A while back our chimney leaked mercilessly. The landlord came by and did his thing and after he was finished there was a pile of bricks…I didn’t ask. Anyway, I told him that I would like to have the bricks if he didn’t want them. They have been stacked by the side of the house while I decided what to do with them. I used some as a platform for the third rain barrel but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the others…till today.
I have been wanting something sweet but didn’t want to heat up the house to do it. The front room a/c isn’t putting out like it could so I try not to do anything to make it any hotter inside. I was really wanting some cake when I remembered reading about being able to make a cake in a dutch oven. It just so happened that I had a new 12″ dutch oven that I had picked up this winter on sale and hadn’t tried it out yet. I remembered the bricks on the side of the house and knew a cake was in my future.
It took about 10 minutes or so with a screw driver and hammer to get the old mortar off the bricks. I had an old cookie sheet that the d.o. sat on nicely and decided that would be the width of my ‘fire pit’. I laid the pan and started stacking bricks.
Its really a wind break more than a fire pit but fire pit sounds cooler so I am going with that.
An old number 10 can and a coat hanger make a great charcoal chimney. I used a bottle opener to cut the triangular holes around the bottom edge. The bottom was removed and a long handle added.
The chimney was placed on the pan and 28 briquettes were added on top of a couple of pieces of wadded up newspaper. The paper was easily lit through one of the triangular holes. The briquettes were kept in the chimney till they turned white.
For the cake I halved one of mom’s recipes with a little tweak.
Chocolate Cake
3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2T sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
Mix everything together and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.
The original recipe omits the sour cream and doubles the milk. It also calls for baking at 350 for 30-35 minutes. I had some sour cream to get rid of so I substituted half of the milk for the sour cream. The cake cooked at approx 325 rather than 350 so it took 45 minutes which was about the life of the coals.
The cake was baked in a disposable square pan placed on my pressure cooker plate which was sitting on 3 canning rings. This lifted it off the bottom and allowed some air circulation. Placing 17 briquettes on top of the d.o. and 11 on the bottom should give 325F for about 30-40 minutes. About half way through the d.o. was rotated 180 degrees.
The cake turned out perfectly. Light and moist, no crusty or burnt spots and completely done in the center. I have dessert and my house wasn’t heated up. Woooo hoooo!