Need Cast Iron Cake Help

txpgapro

New member
Been baking a cake in a cast iron Dutch oven at 350* for 35 minutes and it's no where near done.
It's going to be a mess. What should I do?

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CarterQ

Moderator
Should be OK, I've done cakes in the Dutch oven at 350 and they took almost an hour. You could bump the temp to 375 or so to speed it along. Keep an eye on it, when it's ready it will happen quickly, the toothpick test is always a good indicator.
 

txpgapro

New member
It's a spice cake. I soaked fresh diced peaches in peach rum for 3 days then simmered it off with a 1/2 cup of sugar in the raw and a little butter. Been 45 minutes now. Going out to check on it.


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txpgapro

New member
Carter's cake last week sounded so good I just had to do one. Yep the knife just came out clean. All done. I'll leave it outside to cool before I try to flip if out. Thanks all. Guess I was in a panic for no reason.
Got to go put the stuffed pork and chicken breast on now.


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CarterQ

Moderator
You should be getting close, no worries, the first dump cake I did on the MAK was the same, I thought it would take 30 - 40 minutes and it took an hour. Thought I had screwed it up all the way till it was done.
 

txpgapro

New member
Well it was just ok. Very crumbly. Might stick with normal cake pans in the pellet cooker in the future.

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txpgapro

New member
Now I know why you call it a Dump Cake. Eat one piece and dump the rest in the trash.


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txpgapro

New member
Just way too crumbly and the topping all burned and stuck to the bottom of the pan. I wonder if I beat the mix too long?

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TentHunter

Moderator
Sorry it didn't turn out Mike :(.

Cake recipes usually account for about 1/3 of the moisture evaporating during baking. If you loose more than that, then the cake can crumble. Usually dump cakes are baked in a dutch oven with the lid on and coals on top, so even though they may bake longer it retains more moisture.

You can try adding a bit more liquid or a bit of cooking oil in the batter and a water pan in the cooker to create some humidity.

I bet Deb or SisInLaw can give you even better info here. :)
 

Deb

New member
It probably was either not enough liquid or overmixing. Since it took longer than the expected cook time I would think probably not enough liquid.

Now I"m craving spice cake
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
Jeez mike...one try and your out of the cake business? I made one last week that I was so disappointed that I didnt post it here. It was my crazy deconstruction of the bannana brownie and caramel deal. It totally sucked. But I just threw it away...Now Im going to try again.
 

SisInLaw

New member
Just way too crumbly and the topping all burned and stuck to the bottom of the pan. I wonder if I beat the mix too long?

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Txpgapro, to my knowledge a true "dump cake" requires no mixing at all--thus the name. You simply "dump" the ingredients into a pan without ANY mixing at all, so perhaps this is a new smoking term with which I'm not acquainted. I agree with Deb that perhaps more oil in your mix however, if it stuck really bad as you say then you do need to prepare your pan with some sort of shortening/flour barrier or maybe a lot of Pam. Not having experience with iron pots in smokers, I'm sure cowgirl or Deb can help more.

Last week I baked homemade Profiteroles with the from-scratch baked little dough puffs, added ice cream and Belgian chocolate fudge sauce. They were wonderful. Now I need to ask Big Poppa about cooking the puffs in a smoker.
 

txpgapro

New member
Maybe if I'd cooked it with the lid on it would have cooked faster a stayed moist. It wasn't the cake that really stuck but the peaches in all that sugar and rum that stuck.


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TentHunter

Moderator
Pyrex ought to work fine, but it might get a little discolored from the smoke requiring some extra scrubbing. If you have a cast iron skillet that'll work just as well as a dutch oven.
 
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