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Old 06-29-2008, 04:27 PM   #1  
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Default Dutch Oven Dump Cake - Bringing Down the Calories

I've started cooking in a dutch oven and wanted to make dump cake for an upcoming camping trip. I recently made it using blueberry pie filling and butter. I just recalculated the recipe using whole blueberries and a can of Sprite instead. The calories didn't change too much. Most of the calories - 2520 of 3228 - are coming from the cake mix. I've used oatmeal with a cherry dump cake and that'd probably save me calories, but I find a lemon cake mix with the blueberry filling to be divine. Any thoughts?
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Old 06-29-2008, 07:56 PM   #2  
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Could you give me the recipe for the ORIGINAL version of the cake that you are trying to make? It would help with reformulating.

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Old 06-30-2008, 11:19 AM   #3  
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Default Dump Cake / Cobbler Recipe

1 can pie filing (love blueberry)
1 can crushed pineapple
1 box cake mix (lemon works well with the blueberry)
1 stick butter

Dump first two ingredients in 9x13 pan or 12" Dutch oven. Top with cake mix. Cut butter in little slices and distribute over cake mix layer. Bake in oven or with coals until cake mix sets, about 30 minutes.

As it is, I figured the whole thing was 3681 calories. We divided it into about 10 portions the first time, so they were 368 calories each! At least it had good fruit. Next time, I'm going to make it 18 portions!

So, another variation of this recipe is to use a can of Sprite (or other soda) instead of the butter. That saves 350 calories, but the cake mix still has 2520 calories.
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Old 06-30-2008, 11:54 AM   #4  
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Even if the only switch you make is using whole blueberries rather than pie filling, that will make a nutrition difference.

Can you use diet sprite instead? That might whittle the calories, but I don't know how it would taste.

What I would do (which is probably not what you're looking for here, which is actual help with this ) is that I would just make it however, stay really active on the camping trip, and be careful with portion size.

The other possibility is fresh blueberries over angel food cake, but then you don't get to cook it in such a cool way.
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Old 06-30-2008, 12:12 PM   #5  
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Wow. That sounds yummy. At least the recipe with butter does, I'm not sure about the Sprite version.

You could look around for cake mixes with less calories. But I'm with midwife here - I'd try to work off the calories and watch portions (with something that yummy there would be a lot of temptation to have just a "bit" more...). I think learning to enjoy calorie rich things in moderation is an important part of this journey we're all on.

Have a great time on your camping trip!
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Old 06-30-2008, 02:39 PM   #6  
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It is SO yummy and so simple. I could probably try to make my own cake mix, but, then, some of the simplicity goes out the window.

Going from pie filling to fresh (or frozen) blueberries saves me 200 calories for the whole 9x13 (or 12" Dutch oven). Even at the 10 generous servings, that's only 20 calories per portion. And, from a camping point of view, it requires refrigeration. A can of pie filling can sit in the food box for the entire week!

Who says I can't bake angel food cake in a Dutch oven? Anything you can bake at home can be made in a Dutch oven with charcoal (or coals if you're really good). Lemon angel food cake, maybe?!

Last edited by LessEveryDay; 06-30-2008 at 02:44 PM.
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Old 06-30-2008, 02:48 PM   #7  
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If you can find it, Pillsbury makes a reduced sugar lemon cake mix using 50% sugar and 50% Splenda. The entire box of that mix has 1920 calories, which is a savings. If you used fresh blueberries and diet Sprite, you could significantly reduce this one, I think.
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Old 06-30-2008, 05:27 PM   #8  
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I hadn't noticed the reduced sugar lemon cake. I shall look for it today. I'll be stocking up at the cheap store, but can stop by the expensive one to check there if I need to.

I think I'm going to go with canned pineapple, real fruit, the reduced sugar cake and regular Sprite. I keep cans of Sprite around for DH, but Diet Sprite would just go bad around here. I guess I could buy a single can of it from a vending machine. At any rate, that brings the calories down to 263 for the generous 1/10th servings and a lovely 146 for the more reasonable 1/18th servings. And, it'd be a lot of good fruit, right?

And, I may even consider splitting the package of cake mix and only using 2/3 (maybe even 1/2). The last time I made it, the topping was a little too ample anyway. We'd have been happy with it smaller. (And, since I'll probably actually be making a 1/2 recipe, the cake mix will stretch for three of 'em!) That would bring the recipe down to 199 calories for mongo portions or 110 for the smaller ones.
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Old 07-08-2008, 06:00 PM   #9  
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Well, I tried the canned pineapple, blueberries (canned, drained) and Sprite. So far, I have not been able to find the low sugar cake mix. The result wasn't very tasty. Everyone ate it and someone even took the leftovers. But, it wasn't great. The filling lacked the thickness of the pie filling and the Sprite didn't mix into the cake mix well and didn't brown. I think I'll go back to the original recipe, but eat less.
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Old 07-08-2008, 06:48 PM   #10  
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Interesting to see how it worked out!

Quote:
Originally Posted by LessEveryDay View Post
And, it'd be a lot of good fruit, right?
I think you were joking about that, right? Because each can of fruit is about 15 oz total, but actual fruit is less than 4 servings of fruit, right? So, with both it is about 8 servings of fruit total (maybe less).

So, each serving of cake would be...Less than half a serving of fruit (under 1/4 cup) per serving of cake, yes? Not "a lot".
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Old 07-08-2008, 07:28 PM   #11  
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Well, it's more fruit than cheesecake or chocolate cake...

I think with some things it's just better to make it a very special treat and limit the portions rather than to try to modify it so much it stops being the treat you are looking for.
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