Almond Pound Cake, Dutch Oven
A dense almond cake baked over coals, iced with meringue powder frosting that sets in camp air.
- calories
- 470
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 118
- protein
- 7 g
- serves
- 8
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 180 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Light brown sugar | 1/2 cup | pack it, then break up the lumps |
| Granulated sugar | 1/4 cup | |
| Baking powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Powdered whole egg | 2 tbsp | stands in for 1 large egg |
| Sour cream powder | 1/4 cup | buttermilk powder also works |
| Butter powder or shortening | 1/4 cup | shortening keeps at any temperature |
| Almond butter | 1/4 cup | single-serve squeeze packets do not leak |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | |
| Almond extract | 1/2 tsp | you need it twice, so carry the small bottle |
| Powdered sugar, sifted at home | 2 cups | |
| Meringue powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Powdered milk | 2 tbsp | reconstituted for the frosting |
| Sliced almonds, toasted at home | 3/4 cup | |
| Oil for the pot | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals, not flame. Twenty-odd briquettes works if you brought them.
- Grease the inside of the dutch oven, sides included, and dust it with a spoonful of the flour mix.
- In a bowl, whisk the flour, both sugars, baking powder, salt, egg powder, sour cream powder, and butter powder until the color is even.
- Add the almond butter, both extracts, and about 120 ml of cold water. Stir until it comes together as a thick batter. Add water a tablespoon at a time only if it will not fold.
- Scrape the batter into the pot and level it. Lid on. Set the oven on a thin layer of coals and put roughly twice as many on the lid.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Rotate the pot a quarter turn every ten minutes so it does not scorch on one side. It is done when a twig comes out clean.
- Lift the pot off the coals and let it cool with the lid off. Cake pulled hot from a cast iron pot falls apart.
- For the frosting, whisk the powdered sugar, meringue powder, powdered milk, a few drops of almond extract, and about 45 ml of cold water in a cup. Beat it hard with a fork for a minute until it thickens and holds a line.
- Spread it over the cooled cake and scatter the almonds on top. It skins over in ten minutes.
This is a home cake rebuilt around powders. Butter, egg, and sour cream all exist in dried form, and all three do their job here once cold water goes back in, which means the whole cake can sit in a bear canister for a week before anyone lights a fire. The almond butter matters more than it looks: it carries fat that survives the trip and keeps the crumb from drying out in a cast iron pot that runs hotter than an oven.
Heat management is the actual skill. Coals underneath cook the bottom fast and burn it faster, so most of them belong on the lid, where they bake from above the way an oven does. The frosting is meringue powder rather than fresh egg white or fresh dairy, and it sets firm enough that the cake can be cut, wrapped, and eaten cold the next morning.
Packing
Combine all the cake dry ingredients, including the powdered fat and egg, in one labeled zip bag at home. Frosting dry ingredients go in a second bag. Almonds get toasted in a skillet before the trip and ride in a rigid container so they do not turn to dust.
Variations
- No dutch oven: bake the batter in a foil pan set on a wire rack inside a covered pot, or spoon it into a greased skillet as thick pancakes.
- Swap the almond butter for sunflower seed butter and skip the almonds if you are cooking for a nut allergy. Drop the almond extract too.
- A tablespoon of cocoa in the frosting cuts the sweetness.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/holiday-almond-pound-cake