Banana Oatmeal Cake

One of my resolution in 2009 is consuming more oats to keep myself healty. Have been trying to consume it every day but having oatmeal porridge every day is really not me! hahahaha...So I need to be more creative in oatmeal.

Last weekend I wanted to have something sweet but still healthy to consume. Thinking of oatmeal muffin...but uughhh boring....oatmeal cookies?.....nope.... I went to my recipe bank and found this one : "Val Howard's Oatmeal Cake" from www.recipezaar.com

Ehm...sounds interesting and when I checked my baking stuff, seemed that I have everything needed. Well...let's give it a try...and as usual, I couldn't stick 100% to the recipe always tempted to do some more modification to get into my right taste. I added 2 bananas, chocolate chips and raisins to the recipe and it turned out marvelous. Very delicious and moist...it's worth to try, believe me! and I am thinking next time I want to substitute the bananas with carrot...sounds great too! :-)

Here is the recipe after modification.

Cake :

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cups butter
1 cup oats (I used quick cooking)
1 cup brown sugar - packed (as I don't have it, I used palm sugar instead and I think it's a bit too sweet, next time not 1 cup packed or you can reduce it to 2/3 or 3/4 cup)
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs or 3 medium eggs
2 medium bananas - mashed
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Topping :

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used sliced almonds)
6 tbs butter
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Bring water and butter to a boil in a small medium-sized pan.
2. Add oats and let stand for 5-10 minutes if you used quick cooking and 20 mins if you used rolled oats.
3. Meanwhile, mix together sugar, flour, cinnamon, soda and baking powder.
4. Add eggs and mashed bananas to the oats mixture, mix well then pour it over dry ingredients. Mix it until blended using spatula.
5. Pour in greased and floured 9 x 13-inch cake pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until done.
7. While cake is baking, mix together nuts, butter, sugar and vanilla.
8. When cake is done, remove from the oven and spread nut mixture over top.

Note : I didn't use the right topping. I created myself as I read that the topping should be way too sweet so here is my own topping for this cake :

- 2 tbs butter (melted)
- 1 tbs castor sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup sliced almond

Mix all together then when the cake was about nearly done, spread this topping over the cake then bake it again for 5 - 10 mins. Remember to move the pan to the higher rack so that your can won't be over done.