I was completely obsessed with these as a child, and pretty much still am as an adult. I thought they were generally common knowledge until I served them at one of my kids birthday parties a few years back and no one had any idea what they were. I am now on a mission to spread the word of orange cakes. Not only do they take on some smokiness form the fire, but they pick up the oils from the fire and have the most amazing subtle orangey flavor. You can use any cake batter with any dietary needs for this recipe and this is one of the few times you’ll see me recommend you just use a quality boxed mix. (Although you can absolutely use a homemade cake batter too!)
Ingredients:
- Cake batter, from a box or homemade (any flavor that will be good with orange)
- oranges
- campfire
- heavy duty foil
Method:
On a day when you are planning to have a campfire get your cakes ready to go so that you can cook them once the fire is ready to go. You can store them in the fridge until you are ready to cook them.
First, prep your oranges, cut them in half and scoop out the fruit. Eat it, make orange juice or leave it for the birds. Orioles in particular love oranges.
Next, make your cake batter according to package/ recipe directions.
Fill one half of each orange leaving a little space at the top and then place the other half on top. Wrap the orange in well in foil. At this point you can put them in the fridge until your fire is ready.
Once the fire has burned down to mostly coals, snuggle your foil wrapped oranges into the coals. You can carefully use a shovel to put coals on top as well. This is a job for a grownup or an older kid. Its hard to know exactly when the cakes are done because the temperature is so variable, but start checking around 10- 15 minutes. You can stick a skewer right through the foil/ orange peel and see if it comes out clean to test!
Open up your toasty treat and enjoy! The orange will be a little charred, but the cake inside will be fluffy, orange scented and delicious!