This Oatmeal Cake is made with ordinary pantry staples that bake into something really special!

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Well.  It’s basically an out-of-this-world cake with a little oatmeal in it. It’s. So. Good.  And even better?  The story behind this Oatmeal Cake.  Isn’t that part of what makes food so great? Where the recipe came from?  Who made it? Your memory of when and why you used to eat it? I love that stuff.  

One of my favorite parts of having a food blog, besides the eating of all the food, is how many people come to me with requests, questions, and of course, old favorite recipes that “You MUST try!” Well, if I must!  This oatmeal cake recipe came to me from a family member.  I won’t get into the whole complicated who’s who in my family tree, because we would be here all day!

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She sent me an email with a brief history of how this cake played a role in her life, attached with the recipe.  I immediately went home, luckily had all the ingredients, and made the cake that day. And I’ve made it twice since then. It’s really that good.  

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The email said…

“The first time I tasted this recipe was 44 years ago. I lived in a building with a great group of women and all of our husbands were doing their internship or residence at Presbyterian St Luke’s Hospital in Chicago. We all had young children and would get together in the morning so we had some social time. One of the women baked this cake and I fell in love. She served it warm with a little bit of whipped cream OMG.  I thought you might want to try it and if you do please make sure you have me over for a taste.”

And OMG is right!  I didn’t even serve it with the whipped cream, it was perfectly delicious on its own. 

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Can’t you just picture this bunch of women, who at the time were about my current age, kids running around, and snacking on this cake?  What a great memory!  

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I made a few minor tweaks to make the cake a version of my own, and while it’s light and moist (I’ll never get over this word), it certainly does not lack in decadence. Oh, that crisp, walnut, coconutty topping makes me salivate just thinking about it.  I’m far from a coconut person, but here it works! Trust me. 

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Oatmeal Cake

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Description

This Oatmeal Cake is made with ordinary pantry staples that bake into something really special!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 1/4 cups boiling water
  • 1 cup uncooked rolled oats (not instant oats)
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Topping

  • 1/4 cup butter (melted)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons almond milk (regular milk or half and half work too)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 3/4 cup shredded (unsweetened coconut)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan. Set aside.
  2. Blend boiling water and oats until completely moist. Pour into a bowl and let stand while you prepare the cake.
  3. Beat the butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and add eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture with the blended oats and mix until combined.
  4. Pour batter into baking dish and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.

Topping

  1. In a small bowl combine butter, sugar, milk, walnuts, and coconut and stir to combine.
  2. When cake is finished spread the topping on the cake and place the pan back in the oven on broil until topping is bubbling. Watch it carefully as you only need a minute or two for the topping to get brown and bubbling. Serve out of the square pan and enjoy!

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @lifeisbutadish on Instagram and hashtag it #lifeisbutadish

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 Yep.  Pretty much.  

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