Blueberry Pancake Cake

So, a while ago I had this idea.  It seemed to me that a stack of pancakes looked a lot like a layer cake with lots of layers.  From there, it was an easy set of mental leaps to making it into an actual dessert cake.

This recipe is in two parts, the pancakes, and the frosting.  The Pancakes I took from my first book, “The Best of the Black Pot”, and I used blueberries instead of apples.

Blueberry Cinnamon Pancakes on the Dutch Oven lid

12” dutch oven lid, inverted on a trivet

20 coals underneath, with more in a side fire

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ Tbsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tbsp white sugar

2 1/2 cups milk, with as much as an additional cup to the side
2 eggs
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup of fresh blueberries, coarsely chopped (set a few whole ones aside)
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp of nutmeg


First, I made the pancakes.  I started by lighting up the coals and getting them hot.  Once they were ready, I put the trivet over the coals and the 12” Dutch oven lid upside down on the trivet.  I sprayed a little oil on the lid as it preheated.

In a bowl, I sifted and mixed the dry ingredients.  I mixed in the wet ingredients and stirred it all up.  I chopped up the berries (it wasn’t easy, they kept rolling everywhere),  and stirred them in with the spices as well.

I find that pancakes cook better if the batter is pretty runny.  I added milk until it got to the consistency that I like.  It’s a little runnier than a typical cake batter.

Once that was all mixed up, and the lid heated up, I just started cooking up the pancakes.  I did a little less than a cup of batter for each one.  I let it cook on one side until the bubbles would pop and not refill back in.  Then, I’d turn it over for just a few moments more.  This mix was about enough for 6-7 of these big pancakes.  When they were done, I brought them in and let them cool.

Then, it was time to mix up the frosting and assemble the cake.

3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 cup butter or cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

This is a particularly challenging part of the dish to make if you don’t use any electrical appliances.  Because IDOS cookoff rules currently forbid them, I like to try and do all of my blog dishes using hand tools only.  In this case, I recommend starting by creaming the butter or the cream cheese using the back of a spoon with holes in it, or a potato masher that has a flat plane with holes.  Gradually add in the sugar so as to not make it too stiff right away, then when it starts to look good and aerated, mix in the vanilla and the whipping cream.

Once it’s mixed, then it’s pretty easy to assemble.  First, I took out about a third of the frosting.  That would be the top. Then, I started with one pancake on my plate, and I spread a paper-thin layer of frosting on it.  I allowed a little more thickness at the edges, but not much.  I also spread the frosting all the way to the edge.  Then, I put another pancake on top of that.

Layer after layer, frosting, pancake, frosting, I built it up.  It’s important to not use too much frosting in between layers.  Use less than a normal layer cake.  First of all, you’ve got six or seven layers and it will get used up pretty fast.  Second, eating six or seven full layers of frosting in between the cake will make the whole thing pretty dang sugary!

Sometimes, the frosting would squeeze out a little from between the pancake layers.  I didn’t mind that.  I thought it looked more “cake-ish” that way.

Finally, after seven layers of cake, I’d pretty much used up my allotted two-thirds of the frosting.  I plopped the final third on top and spread it around the top like a real frosting layer on cake should be. I pushed it all the way to the edge and even let it droop over a bit.  I did not, however, frost the sides.  My pancakes were not perfectly round, and I liked the irregularities of the edges.  Finally, I judiciously sprinkled and scattered the few remaining unchopped blueberries across the top to get stuck in place by the frosting.

When serving, I cut it into wedges, just like a regular cake. The blueberries on top and the blueberries in the pancakes make for a delicious cake!


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Cheesecake With a Twist

I wasn’t sure what dessert I wanted to make for our Christmas dinner, until my wife suggested that I do a Cheesecake.  I’ve only done one cheesecake before, and it turned out passable, but not amazing.  It was a chocolate chip pumpkin cheesecake.

I figured that since I’ve been learning so much about how to do cakes and baking that I’d really like to simplify, and just do a good basic cheesecake, without a lot of frills.  Then, I could make a couple of different toppings and it would still taste fancy.

