Even though I took a while to succumb, I now own one of the best air fryers. I’ve never regretted my purchase, as the air fryer gets used almost daily, and often saves me from having to turn on my oven.
I suspect I am similar to most air fryer owners and have experimented with cooking lots of different food types in my air fryer. It takes me back to when my parents first bought a microwave oven and played around making meringues and all sorts of delights with varying degrees of success.
A roast chicken is one of my favorite food items to cook in my Cosori TurboBlaze Air Fryer. It makes a lot less mess than roasting in an oven, and the result is a perfectly moist joint. Apart from chicken, I also cook meatballs, hot dogs, and a whole wealth of protein, along with roasted vegetables, potato chips, and even toast!
However, as a regular baker, I wanted to experiment with baking a cake in an air fryer to see if the results were the same or better than those of an oven. Having done research online, I discovered plenty of air fryer cake recipes and advice on what to do. Here's what I discovered when baking with an air fryer.
Is it worth baking a cake in an air fryer?
Size matters
If you make large cakes, you’ll have to think again when using an air fryer. You’ll need to consider the cooking compartment size and what container will fit. If you have two compartments, you could bake a layer of a double-layer cake in each — but do check the dimensions before starting your mix.
The alternative is to make cupcakes, which gives you more flexibility with space. However, traditional bun tins are unlikely to fit, so try using silicon baking molds instead. I used Oxo Good Grip’s Silicone Baking Cups (12 pack), $11 at Amazon, which held their shape well, although not all of the cupcakes came out cleanly.
Key takeaway: You need to be flexible
Preheating
One of the joys of using an air fryer is that it only takes a few minutes to preheat, unlike a conventional oven, which takes 15-20 minutes. For example, the preheat setting on my Cosori TurboBlaze air fryer takes 4 minutes. It's especially worth pre-heating your air fryer if the recipe you're following contains baking powder, as it needs a certain temperature to activate.
However, if you have one of the best toaster ovens, it will heat up in about half the time of a standard oven and a convection or fan oven will heat up even quickly.
Key takeway: You'll only save time if you have a conventional oven
Baking time and temperature
When baking in an air fryer, the key advice is to adjust the temperature and cooking time. Suppose you are following a tried and tested recipe designed for a conventional oven. According to King Arthur Baking, you’ll need to lower the temperature by around 25°F and reduce the cooking time by around 20-25%.
However, if you are following a cake recipe specifically designed for an air fryer, it’s still worth keeping an eye on the bake, as all appliances will vary, as they have different fan speeds and wattages, and because of this baking times will vary.
Judging how the bake is progressing can be tricky if you can’t see through a viewing window. Constantly opening the air fryer drawer will reduce the heat and may lead to a flat cake. I experienced this problem firsthand when I was trying to check how my cakes were baking, as the air fryer I use doesn’t have a viewing window. However, Corsori’s 9-Quart Dual Air Fryer, $139 at Amazon has a viewing window that can be illuminated, making it easy to see your bake progress without opening the drawer.
Key takeaway: Keep an eye on your bake, an air fryer with a viewing window will help.
Watch for the burn
There’s always a risk of cake burning, whether you cook it in a conventional oven or an air fryer, but I found the case was increased when using an air fryer. The increased risk of burning is due to the design of the air fryer, which has the heating element at the top, whereas within a conventional oven, the element is at the back. Therefore, in an air fryer, the top of your bake is always more likely to burn before the rest of the batter is cooked through.
You can avoid the problem by covering your cakes with foil or baking parchment part way through the bake. However, the foil needs to be secured so it doesn’t come into contact with the heating element. Baking parchment also needs to be secured and weighted down so that it doesn’t blow around — all easier said than done!
When cooking an apple cake, I wrapped baking parchment around the tin, but this was tricky to do halfway through a bake, as the tin was hot, and I needed to wear oven gloves. And, when cooking the cupcakes, they were just too small to wrap up and cover.
The other disadvantage is that the bakes need to be removed from the air fryer, disrupting the cooking process and potentially hindering the baking.
Key takeaway: The tops of your bakes can burn more quickly than in an oven
Avoiding a soggy center
One thing I noticed, especially when baking the larger apple cake, which I cooked in a 7-inch diameter tin, was how long the mixture took to cook in the center. There was a marked difference between using a conventional oven, where I wouldn’t have noticed this issue. I used a 7-inch cake pan, which came with a Cosori Air Fryer Accessories Set ($31 at Amazon).
Uneven cooking can be a problem because you can be left with a cake that is cooked around the edge but still resembles more of a batter in the middle. To overcome this problem, I covered the cake with baking parchment, which had its own challenges, as I’ve already mentioned above.
However, in the end, I gave up using the air fryer and finished the apple cake in the oven, testing it with a skewer in the middle to make sure it came out clean.
Key takeaway: Smaller individual cakes bake better than larger cakes
Verdict
Is it worth baking in an air fryer?
Using an air fryer over a conventional oven has many benefits. In the summer heat, your kitchen will stay cooler, while you’ll also use less energy and save cooking time, whatever the weather. However, where some foods come out winners, cakes are a little more hit-and-miss.
During the hosting season, if your oven is crammed to the brim with turkey and more, using an air fryer to bake a batch of cupcakes will give you the extra capacity you need. However, I wouldn’t recommend baking a showstopping gateaux in your air fryer, as the results may be a little disappointing. You’ll also need to be on hand to check your bake while it cooks to see if it needs covering part-way through.
However, if you only have a few mouths to feed, and cake isn’t swiped up in one go, using an air fryer for baking a few cupcakes will save you having to switch your oven on for a larger batch, and being left with a stack of cakes that will dry out before you have the chance to eat them all.
