Oatmeal Cake, All Long-Term Food Storage Ingredients

There's an image that most of us have, or had, of long-term food storage items:  the food we make from it will not be good.  It will keep us alive, but not happily so.  I have to admit to having believed that myself for many years.  However, I can gladly testify that such a belief doesn't have to hold true.  We can have really good food from our food storage.  We just need to learn how.

Here is a recipe for oatmeal cake (yeah, I'd never heard of such a thing, either) that I made for my family last week.  They all really loved it.  I'm wanting to make it again soon myself.  Not that I need the calories.  This is a very moist cake, probably along the lines of a zucchini cake, and quite easy to make.

Oatmeal Cake
1 cup quick oats
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Icing
1 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1 cup coconut, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium bowl, pour boiling water over the quick oats and let sit for 20 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the eggs, flour, and seasonings.  Mix well and add the oatmeal.  Pour into a greased 9-inch square pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.  For the frosting, combine the butter, sugar, and milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil.   Remove from heat and add vanilla. Mix in coconut and walnuts, if desired. Pour onto the cake while the frosting is still warm.

I first made this cake using 3 tablespoons powdered eggs and 1/2 cup water to substitute for fresh eggs and 2 tablespoons of dry milk and 1/4 cup water to replace the evaporated milk.   We have lots of walnuts in the freezer and probably 30 pounds of unsweetened shredded coconut, so I used those in the frosting.  The frosting is so sweet that it does not need sweetened coconut, for sure.

The next substitutions to try will be commercially canned butter and then coconut oil to substitute for the butter.

Good stuff. 

7.3.20