Irish Oatmeal Cake
This old fashioned Irish Oatmeal Cake recipe is lightly spiced and includes a caramelized coconut and walnut topping that is perfect for those occasions where you want an unfussy slice of cake that is both tasty and comforting.
Servings 10
Calories 491kcal
Ingredients
Oatmeal Cake
- 90 grams / 1 cup rolled oats
- 310 grams / 1 ¼ cups boiling water
- 110 grams / 3.9 ounces butter room temperature
- 200 grams / 1 cup brown sugar
- 75 grams / ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon superfine/caster sugar
- 90 grams / 2 medium eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 240 grams / 1 ½ cups plain flour
- 5 grams / 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Topping
- 84 grams / 6 tablespoons butter room temperature
- 100 grams / ½ cup brown sugar
- 75 grams / ¾ cup walnuts roughly chopped
- 75 grams / 1 cup flaked coconut
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and line your cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Oatmeal cake
- Place the oats and boiling water into a medium heatproof bowl and stir. Set aside for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugars in another bowl, until pale and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes.
- In a small separate bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla extract together.
- Stir the oats until smooth and add in the eggs, stirring until well combined.
- Add in the creamed butter and sugar to the oatmeal mix and stir to combine until smooth.
- In a large separate bowl, place the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg and stir together.
- Pour in the oatmeal mixture and stir to form your cake batter, until no dry portions remain in the base of your bowl.
- Pour into your cake tin and smooth out the top.
- Place in the oven and bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean, approximately 45 minutes.
Topping
- Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat on medium until pale and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.
- Toss in the coconut, walnuts and vanilla extract and stir until everything is coated in the butter mixture.
- Spoon the topping onto the hot cake and smooth out.
- Change the setting on your oven to grill or broil.
- Place under the grill until golden and bubbling, approximately 2 ½ minutes, it’s best to stand by and watch your cake at this point as the color changes swiftly.
- Remove and allow to cool.
- Slice and serve with your favorite hot beverage.
- Dig in!
Video
Notes
- Brown sugar: Light brown sugar is best because it adds a light caramel flavor without overpowering the cake and compliments the ground spices beautifully. For the topping this also allows the flavors of the coconut and walnuts to shine through.
- Oats: Simple rolled oats were used here, no quick oats or steel oats which might result in a different texture within the cake.
- Ground spices: The ground cinnamon and nutmeg give our cake a depth of flavor which you could opt to leave out, however, the result would likely be a sweet cake with little other flavor.
- Flaked coconut: Large pieces of coconut are perfect on this and I do not recommend using desiccated or shredded coconut because those large chunks are what make this cake.
- Cake tin: A spring form tin that is 20 cm or 8 inches was used here to get the cake out of the tin easily, however, a standard cake tin of similar size would also work well.
Nutrition
Calories: 491kcal