Tasty Tuesdays! GF Dutch Oven Blueberry Cake

I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with friends and family.  I did, with a large gathering of family and friends.  We went to decoration on Sunday instead of Monday and I reminded my young boys of the reason for the holiday.  My youngest son is 7 and he couldn't wait to call up several of the veterans in our family and thank them for their service.  I was going to remind him but he beat me to it and I was thrilled.  It was a great long weekend but I am ready to get back to work.

With that in mind, I decided to do another Dutch Oven recipe since I got so much interest in the last post, both in the comment section and otherwise.  You can find my recipe for GF Breakfast Casserole here.  Check out our other Gluten-Free recipes in the archives on the right side of the page.  A quick description for those who may not be familiar with Dutch Ovens; they are a thick walled cooking pot with a tight fitting lid.  They can be used in your oven but are intended for cooking outdoors with coals from a campfire on the top and bottom to provide heat for the dish.  I use mine with charcoal briquettes and cook with them year round.

For lack of a better name, I call this dish Blueberry Cake. The ingredients are as follows:

1 Gluten Free cake mix (I didn't make one from scratch today, I cheated a little in the interest of time)
2/3 cup of water
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2 tblsp vanilla extract Gluten-Free
3 eggs
1 small bag charcoal briquettes
1 Dutch Oven 10" or your favorite cake dish

If using your kitchen oven, preheat to 325 - 350 degrees. If using charcoal, light the briquettes and let them just ash over. You will need approximately 25 - 30 for the correct temperature. If you let them burn too long, they will not last long enough to cook your dish. When I cook with them, I have a pan of briquettes burning on the side so I can add to them if I run low or need to add heat to my dish. 

As a general rule of thumb, each briquette will give you approximately 15 degrees of heat to your oven.  I can see you guys grabbing your calculators right now and telling me that I'm around 450 degrees.  "You're too hot for a cake!", and you would be right, if I was in an enclosed space.  When cooking outdoors, you have some heat loss around the sides and from the coals on top so it is really an experiment when you first start using them.  I can tell you that I have made this cake many times and have yet to mess it up.

Use a very light coat of oil on the interior of the Dutch Oven so you won't have any sticking.

Beat cake mix, water, butter, vanilla and eggs on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides occasionally. 

Pour into Dutch Oven or cake pan.

Pour blueberry pie filling on the top of the cake batter.

Bake as directed or for approximately 25 -30 minutes in your Dutch Oven or until toothpick comes out clean.  

Almost ready......I added some heat at this point to brown the top.

The pie filling spreads throughout the cake during the baking process and will be wonderful, moist and delicious.  Did I mention wonderful, moist and delicious?  It's almost like a cake and cobbler all rolled into one.  You can make it with your favorite pie filling or fresh fruit and it is fantastic.  If you use fresh fruit it will not be as sweet because it lacks the corn syrup of the fillings but blueberries, strawberries, and peaches all work great. 

You may let it cool or eat it right away with a scoop of your favorite GF ice cream!  As we speak it is too hot to eat.  I can promise that it will be sampled shortly......

We make this dessert when camping a lot because it is so quick and easy.  I like to cook in the kitchen but I can honestly say I enjoy the easy campfire dishes as much as the complicated kitchen ones.  This cake never fails to get comments from the people that try it.  Enjoy!!

This post is part of the following blog carnivals..........Go check out these great sites!!

Mouthwatering Mondays
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Tuesday Twister
Slightly Indulgent Tuesday
Gluten Free Wednesdays
Real Food Wednesdays
Fight Back Friday