Microwave 3-layer cake: A quick and easy dessert from Gemma's kitchen

Bigger Bolder Baking with Gemma Stafford
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Nov 11, 2026
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Video Summary
AI GeneratedThis video demonstrates how to bake a full-sized, three-layer funfetti cake using only a microwave. The process is designed for those without access to an oven, offering a fast alternative that takes less than 10 minutes to cook while maintaining a soft, fluffy texture similar to traditional oven-baked cakes.
Hi Bold Bakers!
So we all know that you can make a cake
in a mug in the microwave, that is nothing new
around here.
But did you know that you can actually make
an entire cake in the microwave?
I'm talking full size, three layers, the whole shebang.
It is really easy to make, and the best thing about it
is it takes less than 10 minutes
to cook.
I can't wait to show you, so let's get started.
So not everybody has access to an oven,
but that's okay, we don't let that stop us
here on Bigger Bolder Baking.
Microbaking or baking in a microwave is a really fun
and easy thing to do, and you get
to make all the sweet treats and desserts that you like.
Now the recipe for this cake can be found
on BiggerBolderBaking.com, and as always make
sure you tap that subscribe button on YouTube
so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming
videos.
Okay?
So let's get stuck into our cake.
In a large bowl, add in all of your dry ingredients.
Flour, white sugar, brown sugar, salt, and
Baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
And then whisk all these ingredients together.
Now this recipe is one of my absolute favorites for yellow cake,
so it's a really soft moist
cake and it's just so good, it's kind of like a vanilla cake.
Okay that's all our dry ingredients,
now we're gonna mix together our wet separately.
Into a separate bowl add your eggs, buttermilk,
and vanilla extract, and then whisk all these
together.
If you don't have buttermilk you can always
use just regular milk or you can make your
own buttermilk because I've got a video
of how to do that, it is really simple to
do and buttermilk makes cakes really lovely
and moist so it's a really important ingredient.
And on another note if you don't eat eggs
you can always check my egg substitute chart
of what you can substitute the eggs in this recipe for.
Okay lovely, we're gonna add our wet into our dry ingredients now.
So here I have my dry ingredients
and I'm going to pour in my butter-milk-eggy mix.
The next thing we're going to add in is our melted butter.
Now what I like to do is melt the butter
when I start to make the cake so it's nice at
room temperature to add it into the rest of the mix,
you don't want it to be hot when
you're adding it in there.
So go ahead and pour him in, lovely.
And then last but not least, sprinkles,
because this is gonna be a funfetti cake.
So in you guys go.
I love me some sprinkles.
Then I'm gonna take my whisk and then gently mix this cake together.
Now the same rules apply to all my cake making,
make sure you don't overmix, you don't
want to toughen the flour at all,
so just give it a quick mix up until all the flour
is combined, and then stop.
So as you can see, this makes a very big cake,
it'll probably feed around 8-10 people happily.
It's nice and big which is the way we like
our cakes around here, ok perfect this is
all mixed up, now let's talk tins.
So not technically tins, but silicone molds.
Now these have to be microwave safe whatever you put
in there and these are perfect and
they're food safe.
Now I got these online, they were very inexpensive
and I'm gonna put a link on my website where
you can buy them directly.
You can use any kind of silicone mold that you have,
if you have a different shape at
home that is totally fine too.
And if you don't have silicone molds
and don't want to buy them, that is totally fine.
Get a casserole bowl or something that's nice
and round that will go in the microwave and
And you'll cook your cake in there and it'll be lovely.
So our molds are ready to go, you can grease them
if you want to but you don't need to
because with silicone it just pops right out,
it's one of the beauties of them.
So I'm not gonna butter mine, I'm just gonna go ahead
and divide my cake batter evenly
between the three.
When you're dividing your cakes just eyeball it
as best you can to get them as evenly as
possible.
Fantastic!
Now this is where the magic happens,
one by one we're gonna put each of these molds into
into the microwave and you're not gonna believe the results.
So now here's where the magic happens,
each layer just takes around 3 minutes to cook,
I know it's absolutely crazy,
and here we were baking cakes in an oven like a chump
the whole time, we could've been making it in the microwave in minutes.
So the timing is based on my microwave which is 1200 watts.
Okay I think I just heard a ping so let's check on our first layer.
Oh my gosh, this turned out even better than expected,
it's insane, it rose up, it's lovely
light and fluffy, and you can tell
when it's done if you push down in the middle and it's
firm underneath and there's no wetness on the top of your cake.
So this is perfectly cooked.
Okay we're gonna set him aside, let him cool down,
and we're gonna pop in our next layer.
So while the second layer is cooking,
I've got three minutes to tell you a little story.
Here's a little bit of trivia about Bigger Bolder Baking.
Around three years ago,
my first mug cake recipe I ever made went viral, that was the
ever went viral.
We made rainbow cake, red velvet, cookies and cream.
It absolutely blew the lid off my channel
and brought me in like a huge big audience
and this whole idea of making cakes without an oven.
