Sweet Potato Skillet Cake
Dried sweet potato and rum-soaked raisins, baked in a covered skillet over coals.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 96
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 400 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
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Sweet potato flakes | 1 1/2 cups | dehydrated, rehydrates to about 2 cups mashed |
|---|---|---|
| Raisins | 1 cup | |
| Bourbon or dark rum | 1/4 cup | |
| All-purpose flour | 3 cups | |
| Granulated sugar | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Whole egg powder | 1/2 cup | stands in for 4 eggs |
| Buttermilk powder | 1/3 cup | |
| Baking powder | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Baking soda | 1/2 tsp | |
| Cinnamon | 1 1/2 tsp | |
| Nutmeg | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Vegetable oil | 3/4 cup | |
| Vanilla extract | 1 tbsp | |
| Powdered sugar | 2 cups | for the glaze |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Pour the liquor over the raisins in a jar in the morning. They soak while you do everything else.
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Boil about 300 ml of water and stir it into the sweet potato flakes. Let them sit five minutes until they are thick mash, not soup.
- Whisk the dry mix (flour, sugar, egg powder, buttermilk powder, leaveners, spices, salt) in the pot. Add the mash, oil, vanilla, and about 100 ml more water. Stir until no flour pockets remain, then fold in the raisins and any liquor left in the jar.
- Oil the dutch oven, pour the batter in, and put the lid on. Set the oven on a bed of coals with a full ring of coals on the lid, roughly twice as many on top as below.
- Bake 40 to 50 minutes. Rotate the oven a quarter turn every ten minutes and the lid the opposite way so it does not scorch on one side.
- Check with a twig or knife in the center. Clean means done. Pull it off the coals and let it cool with the lid off.
- Stir powdered sugar and brown sugar with a tablespoon of water and a splash of liquor until it pours. Spread it over the warm cake.
The original wants roasted sweet potatoes, four eggs, buttermilk, and a cream cheese frosting whipped with butter. None of that survives a night without a fridge. Dehydrated sweet potato flakes rehydrate to about the right texture and skip the hour of roasting; egg powder and buttermilk powder do their jobs at a fraction of the weight. The cream cheese frosting becomes a sugar glaze, which is the part of frosting that actually travels.
The raisins matter more than they look. Soaking them in liquor for a few hours puts moisture back into the crumb as the cake bakes, which covers for a dutch oven that runs hotter than an oven ever would. Coals on the lid, not under it, is the whole technique: heat from below burns the bottom long before the middle sets.
Packing
Combine every dry ingredient except the powdered and brown sugar into one bag at home; label it. Sweet potato flakes and raisins ride in their own bags. Glaze sugars go in a third bag you can mix in directly. Oil, vanilla, and liquor in small bottles.
Variations
- Skip the liquor and soak the raisins in strong tea or apple cider instead.
- Dried cranberries or chopped dates work if raisins bore you.
- No glaze, no lost sleep. The cake is sweet enough on its own.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/sweet-potato-cake-with-bourbon-cream-cheese-frosting