As I was doing some research, I found that some of the cheesecakes were done in a water bath in the oven.  This was something I’d never heard of before.  The basic idea was to put a springform pan, wrapped in aluminum foil to prevent leaking, into a pan full of water, and to put that into the oven.  Right away, I was intrigued, but also skeptical.  Does it make that much difference?  What’s it’s purpose?

A few more Googles turned up some answers.  The best reason for doing it is even heat distribution around the (relatively delicate) batter.  Some said that the steam around the cake also helps prevent cracking on the top.

Well, a Dutch oven often suffers from uneven heat, so I thought I’d give it a try.  But how?  The solution was to do the cake in my 10” shallow dutch oven, and lower it into a heated water bath in my 14” deep oven.

The results were much, much better than last time.  There were a lot of other things I did differently as well, so I’m not certain that was entirely because of the water bath.  But, in the end, it was one of the lightest, fluffiest, creamiest cheesecakes I’ve ever eaten.

Basic Dutch Oven Cheesecake in a Water Bath

10” shallow Dutch oven
14” deep Dutch oven

25-28 coals below
16-18 coals above

8” Dutch oven

10 coals below


CRUST
1 1/2 cup Graham cracker crumbs
1/4 lb (1 stick) Melted butter
1/4 cup Sugar
Liberal shakes of Ground dried mint (optional, but it really helped the flavor!)

FILLING
4x 8 oz packages Cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups Sugar
4 Eggs
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
1 cup Heavy whipping cream

TOPPING
1 1/2 Cups frozen fruit (Strawberries)
1/2 Cup Sugar
Shakes of cinnamon, nutmeg
Water as needed


It started out with me taking the ingredients out of the fridge so that they could come more up to room temperature.  Then, as usual, I started getting a lot of coals ready.  It took a lot on the ovens, and it was a fairly long cooking time, so I had to have a side fire handy as well, to keep replenishing the coals.

Before making any of the ingredients, I set the 10” inside the 14”, and filled it with water until it came a bit up the side of the 10”.  That was a lot of water.  It will take quite a while to get all that water heated up.  I took the 10” out, and put the 14” on and under the coals, with the lid on.  I wanted the water oven to be as preheated as possible, maybe even simmering.

Then, I made the crust.  I actually didn’t have any graham crackers, so I ended up using honey-flavored oat breakfast cereal O’s.  It still tasted fine.  I mixed in the melted butter, the sugar, and the mint and pressed it into place at the bottom of the Dutch oven.  There had been some debate as to whether you were supposed to mold it up the sides or not.  Since I was going to be serving it straight from the Dutch, I didn’t fuss with it, and just made it level.

Then, I got a big mixing bowl, and started creaming the cream cheese and the sugar together.  I have this potato masher with kinda small holes, and it worked just perfectly for smooshing them together. I did it a lot, trying to make it so that I incorporated a lot of air into the mix.  It’s not as easy to do cream cheese as it is to do butter, so it was a tough job.

Then, I added the eggs, one at a time, smooshing and creaming each one into the mix as I went.  After that, I added the other ingredients and mixed and smooshed more and more.  I’ve got a pretty stiff whisk, too, which I used to finish it up.

By this time, the water was bubbly hot, so I poured the batter into the 10” Dutch oven, shook it a bit to settle it in, and put it into the 14”.  I kept the lid of the 10” off, but, obviously, closed up the lid of the 14”.  I replenished the coals, and went on cooking other things for the dinner.

I kept a close eye on it.  I didn’t lift the lid much, probably only about every half hour or so.  Part of the problem was my inexperience.  I wasn’t really sure what a “done cheesecake” was supposed to look like.  I ended up cooking it just under an hour and a half.  I don’t know if it needed to be cooked less or not.  It had puffed pretty high up in the 10” at that point.  It was still kinda jiggly, though.  It even cracked a little on the top because it had swelled up so much.  I guess the steam doesn’t help it that much...

I pulled it out and set it aside to cool.  Another thing that my research told me was to let it cool slowly.  It settled back down in the Dutch oven as it did.  Finally, when it was cool, I put it outside with the lid on to chill.

In my 8” Dutch oven, with about 10 coals underneath, I mixed the topping ingredients.  I just let that come up to temperature and simmer to reduce into a syrup.  I let that cool.  My dear wife also made a chocolate drizzle.

