By Zoe Lambert – 1 week volunteer

I’m no stranger to rice cookers. I have one at home and it gets used almost every week, but not once would it have crossed my mind to use it to bake. Baking in a rice cooker isn’t all that much different from baking in an oven. You use the same ingredients and you might even be able to make the same things. Despite that, it was definitely a new experience for all of us. In one rice cooker, we were able to bake not one, but two things in the space of an afternoon. To be more specific, we made cinnamon bread and marble cake.

In Thailand it can be difficult to find the ingredients that we’re used to baking with at home. That wasn’t a problem for us. While it’s true that we had to substitute a few ingredients for our own creations, the end results were mouth wateringly delicious. Not only was the cinnamon bread sticky sweet, but the marble cake was swirled in a way that gave us the best of both worlds. Vanilla and chocolate.

We saved the cinnamon bread for breakfast the next day. The mornings in Thailand are quite cold, so it was a treat to be able to have a warm meal in the midst of the slow fading night chill. Again, we used the rice cooker to warm it up after a night spent in the fridge. Paired with a hot drink and an amazing view, it was an unforgettable experience.

On the other hand, the marble cake managed to last us for two days, which was quite impressive since the slices that we cut were massive. As a final touch we added sprinkles on top of the chocolate icing, and it ended up looking a little bit like birthday cake, not that I’m complaining. It added a little festivity to the night, and we all went to bed feeling satisfied.

All in all, this was definitely an experience that I would love to do again. Elephants and cake, what could be better than that?