Cast Iron Skillet Carrot Cake
Flowers are slowing peeking their colorful heads above ground and fuzzy buds adorn naked branches. The earth begins to warm and wiggle below spirit beams that dance through heavy clouds. It’s springtime and nourishing myself with fresh spring veggies is such a delight after a long dark winter. One of my favorite spring veggies is carrots - the sweet crunch is deliciously enlivening. This Easter holiday I’m crafting up a simple yet delicious cast iron skillet carrot cake. This skillet cake has all the yumminess of traditional carrot cake, but much less fuss. With a single tier and fabulous ingredients this recipe is adapted for cooking outdoors in a backyard or camp setting.
All winter-long I’ve looked forward to golden hour in the garden while delicious campfire meals slowly cook over coals. This Easter dessert is our first outdoor-crafted treat this year. Cooking outdoors with incredible homegrown ingredients is one of my favorite way to slow down, connect with nature, and nourish myself. Because I’ve received so much interest about outdoor cooking with garden fresh ingredients, I thought I’d start by sharing my cast iron skillet carrot cake recipe with you. It’s the perfect spring dessert that celebrates spring, garden fresh veggies, the return to outdoor adventures, and Easter all in one.
Typically carrot cake is served at room temperature or chilled. But, that is not the case for this skillet cake. It’s the outdoors - hot food is comforting food. Cooling appliances don’t exist out here and our eager bellies aren’t patient enough to wait for fresh cake to cool. We want to dive into dessert and lick frosting from our fingertips while we watch the stars emerge in the night sky.
If you are making this recipe on a camping trip, premix the dry ingredients and store it in a bag until you are ready to bake. It also makes it easier to pre-measure the other ingredients and store them in their own container so you have less to pack and prepare when you're outdoors. Or, you could premix the batter and the frosting separately then store those containers in the coldest parts of your cooler until you are ready to bake. If you bake this within a few days of premixing, it will still be good.
It’s best to start making the cake before or right at the same time you make dinner. If you pull the cake off the coals at the same time you serve dinner, then by the time you are finished with dinner the cake will have cooled enough to frost and serve.
A note on cooking over coals in the outdoors:
If this is your first time baking in a skillet over coals you may want to check on it halfway through the cooking process. Gently lift the lid (being careful not to tilt the lid so coal ash falls into the cake) to make sure that it’s cooking well. If it looks like the bottom is cooking quicker than the top, then there’s too much heat below. You can lower the temperature by dispersing the pile of coals into a flat arrangement. Or, you can add more coals to the top to balance it out. Or, try rising the height of the skillet farther away from the coals so more air can circulate below. If it looks like it’s not cooking enough, yet the coals are white and crumbly (rather than white and still holding their form), then not enough heat is reaching the cast iron because the coals are spent. This usually happens if it’s particularly windy, or if the coals are quick-burning and low-quality. In this instance you may need to add more coals and relight them to increase the heat, add a wind barrier to protect the coals, and/or place the skillet directly onto the coals.
Cast Iron Skillet Carrot Cake
Serves: 8-10
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: About 1 hr depending on coals/outdoor environment
Ingredients
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tsp molasses
1/2 cup Brown sugar
1/2 cup Granulated sugar
1 cup All purpose flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 cup Walnuts
1/2 cup Undrained (crushed pineapple)
1 1/2 cups finely shredded Carrots, loosely packed (about 2 large carrots)
Frosting
2 1/2 cups Powdered sugar
3/4 cup Butter
8 oz Cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Cluster 40 coals together in a pile in a fire pit and light them on fire to heat them up. You may need to use lighter fluid and some kindling sticks to get the fire to catch so the coals start burning and producing heat. If you are making this at home, preheat the oven to 350* F.
Lightly oil 10-12 inch cast iron skillet. When outdoors, I do this by quickly rubbing a stick of butter on the bottom and walls.
While the coals are heating, prepare cake batter by mixing the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, vanilla, molasses and eggs in a medium sized bowl.
Add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Add the carrots, pineapple and walnuts.
When the coals are mostly white that means they are heated and ready to be used.
Pour the batter into the greased skillet and cover with a lid.
Place the skillet 5-8 inches above the hot coals so air can circulate below.
Pull 12-15 hot coals from the pile and place them on top of the lid in a circle around the edge. You can use fire-gloves for this, or two sticks to handle the hot coals, but use caution - they are 350*- 400*F. Placing coals on top and bottom replicates an oven type of heat environment where the heat will evenly bake the cake from both the top and the bottom.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a fork comes out clean.
When the cake is done, remove it from the fire pit and let it cool on a table for 30 minutes before frosting it.
While it's cooling, make the frosting by mixing the softened butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together until smooth.
Spread the frosting over the cake, garnish with extra walnuts and carrot tops, and slice it to serve warm.
