Last weekend, a group of us traveled up the hill to Montville (read about our whole trip soon) to celebrate our friends’ wedding. Naturally I saw this as an opportunity to bake as I’d have 8 people to consume my goods the day before the wedding. I’ve had this recipe from Bake or break saved for a while and it was a winner. It was dense almost like banana bread but not too heavy in your stomach. Although the chocolate chips settled to the bottom (which they’re not mean to), it was a successful failure as they formed a chocolaty crust. The vanilla cream cheese icing finished it off beautifully.
Start by mixing the chocolate chips and liquor together in a small bowl. I had brandy on hand from a few recipes (Christmas ham to name the best) so I used that instead of bourbon or scotch. Add 2 tablespoons of flour and toss the chocolate chips until they are fully coated. Set the alcoholic chocolates aside. I later found out from my wise friend Kristin that tossing the chocolate chips in flour is meant to stop them sinking to the bottom. I think they got drunk on brandy and sank despite the flour.
Place the oats and butter in a heat-proof bowl and cover them with 1 and 1/4 cups of boiling water. I imagine this is what you would have for breakfast to keep warm in winter, that is if you wanted to keep warm under a few layers of chub. Wait 30 seconds then give it a stir until the butter has melted through. Set the buttery oats aside for 30 minutes.
About 5 minutes before the oats are done, whisk together the eggs, sugars, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl.
Add the butter oats to the bowl and fold them through.
Fold the remaining flour into the batter.
Finally, fold through the chocolate chips.
Spread the mixture into a greased and lined cake tin. As we were going to a wedding, I thought a heart tin suited the event. In retrospect, a bigger tin probably would have worked better. My smaller tin took a little too long to cook. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes at 170C fan-forced. Make sure you check it with a cake tester before you take it out of the oven. My cake took 1h 10m to bake.
Cool the cake on a wire rack.
I made a cream cheese icing to top the cake. I can’t tell exact quantities as I made it up as I went but there is a recipe on the site where I found the cake. I whipped some cream cheese and added vanilla, icing sugar and a little water until I had a spreadable consistency.
Dust the iced cake gently with cocoa. Enjoy!
Oatmeal chocolate chip cake
Recipe from Bake or Break
Ingredients
- 240g (8.5oz) chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp liquor, such as bourbon or scotch - I used brandy
- 1 1/2 cups + 2 tbsp plain flour
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, at room temperature
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar - I used caster sugar
- 1 1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 & 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170C (340F) fan-forced. Grease and line a cake tin. The recipe suggest a 9″x13″ baking pan.
- Tip the liquor over the chocolate chips and toss until they are all coated. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to the bowl and mix it up until the chocolate is flour-coated. Set aside.
- Place the oats and butter in a heat-proof bowl then cover with 1 1/4 cups of boiling water. Let it sit for 30 seconds then stir until the butter is melted. Leave the oats aside for 30 minutes.
- In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, sugars, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.
- Add the oatmeal to the bowl and fold it through.
- Fold through the rest of the flour and then mix in the chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into the cake tin.
- Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool on wire rack.
- Ice with vanilla cream cheese icing and dust with cocoa.
Love the heart shaped pan. Chocolate and cream cheese is a perfect combination.
There seems to be a bit of a recurring theme of choc chips and oats with you.. lucky I love both those things! :p
Two things I seem to always have an excess of!
Looked very yummy and the shape was very befitting!!
Mum x
I got all silly and excited when you mentioned Montville because of my recent trip there! :P This looks delicious and I love heart shaped food. I got your email and would be happy to help out. Will email you back! :)
Thanks Lorraine!