Happy Birthday! Cake in a Cast Iron Skillet

 As an expression of my love for my wonderful husband on his birthday I baked a cake for him.  I love him so much, it was a chocolate cake.  Baking a birthday cake from scratch is something we have done for each other since we were first married.  A custom Joe started, as he lovingly reminds me. 

This year I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes so the kitchen would be clean for cake baking.  Joe walked into the kitchen as I was scraping the cast iron skillet (we had scrambled eggs with veggies that morning).  He asked if I was going to bake a cake in the skillet.  I laughed, then realized he was serious.  A second later I was intrigued with the idea.  We love our cast iron skillet.  It is amazing!  We use it on the stove top for egg dishes, curried onions, sauteed vegetables, breakfast sausages, etc., and Joe uses it to bake cornbread in the oven.  Well, I thought, why not bake a cake in it.  I felt I had to know if I really could bake a cake in our cast iron skillet.

chocolate cake cooling in the skillet

I made the cake as usual, following the directions for devil's food cake in the Better Homes and Gardens Baking cookbook that is on our cookbook shelf (instead of all-purpose flour I used whole wheat pastry flour).  While I was beating the cake batter together I set the skillet in the oven as it preheated.  I put a pat of butter in the skillet to give the outside edges of the cake a crunchy texture.  After the minimum baking time a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake didn't come away clean...10 minutes more were needed for this particular recipe and pan.  When the cake was done (clean toothpick), the pan was cooled on the stove top for 10 minutes.  By holding a cooling rack on top of the skillet like a lid, then flipping the whole thing over, I was able to remove the cake from the skillet.  I should have cooled it a bit longer; a small piece in the center stuck.  It was easily removed with a spatula and replaced.  That was the extent of sticking in the pan.  After the cake cooled completely on the wire rack it was flipped onto a cake stand and frosted with peanut butter frosting.

removed from the skillet to a cake stand

Mackenson put the candles on the cake, we lit them and sang Happy Birthday!

So...how does a cake baked in a cast iron skillet taste?  Delicious!  It was chocolaty, soft, moist and with a bit more texture because of the whole wheat flour (that's a good thing).  I highly recommend baking your favorite cake recipe in a cast iron skillet. 

Next I think I'll try pie in the cast iron skillet...