Grandma Mac's Oatmeal Cake

Back in the day when I worked for Capital One, I had an employee, Geri, who brought this cake to a potluck we had in the warehouse. From the first bite of this cake, I was emphatically hooked - like eyes rolling in the back on the head hooked - like, "oh my gosh, I can't believe how good this cake is" hooked - like, "if I don't get this recipe, I'm going to die" hooked! Yes, it's that good. Don't believe me? Andy tried it for the first time tonight and had the E-X-A-C-T same reaction. He had three pieces. Okay, so did I. It's that good.

Geri brought this cake every year on my birthday (did I mention that she was like my favorite employee???), and on our last celebration day before Capital One closed, she brought the cake and her recipe. This was an oatmeal cake her grandma made, and she was kind enough to pass along the recipe to me. And I'm passing it along to you.

This is not a healthy cake. In fact, it's so full of sugar, I'm almost embarrassed to tell you how much, but oh my goodness, it's good! I made mine in a 9 X 13" pan so I could cut the cake into 24 pieces, which didn't seem to help much since Andy and I both had the aforementioned three pieces each. The only change I made was to sub out the AP flour with whole wheat pastry flour. I might try to make some changes to lighten this recipe up in the future, but we'll see...why mess with perfection?

Grandma Mac's Oatmeal Cake
Ingredients:
1 cup quick cooking or old fashioned oats
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or AP flour)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs milk
1.5 combined cup total of oats, coconut and chopped nuts (not 1.5 cup each but a combined total)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 X 13" baking dish.

2. Boil 1 cup of oats in 1.5 cup water for 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar and 2 beaten eggs until creamy. Add oats when done.

4. Combine 2 cups flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda.

5. Mix the wet with the dry ingredients until combined. Pour into prepared pan.

6. Cook for 25 minutes. Remove the cake and turn the oven up to BROIL.

7. Meanwhile, combine 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, 2 tbs milk and the 1.5 cup of combined oats, coconut and nuts (I used pecans) until well mixed.

8. When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately spread the topping over it. DON'T FREAK OUT when the cake sort of sinks down. Just spread the topping as best as you can, but don't worry about covering every corner just yet. Put the cake in the broiler and broil just until the frosting bubbles (like 15-20 seconds). Watch closely as you WILL burn the cake if you leave it in too long. Remove the cake and with a spreader, spread the warm frosting over the entire length of the pan.

9. When cooled slightly, cut into pieces and ENJOY! Try to eat just one piece!