CAKE - "Ask For Seconds" Cake
Submitted by beachdee on February 09, 2011 at 2:11 am

Really decadent, moist cake my mom used to make. This cake just gets better overnight. But seldom makes it past 3 days so can't speak for longer.

NOTE: This is an "older" recipe and has an awful lot of sugar. I haven't made it in years but if I do, I'd try dropping the sugars back to about 3/4 cup each type.

CAKE:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup quick-cook (not instant) oats
1 1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

TOPPING:
6 Tbsp softened butter
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup canned milk (evaporated, not sweetened condensed)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup pecans, chopped

Place the stick of butter and the oats in the boiling water in a bowl. Stir once or twice and set it aside for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, combine all the rest of the cake ingredients. After the 20 minutes, thoroughly blend with the oat mixture and pour into a lightly greased and floured 9 1/2 x 12-inch pan.

Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes. While it is baking, prepare the topping, as it should be spread on the cake when it is just out of the oven.

Prepare topping by combining all of the topping ingredients well. Don't worry if the butter stays in little lumps and bits, but try to incorporate it some and not have big lumps.

As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, spread the topping on, set the oven to broil, and broil until the butter melts and the coconut is lightly browned. Watch it carefully!

comments
Submitted by frick on Sun, 2011-02-13 22:22.
beachdee, that sounds a lot like a cake my mother used to make. I bet I could find my version if I could ever sort through all my recipes. 🙂 Thanks for bringing it up. Glad your Mom was a good cook. frick

Submitted by beachdee on Tue, 2011-02-15 19:32.
thanks, frick; it was probably out of a newspaper or something way back when, so no doubt there were many moms who made a cake similar to this for their families! If you run across the recipe, I'll be interested to compare.

Submitted by dachshundlady on Thu, 2011-02-17 05:07.
I have a similar recipe from an old community cookbook. I'll have to dig it out. Back in the 70's and 80's dh made it all the time. I never keep quick oatmeal any more, wonder if rolled would be ok?

Submitted by dachshundlady on Thu, 2011-02-17 07:00.
It was in a Bicentennial Cookbook (1976) of the North Lansing, NY Fire Auxiliary. In the cake itself, it uses shortening instead of butter and no baking powder. Despite that, it always rose fine but is a moist, heavy cake, which we like. It also has vanilla in the batter. The other difference is that is has brown sugar in the frosting instead of white. I think I will try your version of the cake part but will stick to the brown sugar topping; I just love the stuff. The recipe that follows it is for a very similar oatmeal cake but includes a cup of raisins.

Submitted by Julie T. on Tue, 2011-02-22 15:12.
Beachdee,
Thanks for posting this recipe. It is very similar to one my mother used to make in the early 60s and neither my sister nor I could find it in her tattered recipe book or her files. She used brown sugar for the topping and raisins in the batter and we loved it. Will pass it on to my sibs.
JT
S
ubmitted by beachdee on Wed, 2011-02-23 01:24.
Thanks for the comments, all. Glad the recipe will revive a family favorite, JulieT.
Yes, DL, it IS a very moist cake, and that is indeed one of the things I always loved, also. These days I would also go for the brown sugar. Also, I think using regular rolled oats (just not the thick-cut) might be fine. We don't have any in the house, either, just regular for me, and "instant" for DH.