Pots and Pans

• Cakes bake well on your stove top in pots and pans with tight-fitting lids. Put a rack inside the pot, cover it and preheat it on high for about 5 minutes. Prepare your cake as usual, pouring the batter into a prepared cake pan that fits into your large pot. Put the cake pan on the rack in the preheated pot and replace the lid. Keep the heat on high for another 5 minutes, then reduce it to medium for 20 minutes longer, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Skillet

• Skillets have been used to make cakes since pioneer days. A traditional pineapple-upside down cake is made in a skillet, and other fruit-topped cakes also turn out well when made this way. Using low heat, melt butter in a cast-iron skillet. Add fruit slices and brown them slightly, then pour cake batter over them. Cover the skillet and bake your upside-down fruit cake until a cake tester comes out clean. Flip the skillet over and turn the cake out onto a large plate.

Microwave

• Bake a cake in your microwave using any small container. Cakes baked in coffee mugs are favorites with kids. Be sure that your container is safe to use in your microwave, and spray it with nonstick baking spray. Use a recipe that contains no eggs, because they must cook for at least 2 minutes in a microwave to be safe, and these little cakes bake in less time. Fill your container about two-thirds full with batter. Microwave on high for 1 minute, then check the center with a cake tester. If necessary, continue to microwave in 15-second increments, testing after each one, until the center is done.

Toaster Ovens

• A convection toaster oven allows you to bake slowly, in much the same way as the oven in a stove. Be sure to use cake pans that fit into your oven without crowding, to let air circulate freely around them. Prepare the pans and the cake batter according to your recipe, and bake as directed. Some toaster ovens are kid-friendly, with exteriors that stay cool when they're in use, or that shut off automatically if the door is opened. Others eject the tray when the timer goes off.