You can place a cast iron skillet into the oven to bake a cake. Skillet cakes became popular in the late 1800s when cooking a cake in a skillet on a stove top produced more reliable results than in the ovens of the era. Upside down versions of skillet cakes from the 1950s and 1960s, such as pineapple upside down cake, kept the use of the skillet as a cake pan in vogue. But in the modern era, cast iron pans have been used to bake the cake inside the oven. Be sure you season your cast iron skillet before baking cakes. For the procedure, see Resource 3. See recipes for cakes in skillets in Resources 1 and 2.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Melt the butter in the base of the skillet on the stove top over medium high heat. Swirl the pan to allow the butter to completely coat the bottom. Add any additional cake topping ingredients to the bottom of the pan, if required by the recipe.
Pour the cake batter over the melted butter or the cake topping.
Place the entire cast iron skillet into the oven and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 to 60 minutes.
Insert a skewer into the center of the cake and pull out. With the oven mitts, remove the cake from the oven when no crumbles remain on the skewer.
Let the cake cool in the skillet for 5 minutes on a cooling rack.
Place a knife along the side of the skillet between the cake and the pan and run it around the inside of the pan, loosening the sides of the cake from the inside of the skillet.
Put a cake plate on top of the skillet. Place one hand firmly on the bottom of the plate and with an oven mitt, hold the handle of the skillet with your other hand.
Flip the skillet and plate over together and lift the skillet so that the cake remains upright on top of the cake plate.
Allow the cake to cool completely before serving.