A pizza oven is a type of oven specifically designed to reach high temperatures ideal for making pizza. But is that all you can make in a pizza oven? Can you bake anything else in it? Can you bake a cake in a pizza oven?
You can bake a cake in a pizza oven, as long as you manage to keep the temperature at 350°F (175°C). If the temperature gets higher than that the cake will get burnt.
You can basically use any kind of oven to bake a cake as long as you manage to keep the temperature under control. In the case of pizza ovens this can be quite difficult. Pizza requires very high temperatures, between 450 and 500°F (230 and 260°C). So, in order to bake a cake you will need to keep the temperature down. And depending on the type of pizza oven that you have this can be done in different ways.
Baking Cake in Different Types of Pizza Ovens
There are different types of pizza ovens, there are deck ovens, portable pizza ovens, gas powered ovens, wood ovens, etc. And all of them work in a different way, so let’s take a quick look at each one of them and see what you have to do in order to bake a cake in them. And after we take a look at each type of oven I will share with you a trick that I’ve learned that will allow you to bake a cake in any type of oven. But first.
Baking Cake in a Pizza Deck Oven
Out of all the different types of pizza ovens, the deck oven is the easiest to use when baking a cake, or anything else for that matter. And this is because most of them are electric, and make it very simple to adjust the temperature.
Even in the case of gas powered deck ovens, due to the design of the oven, and the way heat is spread through the oven, it is easier to control the temperature,, unlike other pizza ovens.
So, overall a deck oven is great for cooking cakes in it, just set the temperature to medium low and you are good to go. This type of oven is very similar to a standard oven that you will find in most chickens.
Baking Cake in a Wood Fired Pizza Oven
Wood powered pizza ovens are the most difficult to bake a cake in. But it’s still possible.
In those types of ovens you usually have the heat source, the burning wood, in the oven, very close to the food. In the case of pizzas, which are relatively flat, this is not a problem, but in the case of a cake, it is a huge problem, as one side of the cake can easily get burnt. And the overall temperature will be too high, so your cake will most likely come out burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.
To solve this problem you have to heat up the oven as much as you can, and then remove the wood from it, wait for the temperature to drop to 350°F (175°C) and then put your cake inside. And after about 30 minutes your cake will be done.
This is called cooking with retained heat, and if you want a more in depth explanation on how this work you can check out this great video:
I tried cooking a cake in a wooden fired pizza oven, and I will admit, it can be somewhat tricky at first, but it’s totally worth it. Wood fired ovens are harder to use than electric or gas ovens, but they are still used for a reason, the taste is a lot better. So I would definitely recommend you to try it.
Baking Cake in a Portable Pizza Oven
Portable pizza ovens are very small ovens that can be taken with you on trips, or that can be easily moved around the backyard. Overall they work very similarly to normal ovens, but there are two major differences, heat distribution and heat retention. So they shouldn’t be treated the same way as normal ovens.
Baking Cake in a Gas Powered Portable Pizza Oven
The big difference between a portable pizza oven and a normal oven is that place where the flames come from. In most ovens the heat either comes from the back or the bottom of the oven. But in the case of portable pizza ovens, the heat comes from all around the oven, and the flames will reach the top. Here is a picture to give you a better idea.
And this can make cooking a cake tricky, but not impossible.
In order to make a cake in this type of oven you simply need to preheat the oven to around 400°F (200°C), stop the gas and put your cake in, and then use a thermometer to check the temperature. When the temperature drops under 300°F (150°C), Turn the gas back on until it reaches 350°F (175°C). Overall you will have to do this 2 or 3 times at most until the cake is ready.
In my opinion this type of oven is the worst for baking cakes. It basically requires you to stay near the oven most of the time while the cake is cooking and there is no added benefit to this method, like in the case of wooden powered ovens, which add some extra taste to the cake.
The only good thing about this method is that you can bake a cake while away from home. So if for example you are having a camping trip and you want to bake a cake this will work. But if you have any other type of oven near you, I would suggest you to use that one instead.
Baking Cake in an Electric Portable Pizza Oven
This type of oven has absolutely no disadvantage, and is still portable. Baking a cake in it is like baking a cake in any other type of electric oven, you just set the temperature and the timer and you are done.
Baking Cake in a Portable Wood or Charcoal Pizza Oven
This type of portable pizza oven works very similarly to its non-portable counterpart. Simply heat it up as much as you can, after it cools down for 3 minutes, put the cake inside. While at this point the temperature is still too hot to bake a cake, it will gradually go down, and in the end you will have a perfectly baked cake.
How to Bake Cake in Any Type of Oven
The biggest problem with all pizza ovens is that they do their best to add as much what to the bottom as possible, since this is what pizza needs, but this will result in a burnt bottomed cake. Other types of oven do the exact opposite thing, they add a lot of heat to the top, and again this can result in a burnt cake. But luckily there are two small tricks that you can use to get over those two problems. Let’s start with the bottom.
All you have to do is fill a tray with sand, ( it has to be bigger than the one with the cake) any type of sand should do the job. And let it heat up in the oven. Meanwhile prepare your cake in a different tray that will fit on top of the one with sand in it.
When the oven is preheated and you are done preparing the cake, place the pan with the focaccia in it on top of the tray filled with sand.
The sand won’t heat as much as the tray will, so it will act as a barrier that reduces the heat that is transferred directly to the tray with the cake, and this will slow down the cooking process of the bottom of the cake. This way the bottom will cook evenly, with the rest of the cake.
Over the years I’ve been using different quantities and types of sand, here are some observations, that will be useful if you choose to use this method:
- Fine sand tends to heat up slower
- Sand that has small stones in it, and overall larger grains will heat up faster and give out more heat
- The thicker the sand layer, the more it will take to heat up
- Make sure that the sand has no leaves or wood in it, they can catch fire
- Don’t wash the sand, if you do this you will lose some of the finer sand and be left with small rocks
- Heating up the sand in the oven will get rid of all germs and bacteria
- Make sure that the sand hasn’t been treated in any way
In the case of a burnt top, I found out that the best thing that you can do to stop it is to place parchment paper over top of the cake. Depending on the tray that you are using, the paper might touch the cake or it might not. It doesn’t matter, the effect will still be the same. The paper will act as a barrier and will protect the cake from the excessive heat.
And don’t worry if the paper touches the cake, after the cake is baked the paper will easily come off without affecting the cake.
Final Thoughts
So, as long as you are careful with the temperature you can bake cake in any type of pizza oven.
But should you do it? Well, it really depends on the situation. In the case of the wood fired oven, yes you should definitely do it, the cake will come out tasting better than ever. If you have a pizza deck oven, you can do it, but there is no benefit to it.
And when it comes to portable pizza ovens, aside from the portability there is no advantage to it, and with the exception of the electric powered oven, the extra effort that you have to put in won’t reflect in the taste.
But overall, it is possible to cook a cake in any kind of oven.