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Items needed: Dutch oven #12 (8 quart), charcoal briquettes, aluminum foil. 3 cans of cherry pie filling. One box yellow cake mix. Powdered sugar. Serves about 8, but portions can be made smaller to have enough to go around.
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To do: Start charcoal fire using about 40 briquettes. (This is usually a good time to have the scouts' practice their fire making skills.) While the charcoal is starting, line bottom and sides of Dutch oven with aluminum foil - shiny side up. Dump three cans of cherry pie filling into the bottom of dutch oven. Use a spatula or
spoon to clean out the bottom of the cans. Then open the yellow cake mix and sprinkle over the top. Cover the cherry pie filling evenly. |
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After the charcoal fire is going (in about 20 minutes), put 20 briquettes on a firm surface. If it's rained, snowed, or the ground is wet, put down aluminum foil (shiny side up) on a strip large enough to hold the briquettes and the dutch oven. Put the dutch oven over the 20 briquettes. Put the remaining 20 briquettes on the dutch oven lid.
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Hold a Scoutmaster conference, tell jokes, or whatever for 30 minutes. Invite several hungry people to "check out" the progress. Make sure they are where the aroma of warm cherry pie filling can hit them as you lift the lid and "check out" the dutch oven. If the cake has cracks with cherry pie filling bubbling through, you're done. Otherwise, leave on to cook for 5 more minutes. Then check again. |
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When the surface has cracks with cherry pie filling bubbling through, take lid off, dump the briquette ashes, put lid back on and take over to Scoutmaster Patrol area. (Make sure you have a surface that can hold the hot Dutch oven without causing a fire and that is sturdy enough to hold the weight.) At the Scoutmaster area, sprinkle powdered sugar over the cake while it is still in the Dutch oven. Use a heavy spoon to dish out the cobbler. You won't have any trouble dishing it out as the line will snake through the campsite. If any is left over, take the dutch oven over to the boy's patrol area. Let them get a whiff and ask if anyone is hungry. Any that is left will be eaten and someone will volunteer to clean up the aluminum foil. This means you don't have to spend very much time on the dutch oven clean up.
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Of course, you will want to clean up the charcoal fire and food preparation area. Since you've done all this hard work to make the dessert and others have gotten fat eating it, someone usually volunteers for the clean up duty. (I find hinting, "I'll never make this dessert again unless someone helps", seems to be very effective at this time.) After dessert, get the kids turned in, put out camp lights, crawl into your tent, get warm in the sleeping bag, and have a good night's rest.
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©1998, 2001, 2009 by Glenn A. Dickey. Permission is granted for use by any scouting or 4-H group as long as no fee is charged.
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