Sweet Tooth Sunday

Goodness, it seems like I just posted STS.

Oh wait. I did.

Sorry for the dead blog, it's been a week. Yup, it has. And I'll just leave it at that.

Today.....(drumroll).... Breakfast!

Huh?

You heard me, breakfast!

Ok, ok, technically it is a dessert, not breakfast, but you can eat it for breakfast completely sans guilt! Woo-hoo!

This is one of those things that I have loved for a lot of years. One of those recipes I frequently made the first few years after I married my love. During that (short) stint of lazy evenings spent by the pool. I'd take a timer down with me and shoot back up to the condo after 30min to take it out of the oven.

Then promptly devour the entire thing by myself within 24 hours.

Those thighs of mine aren't so much a mystery any more are they......

This my friends, is Oatmeal cake.

Don't judge so quickly, give it a shot first. Despite it's lackluster name, it's worth a second look.

And you can call it healthy. And not be completely off base.

Kind of.

You'll have most of the ingredients already-bonus! Oatmeal, water, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, soda, salt, flour....basics.

First things first, Boil some water. Then get some clean towels and rip up some sheets!!

Whoops, Sorry-wrong water boiling scenario.

Boil that water, throw the oatmeal in, stir it up, let it sit while you get to work.

Cream butter, sugar, brown sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. (gee, sounds like every cookie recipe in the world!)

Now it gets fun; add the baking soda, salt and cinnamon! Yee-haw!

But look, you can add them in stripes so it looks cool.

I know. I have problems.

If you want to live a little dangerously, you can add a dash of nutmeg.

I said I know!

If you go the nutmeg route, I strongly urge you to go this direction:

Ahhh, c'est l'amour!

Hello, my name is Catey, I'm a nutmeg junkie.

This is a little treasure from Grenada (thanks mom and dad!), but you can pick this up somewhere more local thankfully. It's amazing how much more flavor there is when you grate that sucker yourself.

or you can just skip that part. Really.

Now, mix it all up. Add the flour. Then, stay with me here, add the oatmeal.

Go ahead, do it!

Trust me.

See? Look-it's not that bad!

And don't forget the chocolate chips. Chocolate chips make everything in life better.

Pour all that goodness into a greased and floured pan, bake at the good old 350 for 30min.

Let's pause here and discuss greasing/flouring.

If you bake and you do not have this:

Go. Get. It. Now.

Best thing EVER! (thank you Honey for shopping at Gygi.)

Now since your cake is baking and filling your house with deliciousness, go open your windows and make your neighbors salivate too. Delish!!

Once the cake it done, set it aside and let it cool for a bit. Then you can get to work on the frosting.

Oh yes, there's more.

Melt butter and brown sugar. If you stick your finger in there to taste it do it before it gets too hot. You don't want burns. Although they are almost worth it here.

Once that is melted, add milk and vanilla, and let it all simmer for a bit. In case you aren't familiar with the techinicalities here, "a bit" is also equal to "a little while", "just longer than a jiffy", or "get it off there before it scalds!".

(Simmer that for approximately one minute, while stirring. Is that better for you A types?)

Look at how pretty and golden that is!

Now add my current obsession-coconut!

This part is totally your call. Make it as thick as you want. I like it on the thicker side, so I add lots of coconut.

If you don't want it that way, keep it thinner with just a bit of coconut, or you could even just pour that golden brown goodness on the cake and glaze it.

Once you reach the consistency that you want, pour it on and spread it out.

And when someone asks you "so what did you have for breakfast today?" (what, you don't get asked that every day?), you can tell them, "A nice big serving of oatmeal, some eggs and fruit."

Just don't elaborate on the form that those things came in and you're totally guilt free.

Because food always tastes better when it's guilt free.

Oatmeal Cake

1 1/2c water

1c oatmeal

1/2 c butter

1 c sugar

1 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

dash nutmeg (optional)

1 1/2 c flour

Boil water, add oatmeal, stir thoroughly and remove from heat. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add soda, salt, spices and flour. Add oatmeal. Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan, bake for 30min at 350 degrees.

Frosting

1/2 c butter

2/3 c brown sugar

1/3 c milk

1 tsp vanilla

Coconut to desired consistency

Melt butter and brown sugar. Add milk and vanilla, heat to simmering. Add coconut to desired consistency, pour over cake.