Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This pound cake is easy and fast to make and is moist and sweet and delicious, and disappears as quickly as it’s made. This could be served in the evening as a light dessert as is or with maybe a little fruit and whipped cream spooned over the top. It could be added to a breakfast menu. It is simply delightful with a hot cup of coffee, tea or cocoa. It can be served as is. It is that tasty.

This pound cake is so yummy; I could start every morning with a slice of this and a hot cup of coffee.

This pound cake is simple enough to make in camp or it could be made ahead and taken to camp wrapped in plastic wrap or stored in an airtight container. It tastes just as good fresh as it does the next day. Loaves can also be frozen for enjoying much later.

If you’re making this in camp, you’ll want to bake it in a box oven or you could bake it in a Dutch oven with the loaf pans sitting on a trivet. Or you could pour it directly into a small Dutch oven and not use loaf pans at all. How you decide to bake it will determine how many coals you need.

For more quick bread ideas, check out my “Best Banana Bread” recipe and “Cookie’s Cornbread” recipe.

Equipment
2 9×5 loaf pans, 2 medium mixing bowls, sturdy mixing spoon, and measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Prep
Preheat your oven or prep your coals. Toss your blueberries in a little flour. This will help them integrate better into the batter and not sink to the bottom.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Mix in the eggs one at a time. In a second medium mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients. Slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. By hand, gently fold in blueberries.

Divide the batter evenly between two greased 9×5 loaf pans. Bake in a 350°F oven for 45-55 minutes. Refresh coals as needed. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before running a knife around the outside the pans and turning out the loaves onto a cooling rack.

Makes 2 loaves. Servings will vary depending on how thick you slice the loaf.

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Apple Oatmeal Cookie Dump Crisp

This was fun to make and super easy. It’s a great recipe for a beginner chef. There are only 3 ingredients and I only dirtied one bowl and my pastry cutter so easy clean up.

We used apple pie filling but you can use any pie filling you prefer. You could even mix together two different cans for your own custom flavor. If you prefer your crisps a little more fruit heavy, you could add a third can of pie filling. Try it both ways and see which you like better.

When it’s baked, the oatmeal topping becomes very crunchy and granola like. It was very tasty. Serve it with whip cream or a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream. Everyone gave it a thumb up. We would have gotten two thumbs up but no one wanted to put their spoon down!

If there are any leftovers, you can eat them for breakfast the next morning. My daughter did that and she loved it.

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven or 9×13 baking dish.

Ingredients
2 cans pie filling
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cubed
1 (17.5 ounce) bag oatmeal cookie mix

Prep
Foil line or grease a 12-inch Dutch oven or grease a 9×13 baking dish. Cube the butter and, in a medium bowl, combine it with the oatmeal cookie mix using a pastry cutter or your fingers until the butter is pea-sized or smaller. Add the pie filling to the baking vessel and sprinkle the oatmeal butter crumbles evenly over the surface. Bake in a 350°F oven, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 underneath, for 50 minutes or until the pie filling is bubbly and the oatmeal topping is golden brown. Refresh coals as needed.

Serves 8-10

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Tweed Pound Cake

Today is National Pound Cake day and this is my second favorite pound cake. The first is my grandmother’s German chocolate pound cake, which was always my birthday cake. I’m having to recreate it and I’m very close. I’ll let you know when I get it! Until then, I console myself with the tweed pound cake.

This is a finely textured sour cream cake named for the flecks of chocolate that resemble tweed fabric. It is so delicious that it needs no frosting. Seriously. I love it unfrosted. If you really wanted to frost it, I would recommend a chocolate glaze spooned over it.

I make this in a bundt pan at home; and I make it in the same bundt pan in camp, only I bake it in a box oven. It’s a fun treat and usually disappears pretty quickly. It’s cake, and who doesn’t love cake?!

Equipment
Bundt pan, box oven or deep Dutch oven.

Ingredients
4 ounces semisweet chocolate
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, measured unsifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, large
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces sour cream

Prep
Grease a 10-cup fluted baking pan or bundt pan and dust with flour or cocoa powder. Grate or chop chocolate.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. This could be prepped at home and brought to camp in a resealable bag or plastic container.

In a large mixing bowl, using a sturdy spoon, cream butter and sugar until blended and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing in each one. Add vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and sour cream, beginning and ending with flour (batter will be thick). Stir in grated chocolate.

Spoon batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake in a 325°F box oven, using about 13 coals or in a 12-inch deep Dutch oven on a trivet, using 20 coals on the lid and 10 underneath, for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Refresh coals as needed.

