by Rich Harrington

Created on: April 03, 2009

Open fire cooking is a return to the origins of cooking where flame and food meet are able to combine to create masterpieces. The joy of cooking over an open fire is to understand how tough the pioneers and the early settlers had it. Cooking over an open fire is work, but there are rewards. Like cake.

We tend to think of open fire cooking as meat on a stick burnt to a crisp. Anything that can be done in a home kitchen can be cooked over an open fire. There are some tricks to learn, but even something as sweet and tasty as a cake can be done on an open fire. The main trick is the dutch oven. The dutch oven was perfected by the Dutch in the 1600's and sold into Britain and the name stuck with these thick walled iron cooking pots with a tight lid. In the United States, dutch ovens have short legs and the lid has a lip around the edge to keep coals on better. Dutch ovens also have a handle or bale to remove the lid.

Open fire cooking is misnomer. When outdoor cooking is done, most food is prepared using the coals of the fire rather than putting food by the fire. The coals hold more heat and can be controlled better than a log on fire.

So on a camp out, making a cake using a dutch oven is very simple. You will need a good coal fire. Allow the logs to burn down and use your hand to see if the fire is hot. Hot means you can not hold your hand over it for only a few seconds before you have to pull it away. When the coals are getting very hot, prepare your dutch oven. You will need a cake pan and three or four stones. Do not use stones from a river or stream as they can explode in a dutch oven because of the contained moisture.

Place your dutch oven close to the coals, but not right on them. You will need to control your coals to regulate the cooking time.

You can use any cake recipe you want including a good box mix. Prepare the batter as you would at home and place into the cake pan. To make two layers, you will need to either have a metal riser for the dutch oven or use a second oven. Put the stones on the bottom. These will raise your first pan up off the iron enough to allow the hot air to circulate around the pan. Place the pan with the batter into the dutch oven and place the lid on the oven. Put a shovelful of coals under the dutch oven. There should be about the same amount of coals as about 20 briquettes of charcoal. Let cook for 20 minutes. Remove those coals and now put about 2/3 shovelful of coals on top of the dutch oven to cook the top for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove the pan with pliers or dutch oven tongs. Let cool on a rack. Pop out of the pan and add frosting. Once cool, the dutch oven will only need a wipe out with a little oil on a paper towel.

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