I wasn't sure what to expect for this week's Baked Sunday Mornings assignment, the "Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting." I have never made a cake with oatmeal in it before, and there was no picture accompanying the recipe. Even the cookbook's description of "coffee cake for the cookie enthusiast" didn't give me a clear picture of what the end product would be.
The first step in making this cake is to hydrate the oatmeal -- you pour boiling water over rolled oats and softened butter, stir, and let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes. During that time, the oats soak up the water so that you end up with what is essentially oatmeal -- although it smelled way better than any oatmeal I've ever eaten (the 1:2 ratio of butter to oats probably had something to do with this).
Once the oatmeal is ready, making the cake is pretty simple. You whisk together eggs, sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stir in the oatmeal, and fold in flour and chocolate chips. You toss the chocolate chips with a little bit of liqueur and coat them with flour before adding them into the batter, to keep the chips from sinking during baking. You frost the cooled cake with a frosting made from cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
The top of the cake was very dark when it came out of the oven, and not very attractive. The recipe instructs you to make the frosting, and then refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before using. I made this cake twice, and the first time, I refrigerated the frosting for about an hour, and it was so stiff that I had to beat it in the stand mixer again to get it pliable enough to spread (the recipe does say that you can make the frosting up to a day in advance, and advises that you need to let it come to room temperature before using). The second time I made the cake, I just mixed the frosting and spread it on the cooled cake right away. I don't really see the point of refrigerating the frosting first. The frosting is lighter and fluffier and much easier to suave if you use it right away. However, I would say that it is important to refrigerate the frosted cake for some period of time to firm up the frosting before slicing, if you want cleaner slices.
I thought this cake was just fabulous. It doesn't look like much, but it is surprisingly flavorful. The cake is hearty -- dense and moist, and the chocolate chips add loads of flavor. (I am undecided whether it might be better to use miniature chocolate chips instead -- the regular-sized chips are a little clunky and inelegant, but on other other hand, the big bursts of chocolate flavor and texture are very tasty.) The cinnamon flavor in the cake is reminiscent of the flavor in carrot cake, and I thought that the cream cheese frosting was a luxurious and perfect complement. I don't think this cake resembles coffee cake in any way, and I'm still not sure how I would categorize it -- but I think that calling it "delicious" captures it perfectly!
Recipe: "Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
The first step in making this cake is to hydrate the oatmeal -- you pour boiling water over rolled oats and softened butter, stir, and let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes. During that time, the oats soak up the water so that you end up with what is essentially oatmeal -- although it smelled way better than any oatmeal I've ever eaten (the 1:2 ratio of butter to oats probably had something to do with this).
Once the oatmeal is ready, making the cake is pretty simple. You whisk together eggs, sugar, dark brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stir in the oatmeal, and fold in flour and chocolate chips. You toss the chocolate chips with a little bit of liqueur and coat them with flour before adding them into the batter, to keep the chips from sinking during baking. You frost the cooled cake with a frosting made from cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.
I thought this cake was just fabulous. It doesn't look like much, but it is surprisingly flavorful. The cake is hearty -- dense and moist, and the chocolate chips add loads of flavor. (I am undecided whether it might be better to use miniature chocolate chips instead -- the regular-sized chips are a little clunky and inelegant, but on other other hand, the big bursts of chocolate flavor and texture are very tasty.) The cinnamon flavor in the cake is reminiscent of the flavor in carrot cake, and I thought that the cream cheese frosting was a luxurious and perfect complement. I don't think this cake resembles coffee cake in any way, and I'm still not sure how I would categorize it -- but I think that calling it "delicious" captures it perfectly!
Recipe: "Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.
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