Have you ever made a cake so good, you ended up eating it out of the pan? Yeah, me, too. And that’s this cake.
It all started with a basic spice cake recipe that I was Googling and ended up being a creation I couldn’t have even dreamt up. It was a haphazard collection of pantry items that ended in euphoria. I just added ingredients here and there, kept adding them, and then voila, Chock-Full Spice Cake!
Oats
I found that quick oats were not only the fastest way to cook the oats thoroughly, but I always have these on hand anyway. With a busy schedule and a toddler running around, quick oats are a must-have in my pantry, and thank goodness! This addition turned up the delicious factor in this classic cake recipe. Other oats cooked thoroughly would be a fine substitute.
Flour
As much as I’d like to be able to claim full-time gluten-free eating/cooking habits, I can only honestly claim part-time gluten-free. That being said, I do usually have gluten-free all-purpose flour always in the pantry, so naturally, this is what I used. I’ve made this before with even a mixture of all-purpose and rice flour. Don’t be afraid to use what you have!
Trail Mix
While you can certainly use chopped nuts like walnuts and pecans, seeds like sesame and pumpkin seeds, and raisins and other dried fruit in this recipe, I made things incredibly simple and just used trail mix! The trail mix that I use has cranberries, pumpkin seeds, almonds, walnuts, and dried mangos. I simply chopped up two cups of the trail mix, added it to the batter at the very end, and gave it a good stir.
Chock-Full Spice Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups boiling water substitute apple juice
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
- 1 1/2 cups flour use any flour you'd prefer
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups trail mix finely chopped
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp ginger (freshly chopped or ground)
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place oats in a smaller bowl, boil the water or juice, and pour it over the oats. Let stand while you cream together the margarine or butter with the sugars.
- Beat the eggs in one at a time, then stir in flavorings. Dump in the flour, salt, soda, and spices, and beat vigorously until smooth.
- Oats now should look like oatmeal. Add it into the main batter and stir it around. At the end, mix in the chopped trail mix. By now, the batter should look thick and busy.
- Using a Bundt pan or a spring-form pan, pour in batter until it fills the bottom two inches. The cake will take from 35-45 minutes to bake. Start checking it after 30 minutes. If the cake pulls away from the pan sides and/or if a knife or stout toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, this concoction is done!