Cool cake in pan on wire rack 15 minutes. With small metal spatula, loosen cake from side of pan. Invert cake onto wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 16 servings, or less… Just sayin’.

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Easy Peasy Peach Crisp

My sister is going peach picking soon, so now I’m dreaming of peach pie, peach cobbler, and peach crisp. I made this peach crisp about a month ago and it was so yummy, I made it again this past weekend!

This peach crisp is sweet and delicious. The topping is light and crispy. It’s the perfect dessert on a warm summer night. Pack along some vanilla ice cream in a cooler with a lot of ice and/or dry ice and you have a match made in heaven!

When I’m teaching and/or cooking for a large group, I often need to accommodate food allergies. That was the case a few weeks ago when I was teaching outdoor cooking to Cub Scout and Boy Scout leaders. I wanted to make a Dutch oven dessert that was gluten free. Crisps are a great way to do that because they typically require very little flour or what flour there is can be easily substituted with almond and/or rice flour. The almond flour will add just a bit of nuttiness and the rice flour will bring a bit of snappy crispness. Both are a straight across 1-to-1 substitution for all-purpose flour. I made this one with almond flour.

If you don’t have any nut allergies in your group, add some chopped walnuts or pecans to the topping for added crunch and flavor. About a handful ought to do it. Eyeball it. You can’t go wrong!

You can use fresh, frozen or canned peaches for this recipe. If using frozen peaches, thaw, and drain any excess liquid. If using canned peaches, use peaches that are canned in juice (not syrup) and completely drain them first.

If you don’t have a Dutch oven, you could make this in a pie or baking dish and bake in a box oven.

A lot of the prep for this crisp can be done at home before you go. When you get to camp, all you have to do is assemble and bake. Easy peachy peasy!

Equipment
10-inch Dutch oven, 9-inch pie plate or an 8×8 baking dish. You could double the recipe and use a 12-inch Dutch oven.

Ingredients for the Topping
½ cup almond flour, rice flour or all-purpose flour
¾ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cubed into small pieces
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats

Ingredients for the Filling
5 cups peaches (about 6-7 medium peaches), sliced or diced
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup almond flour, rice flour or all-purpose flour

At Home Before You Go
For the topping, mix together the dry ingredients and load into a resealable gallon freezer bag. Cut up the butter into small cubes and load into a small plastic container. Toss it into the freezer to get it extra chilled before loading it into the cooler.

For the filling, combine the sugar and flour into a resealable gallon freezer bag. The topping dry ingredients bag and the filling dry ingredients bag can ride to camp in your food tote. The butter and peaches will ride in your cooler. Pack something to grease your Dutch oven or baking dish.

In Camp
Grease your Dutch oven or the foil lining, or your pie plate or baking dish. Start your coals or preheat your oven (if making at home). You’ll need about 21 coals for a 10-inch oven, 25 for a 12-inch Dutch oven, or about 14 coals for a box oven.

For the filling, add the peaches to the freezer bag with the filling dry ingredients, seal the bag, and mix it up until all the peaches are coated with the sugar and flour. Dump the peaches into the prepared Dutch oven or baking dish.

For the topping, add the cold, cubed butter to the freezer bag with the topping dry ingredients, seal the bag, and mush it together until it starts to come together and is crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over the peaches.

Bake in a 350°F oven for 40-50 minutes or until the topping is lightly golden brown and the juices are bubbling around the edges. For a 10-inch Dutch oven use 14 coals on the lid and 7 underneath. If you’re doubling and using a 12-inch Dutch oven, use 17 coals on the lid and 8 underneath. Refresh coals as needed.

How easy was that? Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Serves about 6.

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Maui Mango Crisp

Here in the Northwest, we’re often camping in cool, cloudy, and sometimes rainy, weather. This mango crisp is a fun and flavorful dessert that brings a little bit of the tropics to your campout. The warm mango and cinnamon filling and the crunchy oat topping are a perfect combination.

When we were grocery shopping for the camping trip, we couldn’t find fresh mangos in the store (we live in a small town), but we were able to find a bag of sliced mangos in the frozen section and I really wanted to make this crisp, so we went for it and they worked beautifully.

We made this crisp Saturday night after a long day of hiking and geocaching and it was a hit with everyone. It was the perfect ending to an already great day.

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven, large mixing bowl, medium-size mixing bowl, heavy-duty aluminum foil. At home, you could use a 13×9 baking dish.

Ingredients for Filling
10 mangos, skinned and sliced, fresh or frozen
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Ingredients for Topping
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Prep
Line your Dutch oven with foil and grease the foil with a little cooking spray. Start 25 coals. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for the filling and pour into the Dutch oven, spreading it evenly. In a medium bowl, mix all the topping ingredients, except cinnamon. Pour topping mixture over mango filling and spread evenly, but do not stir it into the filling. Sprinkle the ground cinnamon over the topping.

