Plum Skillet Cake
Dried plums, cake mix, and a sour cream powder glaze, baked in a covered pot over coals.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 104
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 300 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Plain yellow cake mix | 1 box, about 15 oz | the kind that only needs water works best |
|---|---|---|
| Pitted dried plums | 1 1/2 cups | prunes; halve them at home |
| Melted butter | 4 tbsp | carry as ghee, it does not need cold |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | |
| Sour cream powder | 1/4 cup | |
| Powdered sugar | 3 tbsp | |
| Lemon zest, dried | 1 tsp | |
| Cinnamon | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down. You want coals, not flames.
- Soak the dried plums in about 100 ml of hot water for ten minutes, then drain off whatever they did not absorb.
- Grease the dutch oven with a spoon of the ghee. Mix the cake mix, milk powder, cinnamon, salt, and about 200 ml of water in the pot until there are no dry pockets.
- Push the plum halves into the batter, cut side down. Pour the rest of the melted ghee over the top.
- Lid on. Eight or nine coals underneath, fifteen or so on the lid. Rotate the pot a quarter turn every ten minutes and the lid the other way.
- Check at 30 minutes. A twig pushed into the center should come out clean. Give it another five to ten if it does not.
- While it cools, stir the sour cream powder, powdered sugar, and dried zest with cold water a teaspoon at a time until it pours. Spoon it over the warm cake.
The original is a Romanian plum pie with a sour cream topping, which needs fresh fruit, fresh dairy, and an oven. All three are gone here. Dried plums soaked back in hot water get close to the texture of the fresh bistrița plums the pie is built on, and they carry at room temperature for a month. Sour cream powder rehydrates into something tart enough to do the job of the cream, and it weighs almost nothing.
Coal placement is the part that decides whether this works. Most of the heat belongs on the lid, or the bottom scorches before the middle sets. Rotating the pot and lid in opposite directions evens out the hot spots that any fire has. The soaked plums release a little liquid as it bakes, which is why the batter starts slightly stiff.
Packing
Cake mix, milk powder, cinnamon, and salt go in one bag. Plums in a second. Glaze powders in a third small bag so you can mix the glaze in the bag itself and cut a corner.
Variations
- Dried apricots or sour cherries stand in for the plums without changing the timing.
- No dutch oven: bake it in a foil pan inside a covered skillet on a grill grate, low and off to the side of the fire.
- Skip the glaze and dust the top with cinnamon sugar if you want less to carry.
https://savoriurbane.com/placinta-creata-cu-prune-bistrite-si-crema-de-smantana-prajitura-simpla-si-rapida-cu-fructe