How to Bake a Cake – On the Grill!

Boo-yah!  Challenge accepted and conquered – a cake cooked on the grill.

 
If you search online for grilled cake, you’ll see a million recipes where people take a cake that’s already cooked, and then put it on the grill for a couple minutes.  I’m sure that’s delicious, but it’s a bit of a cop-out.

The grilled cake in this recipe is cooked entirely, start to finish, on the grill.  So if you have a sweet tooth and are feeling adventurous, give this recipe for grilled cake a try!

Ingredients:

(serves about 12, depending on how many people say, "Oh, I’ll just a have a little piece.")

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups cake flour, sifted
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3 tsps baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract

Directions:

1.    Fill chimney starter about 2/3 full with charcoal and heat.
2.    Grease a cast-iron pan, then dust lightly with flour.
3.    Cream butter in large mixing bowl. 
4.    Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy.
5.    Re-sift cake flour, this time with salt and baking powder.  Now it’s double-sifted, so you know it’s good.
6.    Add eggs one at a time to butter and sugar mixture, beating well after adding each egg.
7.    Add the following ingredients in this order, blending after each addition until smooth (be careful not to overbeat): 1/3 of flour, ½ of milk, almond extract, 1/3 of flour, ½ of milk, vanilla extract, 1/3 of flour.
8.    Pour into cast-iron pan.
9.    Pour coals from chimney starter into center of grill.
10.    Place cast-iron pan on center of grill grate, directly above coals.  Cook for 10 minutes, covered.
11.    Using oven minutes, carefully move pan to left side of grill. Cover and cook another 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick into right side of the cake comes out clean.
12.    Now carefully move to right side of grill.  Cook another 8-10 minutes, until a toothpick into left side of the cake comes  out clean.
13.    Finally, test the center of the cake.  If the toothpick comes out clean, it’s finished.  If not, move the pan back into the center, and cook until the toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from grill.
14.    Flip cast-iron pan over cutting board.  Cake should come out cleanly!

 
Once the cake cools, you can frost it, or top slices with grilled fruit, ice cream, whipped cream, or some combination of those (here, with grilled pineapples and fresh, homemade whipped cream).

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