Carrot Cake Cups
Spice cake and cream cheese frosting, both built from powder in a cup at camp.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 3.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 142
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 2 min
- total time
- 7 min
- water
- 120 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2/3 cup | about 80 g |
|---|---|---|
| Baking powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Brown sugar | 1/3 cup | packed |
| Salt | 1/8 tsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground ginger, cloves, and nutmeg | 1/8 tsp each | |
| Dried shredded carrot | 1/3 cup | dehydrated at home or bought as soup vegetables |
| Dried pineapple | 2 tbsp | chopped small |
| Powdered whole egg | 2 tbsp | |
| Avocado or light olive oil | 3 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Vanilla powder | 1/4 tsp | extract leaks; powder does not |
| Cream cheese powder | 1/4 cup | |
| Powdered sugar | 1/3 cup | |
| Butter powder | 2 tbsp |
Method
- At camp, tip the carrot and pineapple into your pot with 120 ml of water. Bring to a boil, then take it off the heat and let it sit five minutes until the shreds are soft and most of the water is gone.
- Stir in the oil, then the cake premix bag. Mix to a thick batter. Add water a teaspoon at a time only if it will not come together.
- Set the pot back on the lowest flame you can hold. Cover it and cook two minutes, then kill the heat and leave the lid on ten minutes. It steams itself the rest of the way.
- In a mug or freezer bag, stir the frosting premix with 2 tbsp cold water until it is smooth and holds a peak. Start with less water than you think.
- Spoon the cake into two cups, frosting on top. Eat warm.
The original is an 8x8 sheet cake scooped into plastic cups. Without an oven this becomes a steamed cake, which is what the low flame and the covered ten-minute rest are doing. Steam cooks a small batter through without scorching the bottom, and a backpacking pot on a stove is a bad oven but a decent steamer.
The swaps are all about water and refrigeration. Fresh shredded carrot and drained crushed pineapple are mostly water, so the dried versions plus the 120 ml rehydration step put that water back where it belongs. Cream cheese, butter, and eggs all exist as powders that keep at ambient temperature for months; the frosting comes together with cold water and no fat left out overnight. Oil stays liquid because the batter needs the fat and butter powder alone will not make it tender.
Packing
Two bags: cake dry mix in one, frosting powders in the other. Carrot and pineapple ride in a third since they go in first. Oil in a dropper bottle, standing upright.
Variations
- Skip the pot entirely and layer the cooked cake and frosting into a wide-mouth jar so it travels to the next camp.
- Cream cheese powder is the expensive part. Plain powdered milk and a pinch of citric acid gets you most of the way.
https://mealswithmaria.site/carrot-cake-dessert-cups