This Picnic Cake is such a unique, simple to make and incredibly tasty cake. It is an old fashioned recipe with a base of oats. I personally love the combination of chocolate, and cinnamon flavors, it reminds me of Mexican hot chocolate. Of course if you are not a fan of cinnamon you can easily leave it out. I just love it, myself! The best part (other than how easy it is to prepare) is the brown sugar and chocolate topping. As it bakes, like magic, it forms an irresistible golden crispy crust on top that is the perfect platform for a big dollop of freshly whipped sweetened cream! . Mmmmmm this is such a wonderful dessert! I am not kidding when I tell you that everyone always loves Picnic Cake and whenever I serve it, I get requests for the recipe.
Here they are ready to pop into the oven. I have divided the one recipe in half and am baking them in disposable pans to drop off to friends. See the brown sugar and chocolate chips sprinkled on top? That creates the most wonderful crust on top and is one of the best features of the Picnic Cake! YUM!
It starts with such humble, simple ingredients but ends up quite remarkable! Here you can see the amazing crust…all ready for a dollop of whipped cream.
Baking Pans:
Great stoneware 9×13
Disposable Pans with lids
Picnic Cake
Description
This Picnic Cake is such a unique and yummy cake with a brown sugar and chocolate topping. As it bakes it forms an irresistible crust on top
Ingredients
1 ¾ cup boiling water
1 cup oatmeal
½ cup butter (1 cube)
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 ¾ cup flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
2 TB cocoa
½ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 bag chocolate chips, divided
½ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Pour boiling water over butter and oatmeal in mixing bowl. Let sit for 10 minutes.
- Add sugars and mix well using a spoon (NOT A MIXER).
- Add eggs and mix.
- Add dry ingredients and ½ of chocolate chips.
- Pour into a greased and floured 9×13 pan.
- Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips and ½ cup brown sugar over the top.
- Bake at 350 for 30 min.
- Serve with whipped cream.
Melanie, this looks DELISH. You gave me this recipe so long ago, but I haven’t tried it yet. Now that I have a ‘vision’ of what it’s like, I will probably find an excuse to make it tomorrow!!
Hi Jen, Sure, I’ll post the pesto recipe – I’ve actually been intending to; it is so good! I probably won’t have enough basil to make it for a few weeks, and once I do I will take a photo and post it right away. 🙂 (If you need it sooner, let me know and I could just email you the recipe.) Yes, some years I plant the basil in the garden and other years I use XXL plastic pots. I usually plant three basil, and they become pretty big by the end of the season. But you have to have a lot of basil leaves to make pesto, so it’s nice to have a few plants to steal leaves off of.
LOVE this cake…it’s easy, has a unique taste, and is so yummy!
Looks super delicious!!
Erin – will you post your homemade pesto recipe? Also, do you plant your basil in a garden, or in a planter box?
LOVE this site!!