Do You Dutch Oven?? Strawberry Cake!

I made this super easy dish a couple of weeks ago when I brought a dessert to our Fall Round-up.  I usually bring desserts or side dish of one kind or another to our events because we have a large family.  My dad is one of 6 kids so you can just imagine how many mouths there are to feed.  Just like many families around the world, when everyone chips in...things just take care of themselves.

I got the notice to bring something quite a bit ahead of time but my mind pulled a dirty trick on me and I didn't remember 'til the night before.  As luck would have it, Round-up was a two day event so Saturday was all covered.  We got done and back to the house that night and I made the cake for Sunday's festivities.

Of course I looked high and low and couldn't find a cake mix (that would be cheating anyway right?) and so made this one from scratch.  Let's get to the recipe!

Ingredients:

Dutch oven 10"

24 charcoal briquettes

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1/2 cup real butter

1 cup milk

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I like a dash of almond extract thrown in)

3 eggs

1 - 15 oz. can of strawberry pie filling


 Directions:

Arrange charcoal in a pile and light allowing approx 10-12 minutes to get hot.   Grease one 10" dutch oven.   Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating just to combine, then stir in vanilla. Pour batter into the dutch oven.  Place strawberry filling on top of the cake batter all around the top.

This was before I arranged the coals.  I have a circular wire stand that I bought with my oven.

Place 12 coals around the outer top edge of the dutch oven lid and 8 on the bottom in a circle.  Take care and make certain to use a dutch oven with legs or use a raised grate to keep approx 1-1.5" of separation between the bottom coals and your oven.  The top coals will be placed right on the lid.  Bake at approx 350 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

The filling went straight to the bottom of the cake for the first time ever.  I've made this or a similar dish many times and it always goes through the cake.  Perhaps I over-mixed the batter and made it too fluffy?

Normally a cake takes no more than 30 minutes at 350 in a dutch oven.  The adddition of a pie filling added quite a bit of moisture to the cake and increased the cooking time.  Enjoy!!

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