Oatmeal-Raisin Snack Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
I tend to go in cycles with my favorite cookies… I’m always up for a good chocolate chip cookie, but I tend to have bursts of cravings for other flavors like oatmeal-raisin, snickerdoodles and peanut butter. I love chewy, nutty texture of oatmeal-raisin cookies and I’m almost able to convince myself that they’re healthy since… oats! This snack cake tastes like a hybrid of a frosted oatmeal-raisin cookie and my great aunt’s famous poor man’s cookies, which is actually a spiced snack cake with raisins and nuts, and topped a boiled frosting.
I’ve always been a huge fan of oatmeal since I was a kid, grabbing those maple brown sugar packets for breakfast from elementary school all the way through college and my first “real” job. Eventually, I started using plain oats and cooking them on the stove, adding in things like apples, raisins, dates, nuts, bananas, and whatever other add-ins I was hungry for on a particular day. I then transitioned to steel cut oats for the increased health benefits, but they do take some extra time to cook and I don’t find them nearly as convenient as the pouches or even the traditional rolled oats on the stovetop.
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When Quaker Oats contacted me and asked if I wanted to try their new quick-cooking 3-minute steel cut oats, I was thrilled to give them a try. Being able to make steel cut oats in three minutes versus the typical 30 minutes is awesome, especially since my days of leisurely breakfasts are on hiatus for the unforeseen future. They even have instant steel cut oats pouches in two different flavors – Brown Sugar & Cinnamon and Cranberries & Blueberries.
It didn’t take me long at all to throw these quick-cooking oats into a recipe that’s a hybrid of one of my favorite cookies and one of my favorite old family recipes.
Three years ago: Conch Fritters
Four years ago: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
Oatmeal-Raisin Snack Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1½ cups (375 ml) boiling water
- 1½ cups (217.5 g) raisins
- 1 cup (160 g) quick-cooking steel cut oats
- 1⅓ cups (166.67 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (220 g) light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) cream cheese, cold
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Make the Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the boiling water, raisins and oats and let sit for 20 minutes.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and both sugars together on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs and vanilla extract, beating to combine. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the oat mixture, then gradually add the flour mixture, beating until just combined. Give the mixture a final stir with a rubber spatula and transfer to the prepared baking pan.
- Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Place on a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
- Make the Cream Cheese Frosting: Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until it is all incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and salt, increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until light and smooth, about 2 minutes. Spread over the cooled cake and serve. Leftovers can be stored at room temperature, covered, for up to 4 days.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
I love snack cakes like this one. I feel just a little less guilty about eating twice as much :)
No Bake Cookies with peanut butter-my husbands’s favorite!
I love adding oats to fruit crumbles and buckles.
I think this oatmeal cake with coconut broiled icing would be great with the new steel cut oats: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/501729214713531765/
I have been recipe testing with oatmeal and my family couldn’t be happier!
The Oatmeal Snack Cake would be a wonderful afternoon treat! If there were any leftovers they would be gobbled up at breakfast!
Oatmeal Cookies are my favorite cookies and I have more recipes for them than I can count!
But, when I made a Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie — adapted from a recipe by sisters Emily & Melissa Elsen, owners of Four & Twenty Blackbirds Pie Shops, Brooklyn, NY — I may have found the best Oatmeal treat ever.
We love a steaming bowl of oatmeal in the morning and baked oatmeal is delicious, too.
I love oatmeal for breakfast with raisins or prunes and cinnamon and a little brown sugar. Can’t wait to try quick steel oats.
I shared this Oatmeal Cake recipe.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/274790014741078981/
I LOVE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.
Oatmeal chocolate chip granola bites.
We love oatmeal – and still eat those maple brown sugar packets when we’re snowmobiling and making breakfast in the hotel room. This cake sounds so good! Thanks, BYB!
My favorite for oatmeal raisin cookies!
Love oatmeal raisin cookies , this cake recipe looks very good will have to try making
Mchelereed@roadrunner.com
My favorite is Chocolate Almond Milk, PB2 and Strawberries… delicious! https://twitter.com/CarlaayMM/status/582907467694104576
One of my favorite creations is strawberry oatmeal bars with a streusel topping. My tweet – https://twitter.com/rusthawk/status/582902847995408384
Chocolate Peanut buter oatmeal no bakes are my fav!
Can’t wait to try this oatmeal cake recipe, the texture looks perfect.
Steel cut oatmeal with apples, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, unsalted butter. In a slow cooker, Perfect breakfast, or late night snack.
oh yum! that looks delicious!
I make overnight oats a lot w/ nut butter, fruit, almond milk, cinnamon, chia seeds, flaxmeal, wheat germ, and a pinch of salt.
https://twitter.com/annpaqluk/status/582868629525528577
I like making baked oatmeal to have on hand for a quick breakfast.
I would love to try them in lactation cookies. My baby is 3 weeks old.
Love chocolate chip oatmeal cookies!
I’m all about the classics….chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
Shared on twitter:
https://twitter.com/DysautonomiaC/status/582792305301553153
i grew up on oatmeal especially Quaker. Love it then love it now. I will try this recipe.
The first word that grabbed me was oatmeal. The second was cream cheese! Definitely want to try this~ I always have oatmeal for breakfast so this would be an awesome variation. Heh, cake for breakfast ♥
I have a box of Quaker Steel Cut Oats and make a bowl about three mornings a week. I load it up with chia seeds, raisins, coconut sugar and sometimes cream. The 25-30 minute time factor doesn’t bother me. Instant steel cut oats? Dunno……guess I’d be willing to try it.
Love oats with banana, maple syrup and pecans. Looking fwd to trying the quick cook. Thanks for the opportunity!
When I first moved out on my own, I probably ate oatmeal for dinner 5 days out of every week! It was filling, inexpensive, and it gave me an excuse to add chocolate chips into a ‘normal meal’…
First thing I’d make is some no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies! And I’d love to try the 3 min SC oats (I make the 30 min kind regularly; this sounds like magic)!