula Melaka chocolate cake tasted like the perfect marriage between a steamed chocolate cake and kuih gula hangus, a typical Malay caramelized sugar cake.

It has a chocolatey with a deep burnt sugar flavour that is not overly sweet, and a moist steamed cake texture that is surprisingly light. You’re probably going to help yourself to a second helping, because we certainly did.

We admit that slow cooker gula Melaka chocolate cake doesn’t make the prettiest of naked cakes as is. But all you need is a fine dusting of icing sugar to pretty up the cake real quick.

No one would guess you made this in a slow cooker when you serve it for tea! And if you miraculously have any left over at the end of the day, leave it to rest unrefrigerated in an airtight container overnight.

The steamed cake texture transforms into a moist, crumbly cake – much like a typical oven-baked cake – that is equally delicious.

With an easy list of ingredients and incredibly simple method, the only excuse you have not to make this cake is if you don’t have a slow cooker. And that’s an easily fixable solution.

Trust us, you’ll want to make our slow cooker gula Melaka chocolate cake pronto.

Ingredients

Making slow cooker gula Melaka chocolate cake batter

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all dry ingredients.

2. Whisk dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine all wet ingredients except for boiling water.

4. Whisk until thoroughly mixed.

5. Making sure your boiling water is freshly boiled, slowly add it into the wet mixture, whisking it continuously so the eggs do not cook and curdle from the heat.

6. Pour the wet mixture into the whisked dry mixture.

7. Whisk to mix thoroughly. Use a spatula or spoon if you need to break up any lumps.

Slow baking

1. Line the bottom of your slow cooker pot with baking or wax paper. This will help ensure your cake doesn’t end up sticking to the pot.
2. Pour in the batter and set your slow cooker to ‘bake’ mode for 45 minutes. Don’t forget to set the lid nozzle to ‘bake’. If you’re using a standard slow cooker, read our extra tips below for instructions.

3. Once the cooking process is complete, take a peek to ensure there are no wet spots on the top of the cake and the edges have separated from the sides of the pot. If it looks good, turn off the slow cooker and let the cake rest for about 10 minutes. If it’s still not ready, turn on the bake mode again for another 5 minutes or for as long as needed.

4. To remove the cake from the pot, place a large plate or cake plate over the pot and then turn the whole thing over. Be careful, your pot may be hot. Use a kitchen towel or oven mitts to protect your hands. Your cake should drop nicely onto the plate. The cake is quite soft and spongy at this point, so avoid moving it around too much or you may end up tearing your cake.
5. Peel off the wax paper.

6. Optional: if you’d like to pretty up your cake, pour 1 or 2 tablespoons of icing sugar into a sift and dust it all over your slow cooker gula Melaka chocolate cake. A fine dusting is sufficient, although feel free to use more or less depending on how you like it.

7. Serve!