We have been taking advantage of the prolonged nice weather and having informal outdoor Gourmet Dinner Club (GDC) gatherings. While we love to cook and usually have more structured assignments, in the world of COVID-19 it’s all about being flexible. For us getting to see each other in person (rather than on a video call) far outweighs our more formal gatherings.
Our recent theme was ‘cooked on the grill’ – it was outside, pretty easy and our hostess, Nancy H, had just gotten a new grill. I signed up for dessert and decided it was best for me to make it ahead of time.
I’ve cooked fruit on the grill and topped it with ice cream or some sort of sweetened cheese (such as mascarpone) but I was looking for something different. I settled on a skillet cake as I knew the pan would hold up on the gas grill but that I could also provide direction on how to cook it in the oven.
Essentially I used the grill as I would use an oven. But I was watching the temperature much more carefully. Ed has a thermometer and probe set up from ThermoWorks which he uses for smoking on the Big Green Egg and this made it much easier for me to monitor the internal temperature on our Weber gas grill. Do not trust the temperature on the outside of the grill – I found it always to be wrong. With the probe, I knew the internal temperature and could make adjustments as needed.
This is an easy cake to prepare. Honey is the only sweetener and it makes the batter taste so good. I added a tablespoon of freshly chopped sage. You could leave this out or substitute another herb such as rosemary or thyme. I also made this gluten-free by using a combination of all-purpose gluten-free flour and almond flour. You could also use all-purpose flour.
I used a Calphalon hard anodized skillet as my only cast iron skillet was too large for this cake. You can use any skillet that is safe for cooking in the oven.
I served this simple cake with a fig-honey-sage compote. Any kind of fresh fruit or fruit compote would go well with it. While I cooked this on a gas grill, you can just as easily make it in the oven.
| Sage-Honey Skillet Cake (Gluten-Free) | Print |
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened plus more for greasing skillet
- 1 cup honey
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup plain low-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-1/4 cup gluten-free flour or all-purpose flour (see Notes)
- ¾ cup almond flour (see Notes)
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- Serve with: fruit, fruit compote or ice cream
- Preheat oven to 350°F. (See Notes for how to cook on a gas grill.) Grease a 9 or 10-inch cast-iron skillet.
- Using a mixer, in a large bowl beat butter and honey until blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in yogurt and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk all-purpose flour, almond flour, sage, baking powder and salt.
- Slowly mix into butter mixture. Transfer batter to prepared skillet.
- Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Invert onto serving dish once cooled.
- Serve with fruit, fruit compote or ice cream.
* If you don't have an oven-safe skillet, you can use a baking pan instead.
* If you want to make this truly gluten-free use gluten-free flour (such as Cup4Cup Multipurpose Flour) in place of the all-purpose flour and gluten-free almond flour (such as recommend Bob's Red Mill Super-Fine Natural Almond Flour).
* Cake can be frozen. Cool to room temperature and wrap before freezing.
Source: Variation of a recipe from Taste of Home
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