It was delicious and rich.  I recommend cutting the slices kind of thin!


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Spice Cake

Last week was my son’s 15th birthday, and, of course, a prime opportunity for me to show off my newly-found cake baking skills.  I know that he’s not as fond of chocolate cakes.  I don’t know what his problem is, but I love him and accept him anyway.  So, I asked him what he wanted.  His answer was pretty quick: a spice cake.


That was cool with me, ‘cause I loves me my spices!

I looked all over for a good recipe, and I found many.  Many required buttermilk.  That’s fine, but I didn’t have any.  This one contains elements of several that I found, and used vinegar for the acid to react with the soda.

This time, I didn’t make my own frosting.  Shame on me...

Dutch Oven Spice Cake (this recipe makes enough for a 2-layer cake)

2x 10” Dutch ovens

8-9 coals below
12-14 coals above

2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 sticks butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar

4 eggs

1 cup milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar


A few hours before you start take everything out of the fridge to warm up.  It will work much, much better if it’s all at ambient temperature instead of cold.

OK, well, not EVERYTHING.  Just everything you’ll need for the cake.  Sheesh...

I started out by sifting and mixing all of the dry ingredients in the first set together.  You can whisk it together, or however you like.  I use a flour sifter.  That also helps to aerate the flour as well as blend the ingredients. I set that aside in a bowl.

After that, I went outside and lit up the coals I would need.  I knew I’d need a lot of coals, because I was going to be baking two ovens at once.  I also should have taken measures to make sure that my metal Dutch oven table was level.  More on that in a minute.

The next step is to cream the butter and the sugar.  I used a metal slotted spoon.  A couple of days after this, by the way, I bought a potato masher.  I’m going to try that next time I make a cake.  I already used it on my pumpkin pie filling, but that’s another story for another day...

So, I smoosh the butter and the sugar together.  Not only is this much easier if the butter is warm, soft, and smooshy, but it also accepts the air a bit better, which is really the whole point of this. It takes a long time to whip it up into a froth with only a slotted spoon.  If you want to, you can use a tabletop blender or a hand beater or whatever thing ya got.  Of course, if you’re out in the woods, you won’t have anywhere to plug that in, so you’re back to the slotted spoon or the potato masher.  I worked at it for a good 15 minutes or more.

Then I prepared the Dutch ovens.  I took the lids out to the coals and poured a bunch of hot, white coals on each one, and set them aside on the Dutch oven table to preheat.  I cut a disc of parchment paper to fit the bottom of each oven, and held it in place by spraying oil on the bottom first.  I did all this preparation because once I start mixing the wet ingredients in, I don’t want to stop.

I added the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, and beat it all together with the slotted spoon until each one was well-blended.  Then, I added in a third of the dry ingredients, and blended (with a stiff wire whisk, this time), then about half of the milk (I also added the vinegar at this point), and blended some more.  I added another third of the powders, then the last half of the milk.  At each stage, I’m pausing to whisk it all in well.  A few good final whisks, and it was finally a beautiful, creamy, fluffy batter.  The spices made it smell amazing, too.  It’s tough not to just eat it like this.  Fortunately, as the chef, I get to lick the mixing spoon!

I poured it into each Dutch oven, a spoonful or two at a time, to make sure it’s even.  I immediately took it out and set the coals in their proper order (as listed above).  By the way, here’s an interesting note.  One of my 10” Dutch ovens is a deep oven, and the other is shallow.  I’ve learned that I need to put a couple of extra coals on top of the deep one.

I leave that to bake.  After about 10-15 minutes, I turn the oven and the lid, so as to prevent hot spots.  BE VERY CAREFUL doing this!  If you jar your oven, you could make the cake collapse.  I know.  I’ve done it.

After 25-30 minutes, test the center of the cake with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, I leave it in for a couple minutes longer, then take it off the coals.  Once they were both done, I brought them inside, and let them cool in the dutch ovens, but with the lids off.  When they’re cool, I run a knife around the perimeter of the cake to loosen it (if it’s not already - usually cooling pulls it away from the sides), and then invert it onto a small plate or a cardboard disc.

Finally, I just stacked and frosted them!  They were delicious!  Happy Birthday to him!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.