Dutch Oven Turtle Lava Cake
Create this Dutch oven turtle lava cake on your next camping trip.

Here at Let’s Camp S’more, we create new camping desserts. You will love This easy chocolate and caramel dump cake recipe.
This camping blog is less than two years old. Although that may be relatively new, we are definitely making a splash in the camping world.
When you look up any Dutch oven dessert, we are always one of the top hits.

That tells us that our readers want more camping recipes and that desserts are king.
Dutch Oven Desserts
One of our first recipes, Cherry Chocolate Lava Cake, is featured at Country Living.
Our other Dutch Oven Desserts include Brownies, Classic Dump Cake, Lemon Blueberry, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake, and Classic Chocolate,
All of these recipes can be made out at the campground or even at home in a cast iron pot in your oven. This is the enamel-coated cast iron Dutch oven we use at home.
Today, we have a new lava cake recipe for you. It incorporates chocolate, caramel, and pecans, so we call it a turtle lava cake.

This cake is made with five simple ingredients that are just dumped into the Dutch oven together.
As with most of our Dutch oven cooking, we highly recommend that you use a liner. See our tutorial for making your own, or order some here.

Before you dump all of your ingredients into the pot, you need to prepare your charcoal. This is best done using a charcoal chimney.
Scroll down to the bottom of this page to get the recipe instructions.
It is important to put more coals on the top of the Dutch oven than on the bottom. Otherwise, your caramel will burn like ours did the first time we made it.
This dessert was very yummy! Chocolate, caramel, and pecans go so well together!

Are you a fan of these flavors?
Dutch Oven Turtle Lava Cake

Prepare this simple dump cake in minutes on your next camping trip.
Ingredients
- One jar of caramel sauce
- One Devil's food cake mix
- One can of lemon-lime soda
- One package of chocolate chips
- One cup of whole pecans
Instructions
- Prepare approximately 18 pieces of charcoal using the charcoal chimney.
- Line a Dutch oven with a Dutch oven liner.
- Pour the caramel sauce into the bottom of the Dutch oven.
- Dump the cake mix on top of the caramel.
- Slowly pour the soda over the cake mix.
- Sprinkle the bag of chocolate chips on top of the cake mix.
- Sprinkle the pecans on top of the chocolate chips.
- Place the lid on your touch oven.
- Place six pieces of charcoal in the circle underneath your Dutch oven
- Please the remaining charcoal on the lid of your Dutch oven.
- Baked for 40 to 55 minutes, using your nose as a guide. Be careful not to over-bake!
- Enjoy!
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 260Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 333mgCarbohydrates: 44gFiber: 2gSugar: 26gProtein: 3g
Hi. For the Dutch Oven Turtle Lava Cake do you need to prepare the cake mix according to the instructions on the box first, or do you just dump the cake mix right out of the package into the Dutch oven? Thank you.
Dump the dry cake mix out of the package. No mixing needed!
What size of Dutch oven are you using? That should be included in the recipe.
10″ eight quart
How big of a caramel sauce jar? And what kind do you recommend? When we tried it the first time, it didn’t work but definitely want to try it again.
We used a 12 or 14 oz jar. I cannot remember. I think we have used both sizes before. The primary consideration is not to get the bottom too hot, otherwise, it will burn.
I loved the idea of this but for us it was just too sweet. Cake mix, soda, chocolate chips, carmel….just an overkill of sugar.
I feel you. We have changed our diet and this is a bit too sweet for our tastes now too.
Can you make this on the stove top or in your oven?
Not on the stove, but yes in your oven. 350°, but check it around the 30-minute mark or so.
Just tried it !!! It was incredible!!! It’s a do over!!
Awesome!
This is excellent. We added some caramel bits with the chocolate chips. Made it three times now and will make it many more.
Excellent! Ours was a little overbaked, so we need to make it again.
Why am I having such a hard time finding your recipe for the Turtle Lava Cake? Looks amazing and I so want to WOW our camping group!
Theresa, Thank you for the alert. There was an issue with the plugin that I just rectified. Recipes are back!!
I love this recipe. I would suggest that you have someone proof read your recipes as I have found several spelling errors in the few I have read. Just thought you would want to know…
I cannot wait to try this. Thank you for your posts, I enjoy reading them.
Julie
Oh gosh! I need to get my wife on that. I thought I used spell check. Thank you.
@letscampsmore, can you double the recipe?
I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why not if you have a big enough Dutch oven!