Recipe: School Cake

This is not in fact a cake at all. It’s oatmeal bread that I make for my son’s playgroup. It’s as healthy as I can make it, and still produce food that little boys will consistently eat. It’s a very solid bread, good for eating and staying full. It’s sweet, but not overly sweet. It’s a bit like a big muffin.

I make this recipe a couple times a week; I cook it in two metal bowls to make cake-shaped loaves. Each little loaf nicely serves four little kids. It would also fill two mini loaf pans or one standard loaf pan.

One thing to watch out for as you’re making this – you add the sugar to the wet ingredients, not the dry.

Tools:
Oven. That’s it!

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sugar
• ¾ cup milk (I have sucessfully substituted sour cream, yogurt, and/or kefir for part of the milk)
• 1/3 cup oil – type doesn’t matter
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (if you don’t have this, substitute rum, amaretto, or orange juice)
• 2 cups oatmeal (any kind)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (or use baking soda and add 1 teaspoon of vinegar with the wet ingredients)
• I teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon ginger (optional)
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• 1 and a half cups flour
• 2 cups diced fruit (Any kind you want. This can include up to a cup of carrots if you like.)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the loaf pan well.
2. Combine sugar, milk, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl.
3. Combine oatmeal, baking powder, salt, spices, and flour in another bowl.
4. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring well.
5. Stir in chopped fruit.
6. Bake for 50-60 minutes. (It takes a really long time, and will look done before it is done. Test with a knife and don’t take it out of the oven until the knife comes out clean. The top will be cracked.)