Instant Pot “Boxed” edition: cake, brownies, and corn bread

Instant pot cake, brownies, bread? Well yes!

Do you think CAKE all the time? If you are a cake, brownie or bread lover like me.. read on or even better rush to your pantry, may be local grocery even. It’s time to redefine baking with the ease of boxed cake mixes and the convenience of hands-off Instant Pot cooking.

I recently got the new Instant Pot DUO-60 that comes with a preset cake program. I was excited to try some basic cakes and decided to put some of our favorite boxed mixes to test.

I made Pillsbury funfetti cake,  Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge brownies and Trader Joe’s cornbread mix all in this 7 inch X 3 inch fat daddio’s cake pan.

Pillsbury funfetti cake was the very first cake I made, because it is CAKE and it is FUN to look at and eat! This is one cake that always takes me back to my childhood growing up vanilla cake that my mom made with rainbow swirls on top!

Instructions for Funfetti cake mix:

1. Grease all sides of the cake pan.
2. Add 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot insert.
3. Beat cake mix, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3 whole eggs in a bowl.
4. Pour the batter in the greased cake pan.
5. Gently cover the cake pan with a paper towel. Using a piece of aluminum foil, cover the paper towel and gently secure the paper towel around the rim of the pan.
6. Place the cake pan on the trivet and carefully place the trivet inside the Instant Pot.
7. Press the  “Cake” button and set the mode to “Less”. Adjust the cook time to 50 minutes.
8. Allow Natural Pressure Release.

Next we made Duncan Hines dark chocolate fudge brownies with the brownie mix. Why? Because we get brownie requests at random times in my house! I must confess that I never turn down a brownie request. Instant Pot came in handy during hot summer evenings, when heating up the entire kitchen was not a good idea.

Instructions for dark CHOCOLATE fudge brownies(Fudgy version):

1. Grease all sides of the cake pan.
2. Add 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot insert.
3. Stir in brownie mix, 1 egg, 1/3 cup water and 1/2 cup oil in a bowl until well blended.
4. Pour the batter in the greased cake pan.
5. Gently cover the cake pan with a paper towel. Using a piece of aluminum foil, cover the paper towel and gently secure the paper towel around the rim of the pan.
6. Place the cake pan on the trivet and carefully place the trivet inside the Instant Pot.
7. Press the  “Cake” button and set the mode to “Normal”. Adjust the cook time to 46 minutes.
8. Allow Natural Pressure Release.

Third boxed cake mix put to test was Trader Joe’s cornbread Mix! I always tell myself that this is a healthier bread{cake} and pretend to ignore the 15 grams of sugar per serving. I think this method is going to come in handy for Thanksgiving this year when the ovens are stuffed with turkey!

Instructions for Trader Joe’s cornbread mix:

1. Grease all sides of the cake pan.
2. Add 1 cup of water to the Instant Pot insert.
3. Beat cornbread mix, 1 egg, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup milk in a bowl until moistened. Do not over mix.
4. Pour the batter in the greased cake pan.
5. Gently cover the cake pan with a paper towel. Using a piece of aluminum foil, cover the paper towel and gently secure the paper towel around the rim of the pan.
6. Place the cake pan on the trivet and carefully place the trivet inside the Instant Pot.
7. Press the  “Cake” button and set the mode to “Normal”. Adjust the cook time to 45 minutes.
8. Allow Natural Pressure Release.

I hope you will enjoy the Instant Pot cake, brownies and bread!

To summarize and here is a rough formula for Instant Pot cake, brownies, bread:

• For all three, start with the MAX cook time on the box for 8″ X 8″ pan. Since I am using the 7″ X 3″ cake pan,  add 5 mins to this cook time.
• For lighter cakes like the funfetti,  add extra 7 mins since it is cooking under “Less” mode. So the total cook time is 38+5+7=50 mins
• For fudge brownies, add extra 7 minutes of cook time. In my initial attempts, the brownie was bit moist and so adding the extra time helped. Brownies will not be crunchy but more moist/cake like. Total cook time is 34+5+7=46 mins
• For dense breads just adding extra 5 mins to account for the cake pan size worked well. Total cook time 40+5=45 mins

Hope this is helpful guide for you to start experimenting boxed mixed with the Instant Pot. Do you have better cook times for Instant pot cake, brownies, bread? Please let me know, I will try them for sure.

Still hungry for more?  Try this delicious zucchini bread in Instant Pot and put those summers best zucchinis to a good use!