Maybe you’re a baker who suddenly has access to a pizza oven, or perhaps you own a backyard pizza oven and you’re curious about baking a cake. Either way, you’re probably asking yourself, “Can you bake cake in a pizza oven?”
As a general rule, you CAN bake cake in a pizza oven, as long as the oven is able to maintain a temperature of around 350°F (180°C) for about a half hour. Deck ovens are the best pizza ovens for cake baking since the oven temperatures can remain steady. Although they can work too, wood-fired pizza ovens are a little more difficult for cakes, since the oven temperatures start to fall once the fire dies down.
Why Pizza Ovens Work for Baking Cake
Pizza ovens are made to reach high temperatures. Although that is true, pizza ovens can usually sustain lower temperatures of around 350°F for at least half an hour. This is the perfect temperature and amount of time it takes to bake a cake.
In this article, I’ll discuss three different types of pizza ovens and how you should approach baking a cake differently in each one. Let’s start with a common restaurant and commercial kitchen style of pizza oven – the deck oven.
Baking Cake in a Deck Oven
Photo by brewbooks is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
As a general rule, you can bake cake in a deck oven. You’ll need to make sure that both the top and bottom heating elements are set to around 350°F. Then bake the cake according to your recipe’s instructions and it should turn out fine.
Deck ovens are actually the best style of pizza oven for baking cakes, since you have the most control over temperature. But, since deck-style pizza ovens are usually used at such high temperatures, some people have problems with the deck (floor) of the pizza oven burning their cakes. So, if this is happening to you, first make sure that your oven is set to around 350°F or 180°C.
Then, if your cakes are still turning out with burnt bottoms, try the inverted sheet pan trick. Flip a sheet pan upside down on the oven floor. Then, place your cake on top of that sheet pan and bake it for the full time. The sheet pan should provide some relief from the oven floor and your cake won’t be as likely to burn on the bottom.
Baking Cake in a Wood-fired Pizza Oven
Photo by Edsel L is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Although wood-fired pizza ovens are mostly used at a super-high temperature for pizza, you can also use a wood-fired pizza oven for baking cakes. As a general rule, you can bake cake in a wood-fired pizza oven, as long as you are cooking with retained heat at around 350°F.
Baking with Retained Heat in Wood-Fired Pizza Ovens
If you have a wood-fired pizza oven at home or in your restaurant, you’ll know that when the fire dies down and the oven is no longer in use, the oven is still hot, and it will remain hot for a while. That’s called retained heat. Depending on what they’re made of, some ovens will retain heat for a few hours, and others will retain heat for a few days! Either way, you can take advantage of this “retained heat” for baking things like cakes.
Learn more about baking with retained heat in this video from The Wood Fired Oven Chef:
Essentially, when your oven drops down to the range of 350°F-450°F, slide a tray of cake onto the oven floor. The oven should bake the cake perfectly in about 30 minutes.
Note: If your oven is burning the bottom of your cakes, you can also place the cake on top of an inverted sheet pan in a wood-fired oven. That trick will work in these ovens too!
Baking Cake in a Portable Pizza Oven
It is possible to bake a cake in a portable pizza oven, like the Ooni Fyra or the Gozney Roccbox. Since portable pizza ovens are capable of maintaining temperatures of around 350°F for extended periods of time, they do an OK job of baking cakes. But, depending on the oven model, you’ll need to be more careful about regulating the oven temperature so the cake doesn’t burn.
The downside to this type of ovens in that they lose their heat much faster than larger ovens. So, you’ll either need to maintain a small flame inside the oven to keep the temperature around 350°F, or start baking at a higher temperature and expect the oven to drop in temperature throughout the baking time.
Baking Cakes in Gas-Powered Portable Pizza Ovens
For a gas-powered pizza oven, like the Ooni Koda, you can set the flame to low and heat the oven up to 350°F. Then, start baking your cake. Turn the flame off and on again as needed throughout the baking time to keep the temperature steady. Turning the flame up too high will put the cake in danger of burning on the outside – so keep it low.
Baking Cakes in Portable Pizza Ovens (with Wood/Charcoal)
For a portable pizza oven that runs on wood, like my Ooni Fyra, I like to avoid flame altogether. Flames made from wood and charcoal tend to send bits of ash up into the air that land on the cake. Not great for dessert! So, what I like to do is heat up the oven as hot as it will go, or around 950°F. Then, I allow the fire to die down. Once the temperature drops down to around 600°F in the oven, I start baking my cake. The oven temperature will slowly drop during the baking time, but it will average about 350 degrees. And in about 30 minutes the cake is cooked!
Conclusion
As you can see, it is possible to bake cake in a pizza oven. Whether it’s a deck oven, wood-fired oven, or a portable pizza oven, where there is heat, you can bake a cake! If you’re interested in other desserts that you can bake in a pizza oven, check out my article about nine desserts you can make in an Ooni (portable) pizza oven.