Dutch Oven Upside-Down Fruit Cake
Canned fruit, brown sugar, and a one-bowl batter baked over coals in a dutch oven.
- calories
- 470
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 72
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 8
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 60 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
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Canned peach slices | 1 can (15 oz) | drained, save the syrup |
|---|---|---|
| Canned pineapple chunks | 1 can (8 oz) | drained |
| Dried tart cherries | 1/2 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 1/4 cup, packed | |
| Granulated sugar | 1 cup | |
| Self-rising flour | 1 cup | |
| Powdered whole egg | 2 tbsp | equals one large egg |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tsp | carried in a small dropper bottle |
| Chopped pecans | 1/2 cup | |
| Butter | 1/2 cup | salted is fine; keeps a few days out of a cooler |
| Cold water | 1/4 cup |
Method
- Build a fire and burn it down to coals. You want about 20 briquettes' worth, or an equivalent bed of hardwood coals.
- Melt 2 tbsp of the butter in the bottom of a 10-inch dutch oven and swirl it up the sides. Melt the rest in a cup or in the lid and set it aside.
- Scatter the brown sugar over the butter in the bottom, then lay the drained peaches, pineapple, and cherries over it in a single layer. This ends up as the top.
- In a bag or bowl, stir the flour, sugar, egg powder, and milk powder together. Add the cold water, vanilla, and the remaining melted butter. Stir until it just comes together, then fold in the pecans.
- Pour the batter over the fruit and level it with a spoon. Do not stir it into the fruit.
- Set the oven on 8 coals and put 16 on the lid. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the oven and the lid a quarter turn every ten minutes so it does not scorch on one side.
- It is done when a stick poked into the center comes out clean. Let it sit ten minutes, then invert onto a plate or eat it out of the pot.
The original of this is an oven cake with fresh peaches, a fresh egg, and a splash of milk. None of that travels. Canned fruit is already cooked and already shelf-stable, and it releases less liquid than fresh, which matters when the bottom of the pan is supposed to turn into caramel rather than syrup. Powdered egg and powdered milk cover the two refrigerated items; the batter is stiff enough that neither is doing structural work you would notice.
The coal split is the part worth getting right. Two-thirds of the heat on the lid and one-third underneath makes it bake instead of fry, and rotating both oven and lid keeps hot spots from burning a stripe into the cake. Self-rising flour saves carrying baking powder and salt separately, but check the date on the bag before the trip, since old leavening gives you a dense, wet layer under the fruit.
Packing
Combine the flour, both sugars minus the brown, egg powder, and milk powder in one bag at home. Brown sugar goes in its own small bag so it stays where you put it. Cans and butter ride in the food bin.
Variations
- Dried apples and raisins in place of the canned fruit cut about a pound of carried weight. Add 1/4 cup more water to the batter.
- Skip the pecans if anyone in camp has a nut allergy. The cake does not need them.
- A can of fruit cocktail, drained, replaces all three fruits and saves a step.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/fruit-cocktail-upside-down-cake