By Nadir, SCRC Secretary
One of the great things about camping with a vehicle versus backpacking is payload – you can carry a wonderful camp kitchen. With some modest tools, you can enjoy a day of off-roading and an evening of fresh food, polished off with freshly-baked chocolate cake for dessert! Yes, you could just stick a store-bought cake in your ‘fridge, but what’s the fun in that??
I’ve used this recipe both at home and on the trail, with very little changes between the two settings. On the trail, the key is the Omnia Oven, which is an ingenious Swedish-designed oven that sits on any portable burner. While I have used mine mainly for cake-baking and cornbread, it will bake anything you care to try. It’s popular among overlanders, but also long-distance boaters who want baked stuff when you’re far from grocery stores, let alone bakeries. The one feature they’ll all share, however, is the round “donut” shape of the Ominia’s bottom pan.
Chocolate Pound Cake / Loaf
You’ll need a spatula and 3 mixing “vessels” (large, medium, and small). I use collapsing bowls but you can use whatever you have. You’ll also want oven mits or at least a couple of tea towels – the oven gets hot! I’ve only used mine with the JetBoil Genesis stove, but presumably any propane stove will work (I have no idea if it is usable over an open fire).
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup whole milk (don’t substitute with oat or almond milk – won’t turn out the same)
- 2 eggs
- 1 stick of butter (8 tablespoons)
- 1-1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 1 & ¼ cup flour (I use all-purpose, nothing fancy)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ ounce baking chocolate
- 85g of dark chocolate chips (a large handful if you’re not measuring)
- ¾ teaspoon baking SODA (not baking powder)
- ¾ cup granular sugar (i.e. plain white sugar)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla (or more)
- ¾ cup powdered sugar (for icing; optionally: just sprinkle some powdered sugar on the finished cake).
Instructions:
Step 1: Combine the milk and lemon juice in the small vessel and set aside. Preheat the stainless portion of the Ominia oven so it’s ready when everything else is done.
Step 2: Cream the butter and granular sugar in the large vessel. The butter should be room temperature / soft so if you’ve got it in a fridge, you’ll want to take it out ahead of time to soften. Worst case, you can poach with a bowl in a pan of boiling water. Add the vanilla. Add one egg at a time and mix thoroughly.
Step 3: Combine the dry ingredients in the medium vessel.
Step 4: Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and ½ of the milk to the butter/sugar/eggs, mix thoroughly. Then add another third of the dry ingredients and the rest of the milk, mix thoroughly. Next, add the last of the dry ingredients and mix until no dry components are visible.
Step 5: Melt and add the baking chocolate (poaching as noted above work, or you can leave this part out of the recipe).
Step 6: Add the chocolate chips and transfer the mix to the oven pan (with the silicone liner in place). Spread evenly.
Step 7: Cover and bake. In my experience with the Omina 40 minutes at 200-degrees-F works great (note that I have the added temperature gauge on the oven, which is a separate purchase, but highly recommended). For some reason the cook time at home is longer and hotter, but I’ve successfully baked this several times on the trail with these values. Avoid the temptation to check too often on the cake as taking the lid off the Omnia causes a lot of heat loss. I do rotate the oven at least once during the process just in case there are hot spots forming as often happens in home ovens. Use this time to clean up the dishes.
Step 8: When the toothpick test tells you it’s done, remove from heat and allow to cool at least 10 minutes (if you’re only going to sprinkle with powdered sugar), or 30 minutes if you’re going to ice. For the icing, mix ¾ cup of powdered sugar with another 3 TBS of cocoa powder and 1 TBS of milk. You’ll be tempted to add a lot more milk, but avoid the temptation – add just enough to combine so the icing is thick and not runny.
Enjoy!! Makes 10 servings.
