Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cake

This is a cake that my Mom has made for years and year. It is a favorite of mine. I made it for Michael's Dad's birthday. It is an incredibly moist cake because of the oatmeal and boiling water.

1 3/4 cup boiling water
1 cup oatmeal
Combine and set aside

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
Cream the above ingredients

2 eggs - add into the creamed butter and sugar

1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa
Mix together in separate bowl and then gradually add into the creamed mixture.

Pour into ungreased 9x13 (I live in high altitudes so now I grease everything and also I add 1/4 cup more flour). Top with 3/4 cup walnuts or pecans* and 12 ounces of milk chocolate chips (a bigger chip like Ghirardelli chips). Bake in a preheated 350 degree for 30 minutes

* Nuts are optional. I don't make it with nuts as Michael doesn't like nuts.

NOTES:
My Mom's cake bakes higher then mine. I haven't figured out how to adapt it to high altitude yet and make it bake higher.

Download and Print: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cake

Banana Layer Cake

The fudge chocolate frosting recipe made enough to frost 2 whole cakes. So I am not including that recipe. Next time I will use another chocolate frosting recipe. Maybe a milk chocolate one.

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks of butter, unsalted - room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 medium - very ripe peeled bananas
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk (I use powdered buttermilk*)
3/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts - OPTIONAL

1. Position an oven rack on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda until blended with a whisk.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer on medium-high until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until well combined. Add the bananas and vanilla and beat until well blended and only small bits of banana remain. Add eggs 2 at a time, beating well after each. The mixture will look lumpy but it will come together. Add half the flour mixture on low until just blended. Add the buttermilk until just blended. Then add remaining flour and mix until just blended. Stir in walnuts, if using.

4. Evenly divide into the 2 pans. Bake until tops are brown and a toothpick or cake tester come out clean about 30 minutes. Transfer pans to racks and let cool 15 minutes. Run a knife around the edges to loose the cake from the pan. Invert the layers onto racks and remove pans. Let cool completely.

5. Brush the loose crumbs from the cooled cake. Place the bottom cake upside down. Frost first layer of cake. Add second cake and frost top and sides. Cake can be served at room temperature but also in my opinion good cold.


* I use powdered buttermilk. I don't always use up a carton of buttermilk. And the powdered buttermilk lasts much longer. So I have found it is much easier to have that around.

Here is the powdered buttermlik that I use....


PDF Downloadable and Printable

Dessert for Easter...

I made...


Orange Butter Cake
This is another recipe from The Weekend Baker by Abigail Johnson Dodge. I only have mini-bundt cake pans and I just didn't feel like the work that goes into those (greasing and flouring each one.) So I just used my angel food cake pan. But next time I think I am going to make it as a layer cake and maybe do a cream cheese frosting. And I know I want a wider skewer to poke holes in it so the glaze gets all the way through the cake. It was still moist and delicious but you could tell the glaze only sunk in about half way down the cake.



for the cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (I used salted butter so I left this out)
16 tablespoons unsalted butter - room temperature (2 sticks)
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (optional - I had some in the freezer so used it)
4 large eggs
1 cup orange juice

for the glaze:
3/4 cup orange juice
3/4 powdered sugar

Position the oven on the middle rung. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan or other fluted tube pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk until well-blended. In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth. Add the sugar and the orange zest (if using) and beat until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until blended. Add the orange juice and mix just until blended. Add the remaining four mixture and mix just until blended. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.

Bake until light brown and a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out with just a few small crumbs attached. 38 to 43 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the orange juice and the powdered sugar for the glaze. Stir frequently while the cake is baking until the sugar is dissolved.

When the cake is done, transfer the pan to a rack and let cool for 15 minutes. If necessary, run a thin knife around the pan sides to loose the cake. Invert the cake onto the rack and lift off the pan. Set the rack over a large plate or pan. Using a wooden skewer or cake tester, poke 30 or 40 all the way through the cake. Give the glaze a stir and spoon it evenly over the top of the cake (the fluted side). Let the cake cool completely. Transfer to serving plate.

I topped with a little whipped creamed with a little vanilla extract. But topped with any kind of fruit and whipped cream would be great!

Vanilla and Cinnamon Crumb Cake

Every month on the first I am greeted with Michael saying, "Happy Anniversary!" Our official anniversary of when we started seeing each other is February 1, 2003 but it doesn't matter if it is February, July or November....if it is the first of the month I get greeted Happy Anniversary, warm embrace and passionate kisses at the start of the day. We love each other and try to celebrate that love and life. The moment we first knew we were right for each other is brought up each month in his words and embrace.

So today being the first of July I decided to make Michael something special for breakfast. I checked out the book Bread for Breakfast by Beth Hensperger recently from library. The book has some delicious looking recipes in it. And it is a book I would like to have on my bookshelf because I know I would use it quite a bit. This morning I tried Vanilla and Cinnamon Crumb Cake from it. And it turned out so good! Michael doesn't like nuts so when I find recipes with a crumb top usually it has nuts in it. And I have substituted other things such as more flour or oatmeal at times but this one didn't have any nuts in it so I flagged it right away as one I wanted to try.


















Makes one 10-inch round coffee cake

Crumb Top
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter - cut into small pieces (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons)


Cake Batter
6 tablespoons unsalted butter - softened (3/4 stick so basically the rest of what was left after the crumb topping)
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cake flour - unsifted
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream (not fat reduced)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for a dark-finish pan). Line a 10-inch springform pan with parchment, grease the bottom and sides and set aside.

To make the crumb top, in the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar; and cinnamon. Cut in the vanilla and cold butter on low speed until coarse dry crumbs are formed. Pour into a small bowl and set aside. If not using immediately, refrigerate until needed.

To make the cake batter, without cleaning the mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla extract and beat well on medium speed for 30 seconds. The mixture will be loose. Add the flour; cinnamon, baking powder; baking soda, and salt and beat on low speed for 15 seconds. Add the sour cream and beat on medium-high speed only until the lumps smooth out and the mixture looks fluffy, about 30 seconds on medium-high speed. Do not overbeat.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle the top evenly with the crumb topping. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the top is crisp and feels firm when gently touched in the center; the cake separates slightly from the sides of the pan, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean (it may be a bit moist; that's okay). Do not overbake, or the cake will be dry.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing the sides of the pan. Let cool at least 30 minutes before serving warm, or cover in plastic wrap to serve later at room temperature.
Store at room temperature for up to 3 days.




















*** Of course I made a few modifications. I didn't have cake flour so used all-purpose - as I said turned out great. I add some cardamom as I just love the flavor and it sounded like a good add for this cake so just did a couple pinches of it in the cake batter. And last thing I changed was the springform pan. I didn't want to use my springform pan as I just didn't want fight with it leaking at all -- although I sure it would look prettier in it so might try that eventually. But today I just used a 9-inch square pan. Only problem that came with that is it seemed to need to bake longer. I baked 1 hour 10 minutes.