Dutch Oven Angel Food Cake
Powdered egg whites, flour, and sugar beaten into a foam and baked over coals. A Norwegian bakery cake dragged out to a fire ring.
- calories
- 380
- weight
- 3.4 oz
- cal / oz
- 112
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 8
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 350 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
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Powdered egg whites | 3/4 cup | meringue powder works; stands in for 12 fresh whites |
|---|---|---|
| Cake or all-purpose flour | 2 1/2 dl (about 1 cup) | |
| Powdered sugar | 3 dl (about 1 1/4 cups) | |
| Granulated sugar | 2 1/2 dl (about 1 cup) | |
| Vanilla sugar | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | |
| Citric acid or powdered lemon juice | 1/2 tsp | replaces the 1 tsp fresh lemon juice |
| Powdered sugar for the glaze | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Dried lemon peel | 1 tbsp | finely grated and dried at home |
| Cold water | about 350 ml plus a splash |
Method
- Build a fire and burn it down to coals well before you start. You want about 25 briquette-sized coals or their equivalent, and no flame.
- Whisk the flour, the 3 dl of powdered sugar, and the vanilla sugar together in a bowl. Sift it through a strainer if you brought one. Lumps do not disappear later.
- In a clean, completely dry pot, stir the powdered egg whites into 350 ml of cold water and let it sit five minutes. Add the salt and beat until it holds soft peaks.
- Keep beating and add the granulated sugar one spoonful at a time. Stop when the foam is stiff and glossy. This takes a while by hand. It is the whole recipe.
- Sprinkle in the citric acid, then fold the flour mixture in a third at a time. Fold, do not stir. Get every streak of flour in without knocking the air out.
- Scrape the batter into an ungreased cake pan and level the top. Do not oil the pan, and do not bake this directly in the dutch oven unless it is bare cast iron with no seasoning to speak of. The batter has to climb the walls.
- Set the pan on three small stones or a trivet inside the dutch oven, lid on. Put 8 coals underneath and 17 on the lid. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until the top is golden and crusted and a stick comes out clean.
- Pull the pan and turn it upside down on two rocks so air moves under it. Leave it there until it is stone cold, up to two hours. Right side up, it collapses.
- Run a knife around the edge, thump the pan against something solid, and turn the cake out.
- Stir the glaze powdered sugar with a splash of water until it pours slowly. Pour it over and scatter the dried lemon peel on top.
Angel food cake is flour, sugar, and a large volume of trapped air. The original calls for twelve fresh egg whites, which is not a thing you carry down a dirt road, so this uses powdered whites rehydrated in the pot. They whip nearly as well and they keep in a bag for a year. Citric acid replaces the lemon juice for the same reason: it does the acid’s job of stabilizing the foam without a piece of fruit going soft in a duffel.
Two rules decide whether this works. Nothing that touches the batter can carry grease, because fat collapses egg foam on contact, and the pan stays ungreased so the cake has something to grip while it rises. Cooling it upside down is not optional either. The structure is still soft when it comes off the coals and it will sink into itself if it sits right side up. The butter-and-milk glaze from the original became a plain sugar and water pour, which needs no cooler and sets up fine in camp.
Packing
Combine the flour, powdered sugar, and vanilla sugar in one bag; the egg white powder, salt, and citric acid in a second; the granulated sugar in a third. Glaze sugar and lemon peel go in a fourth. Label them, because three of the four look identical by lantern light.
Variations
- Skip the glaze and eat it plain with rehydrated berries spooned over the top.
- A tablespoon of instant coffee in the glaze sugar cuts the sweetness.
- No cake pan: line the dutch oven with parchment and accept a flatter, denser cake.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/kos/angel-food-cake