Today in Relief Society the lesson was on unity and at the end of the lesson they went around around the room and the teacher had the person next to us say something nice that they know about us. My lady said I "puede hacer los postres buenos, especialmente brownies" (she can make good desserts) They call my chocolate cake brownies and they love it. I get asked for the recipe all the time and must give American measuring cups with the recipe (translated into Spanish). This week I made this Oatmeal Cake for the missionaries and then again for the baptism we had on Saturday. They loved it. No one bakes here and the stuff you buy is not good so they are always excited for some home made desserts. I have always loved oatmeal cake with broiled coconut frosting but coconut is not good here. It is dry frizzled little shreds, besides Mike doesn't care for coconut so I got the idea to add some cocoa to the topping with nuts to see if it was good and WOW, it is, especially warm, and I can taste a scoop of ice cream on it. But it is still good room temperature. I used walnuts because I can't find pecans here but chopped toasted almonds would be good also. My pan bakes the cake thin and it makes nice little bar cookies to pick up easily.
Oatmeal Cake
1 Cup of quick oatmeal stirred into
1 1/2 C. boiling water, let sit for 5 minutes
Add:
1/2 C. butter
1 C. white sugar
1 C. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C. flour
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Bake at 350 until set, depending on the size of your pan. A 9x13 will work for a thicker cake or if you want bar thickens use a bigger one.
If you are planning to serve this later and want it hot wait until you are ready to serve to broil the topping and it will heat up the cake again.
Broiled Fudge Nut Topping
Melt 6 T. butter in a small saucepan
Add:
1/4 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. white sugar
1/4 C. whipping cream or evaporated milk
2 T. Cocoa
Bring to a slow boil stirring constantly and then when it is boiling full let it boil without stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat
Add:
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C. chopped nuts of your choice.
Spread on the top of the cake and broil until bubbly. It took about 10 minutes in my little oven but it probably depends how close you are to the broiler units. Watch carefully, don't burn or over brown.