Bake in a 350°F oven, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 underneath, for 1 hour. Refresh coals as needed.

Serves 14-16

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Orange Creamsicle Dump Cake

This cake tastes just like an orange creamsicle. It was a hit at the Scoutmaster Dinner.

Our scoutmaster, Mr. Murray, first made this dump cake last summer while we were at Fire Mountain Scout Camp. It was a hit with the troop. A couple weeks ago, he decided to make it for our annual Scoutmaster Dinner, and he kicked it up a notch by adding Triple Sec, an orange-flavored liquor made from the dried peels of bitter and/or sweet oranges.

Triple Sec may be consumed neat as a digestif or on the rocks, but it is more often used as an ingredient in a variety of cocktails, such as sangria, margarita, Kamikaze, White Lady, Long Island Iced Tea, Sidecar, Skittle Bomb, Corpse Reviver #2, and Cosmopolitan. There’s your bartending tip for the day.

If you are at all worried about the alcohol, it bakes out and just leaves behind orange flavor. If you don’t happen to have a bottle of Triple Sec sitting in your cupboard, you could also just leave it out. There is plenty of orange flavor in the soda pop; the Triple Sec just adds a little extra pop of orange.

If you wanted to, you could also add fruit in the bottom and turn this into a cobbler. Choose a fruit that would complement the orange flavor of the cake.

When we’re camping, it’s always fun to throwdown with Mr. Murray and Mrs. Stark. Between the three of us, we can produce some pretty good camp grub. Here’s how Mr. Murray made his Orange Creamsicle Dump Cake.

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven or 9×13 baking dish, mixing bowl, rubber spatula.

Ingredients
1 white cake mix (Mr. Murray chose Betty Crocker French Vanilla)
1 12-ounce bottle of Fanta Orange Soda
2-4 ounces of Triple Sec orange liquor

Prep
Line your Dutch oven with foil (if you choose to) and spray it with cooking spray. Start 25 coals. In a bowl, mix together the dry cake mix, orange soda, and the orange liquor until just combined. Be careful, it may get foamy. Pour cake and orange soda mixture into the Dutch oven.

Bake in a 350°F oven, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 underneath, for 35-40 minutes. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Serves 8-10

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Granny Apple Crisp

Last weekend, my daughter and I taught outdoor cooking to an awesome bunch of Girl Scout adult volunteers and teens. This crisp is one of the things we made. I promised them I would get it posted to the blog right away and here it is! We also made Cookie’s Cornbread and Vegetarian 3-Bean Chili. I’ll have the chili posted soon.

I love crisps and this crisp is one of my favorites because it uses tart Granny Smith apples and has a sweet and cinnamony toasted crunchy oat topping. We have made this crisp for a dessert following lunch or dinner and we’ve also made it for breakfast. We justified making it for breakfast because it has apples and oatmeal in it. So if you want to make it for breakfast, tell them, “Cookie said it was okay!”

We like to prep all our dry ingredients at home. You could also prep your apples at home and just add a smidge of lemon juice to the bag to keep them from oxidizing and turning brown, but this will add a bit more tartness to the crisp, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

When you get to camp it’s just “some assembly required.” So, as a dessert or as a breakfast item, this crisp is a winner.

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven

Ingredients
1 cup +2 tablespoons flour
1 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar
¾ cup old-fashioned oats
3 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon all spice
6 tablespoons butter, softened
6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

Prep
At home, combine flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and all spice in a gallon-size heavy-duty resealable bag for transport to camp in your food tote.

In camp, peel, core and dice the apples. Foil line your Dutch oven and start 25 coals. Apply a thin coating of butter or oil to the foil.

Add butter to the dry ingredients in the resealable bag. Seal the bag and thoroughly mush ingredients together with hands until you get a nice crumbly texture.

Spread apples evenly in Dutch oven. Spoon butter-flour mixture evenly over the apples.

Bake in a 350°F oven, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 underneath, for 1 hour. Refresh coals as needed.

Serves 8

You could also make a double batch in a 16-inch Dutch oven. Adjust coals as necessary.

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Apple Raisin Monkey Bread

I think this just became my new favorite monkey bread! A couple weeks ago, we were going to a potluck brunch with friends and we wanted to make monkey bread. On a lark, we decided to add a diced apple and it was amazing! We loved it!

We used a Golden Delicious apple, but you could use whatever variety you like. We chose the Golden Delicious for its mild, sweet flavor. You could also use a Red Delicious, Gala, Fuji, any of the sweet varieties. You could even use a Granny Smith if you wanted a bit of tartness to counteract all the sweetness.

