Cake + dinner in oven simultaneously

[BresciaBike]

Can I cook a cake and dinner in the oven at the same time? Seems more energy efficient but will my sponge taste of cheese and mince if I'm making lasagne for example?

I think the confused smells might also be less than homely too 😂 opinions please!

No.

It can contaminate the flavour a bit. You can put the cake in towards the end a bit before you take out the dinner, get use out of the heat built up, cakes are quite quick to cook.

I don’t think you’re supposed to open the oven door with a cake in, unless it’s close to the end of the cooking time. it can affect the rising of the cake.

You shouldn't open an oven door with a cake in the oven, also it will mess up the cooking times for both to have two in the oven at once and will probably wreck the cake

Give it a try and report back!

It was actually a post on another thread that made me wonder. A poster mentioned putting an Ottolenghi chickpea recipe on the bottom shelf so she could put a cake in too. I thought one might take on a hint of the other. Then I wondered if I was being too precious. It seems it generally isn't recommended!

I do this all the time and the taste isn't affected

Sunday roast followed by crumble can all be bunged in together.

The crumble does not need to rise! but they will all still need longer cooking time.

Id do it with a fruit cake, but a sponge definitely needs to have the door shut for at least the first two thirds of cooking time.

Not a sponge cake. Other cakes would be ok

I would say the last two thirds were more crucial. I guess it depends how long the chickpeas are cooked for? If it’s less than the sponge I’d say it wasn’t ideal but more than, no difference really.

Wouldn't the oven need to be at a lower temperature for a cake?

My late mum wouldn't have even considered putting her oven on just for dinner.. always a cake in there too to be 'economical'

I'm a bit like it too (thanks mum)

I can always find something depending on what the dinner needs.

Scones, sponge, bread, biscuits, muffins

i absolutely wouldn’t do this, I once ate some cake at work that a lovely lady had baked, it had a weird taste I couldn’t put my finger on.
Someone asked how she’d made it and she said she was also cooking toad in the hole at the same time as the cake.
cake batter is porous and will take on flavours around it! yuck 🤢

I think more likely a dirty pan than taste from a toad in the hole. Curry might taint but batter and sausage seems unlikely.

I do it all the time with mixed desserts and savoury when batch cooking but not sponge cake and not when I've turned the oven up to crisp up pork crackling as the oven fills with smoke.

My home economics teacher would have insisted on using the oven efficiently and putting both in at the same time.