So thanks to those recipes, that's where we are right now.
And I think this cake in a microwave is a whole other level of baking.
I mean, I just can't even believe it.
Okay, I heard another ping, so let's check on our second layer.
Okay, our second layer is looking great,
it smells insane in my kitchen right now.
Okay, I'm gonna pop in my last layer.
So now when it comes to putting the cake
in the microwave, don't put in multiple layers
at one time, you want to do one layer at a time
so they all bake evenly.
And just so you know, I'm gonna decorate
my cake in my best ever buttercream frosting
recipe which is on my website, there's a video,
there's a whole tutorial about how you can
get the best ever frosting because I know
it's something that people really struggle
with.
Cover my cake in that.
There we go again, our last layer is done.
So here's the crazy part,
it took less than ten minutes to cook off three layers of cake,
I mean that is madness.
And you see they rose up really thick
and they're light and fluffy, I mean this is
absolutely insane.
This microwave cake I'm telling you is a serious game changer.
Okay I'm gonna set these guys aside
and let them go totally cold before I decorate
So I left my cakes cooling for around half an hour
and they're ready to be decorated.
But the beauty of this cake is you can make it two days
in advance and then decorate it
whenever you need it, it will keep perfectly fresh.
Now some simple things about cake decorating,
if the top of your cake is a little bit bumpy,
take a knife and just cut that bit off until you have
a nice flat surface just like this
one.
Then I'm going to take my pink buttercream
and I'm going to go and frost in between the
layers of my cake.
Spread a nice generous layer of buttercream frosting
on the surface of your cake.
I have this handy little cake stand
which really helps me decorate cakes, as I've
said before I'm not the best cake decorator in the world,
but these kinds of tools help.
There you go, that's one layer.
Then we're gonna take a next layer, and continue frosting.
In case you haven't seen them already,
I've got other videos about cake decorating that
go into much more detail and just give you tips
and tricks of how to decorate a cake
really well and easily, so make sure you check those out.
Okay lovely, now we're going to go on with our last layer.
So for the last layer, turn your cake upside down
so you have a nice flat surface, and
then pop them on top.
Then take some more buttercream frosting,
a nice big scoop for the top, and then we're
gonna take our spatula
and just work the frosting over the top of the cake, and then down the
sides.
What we're going to do here is create a crumb layer.
So the reason that we're doing a crumb layer
is to catch any loose crumbs of cake.
So you just want to do a nice thin layer of frosting,
does not have to be thick, and then
just go on the top and all along the sides, and just catch any crumbs.
I'm actually not seeing a whole lot of crumbs on this cake
which is awesome considering
that we just cooked it.
It's nice and fresh, gorgeous.
Now if you're like me, you've made many a cake
and it starts to lean, don't worry
about it, you can fix that.
Just kind of push it back when you're
frosting it and make it all line up.
Not all cakes are perfect and they can
be a little bit knobbly and bobbly, so just like
give it a little bit of a push
in the right direction, that's what I do.
Okay perfect, this is my crumb layer,
now I'm gonna pop this into the fridge for a
minimum of 30 minutes, let it set and go nice and cold,
and then we can decorate on top
So it's been half an hour and our crumb layer is set,
so now it's time to decorate on top
of this.
Now all you need is a little thin layer of frosting,
and just cover over any bits of
the cake you can see.
Once you have your crumb layer done,
decorating the cake actually happens really fast so it's
great.
Wherever you think needs a little bit more
frosting, just put on a little bit more.
Just keep on spreading frosting all around
the outside until the whole cake is covered.
Just like that.
Perfect.
Now I've got a few finishing touches that I want to do to this cake.
So with a bit of leftover frosting that I have,
I'm going to pipe some nice big rosettes
along the top of the cake, just to give it
a little bit of different texture as well
on top.
Lovely.
You can never have too much buttercream if you ask me.
And then I have some sprinkles here,
gorgeous little ones, and I'm gonna sprinkle these
all over the top, just a few on top of the rosettes.
For a little bit of extra color, look how pretty they are.
Then I'm actually gonna take a few
and I'm gonna place it along the side of the cake.
Just around the bottom, just to make a nice finishing touch.
And there you have it, not in a million years
would anybody guess that this whole cake was
made in the microwave, it's incredible.
Now I'm going to cut it open because I just want you
to see how soft and fluffy the cake
is on the inside.
I knew I was doing three layers
but I just didn't think the cake was gonna be this big.
There you go, check that out.
Fluffy, soft cake made in the microwave,
that is mind blowing, this is fantastic.
This cake is perfect for any celebration whether you have
an oven or not, I really hope you
try it.
Oh my gosh this cake is so soft.
So here's the thing, if you don't have
an oven to bake a cake, you do not have to be
left out.
You can make one in the microwave,
you saw under 10 minutes, really really fast, and
the results are absolutely amazing.
You guys are gonna love this recipe,
I really hope you try it, do not forget to subscribe
to my channel and I'll see you back here really soon
for more Bigger Bolder Baking.