In addition to the raisins, the apple added a fresh and fruity component to the heavy sweet monkey bread. Apple and caramel are a classic pairing as are apple and raisin. It was a win all the way around.

So, in honor of National Sticky Bun Day Sunday, February 21, we just might have to make this one, again!

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven or 12-cup Bundt pan.

Ingredients
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cans (16.3 oz each) refrigerated biscuits
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup apple, peeled and diced
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

Prep
Start 25 coals in a chimney or preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the Dutch oven or Bundt pan with shortening or cooking spray. In large resealable plastic storage food bag, mix granulated sugar and cinnamon.

Separate dough into 16 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Add to bag, seal, and shake to coat. Arrange in pan, adding walnuts, raisins, and apple among the biscuit pieces.

In small bowl, mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces.

Bake at 350°F, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 underneath, for 28 to 32 minutes or until the top is golden brown and center is no longer doughy. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Serves 12.

 

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Triple Threat Chocolate Cake

Today, in honor of National Chocolate Day, we’re talking chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake. It has cocoa powder, chocolate pudding mix, and chocolate chips making it a triple threat. Like the Death by Chocolate Cake we raved about last year, this one is also a coma inducing chocolate cake that satisfied all the chocoholics in camp.

However, while the Death by Chocolate was all ooey gooey, this cake is moist and fluffy. And all it needs is a light dusting of powdered sugar. But I suppose, if you wanted to, you could slather on some frosting. It would also pair nicely with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or a mountain of whipped cream! You could also toss on some chopped nuts! Oh, the possibilities are endless! At the end of the night, we loved this cake.

And just imagine your campers surprise when you not only serve them a decadent, delicious chocolate cake, but an amazing chocolate cake made from scratch. And you will be amazed at how easy and quickly this cake goes together. Dare I say? It was a piece o’ cake!

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven, mixing bowl, whisk, measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients
1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
⅔ cup cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons buttermilk powder
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 cups sour cream
4 eggs
1 (3.9-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 (12-ounce) bag chocolate chips
¼ cup confectioners’ sugar

Prep
At home, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and buttermilk powder in a resealable bag for transport to camp.

In camp, line the Dutch oven with foil and grease the foil. Start 25 coals.

Into a large mixing bowl, dump the dry ingredients. Add oil, sour cream, and eggs, and blend well. Stir in the pudding mix and chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the foil-lined Dutch oven.

Bake in a 350°F oven, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 coals underneath, for about 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Refresh coals as needed.

Cool the cake slightly then sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream. Serves 12-14

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Blueberry Coffee Cake

My daughter’s Girl Scout troop was planning their menu for a big camping trip to Camp River Ranch. For Sunday morning breakfast, the girls proposed coffee cake and we decided to make a blueberry coffee cake and it was divine!

The cake was sweet and loaded with blueberries. The cinnamon topping was toasty and crispy! Freshly baked, it was warm and tasty on the cool morning. We’ll definitely be making this one again. So yummy!

The instructions below start with some home prep and then some prep and assembly in camp. You can also easily make this at home in a conventional oven. It actually goes together pretty easily.

Equipment
12-inch Dutch oven or 9×13 baking pan (for conventional or box oven), mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons.

Ingredients for the Cake
5 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups flour
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup whole milk
2 cups fresh blueberries

Ingredients for the Topping
½ cup flour
½ cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
Sugar, for sprinkling

Prep (at Home or in Camp)
For the cake flour mixture, add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt to a medium bowl or a container or resealable bag and stir to combine. Label the container or resealable bag for transport to camp in your food tote.

For the topping, combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a gallon-size heavy duty resealable bag for transport to camp in your food tote.

Prep (in Camp)
Line your 12-inch Dutch oven with foil for easy clean up and coat the foil with cooking spray, oil or butter. If using a 9×13 baking dish, coat with cooking spray, oil or butter.

Preheat your oven or start your coals (25 coals for a 12-inch Dutch oven or 14 coals for a box oven).

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and mix until combined. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture and milk alternately and mix until totally incorporated. Do not over-beat. Fold in the blueberries until evenly distributed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan or Dutch oven.

For the topping, add the butter to the topping mixture in the resealable bag and mush together until you get a nice crumbly texture. Sprinkle the topping over the top of the batter.

Bake in a 350°F oven, using 17 coals on the lid and 8 coals underneath, for 40 to 45 minutes or until the cake is golden brown. Sprinkle with sugar. Serve with softened butter.

Serves 16

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