This oatmeal cake is a wonderfully moist, fluffy, soft sheet cake, using oats and apple sauce. Tastes like carrot cake! Easy homemade recipe and a family favorite.
This oatmeal cake is great tasting, soft, moist, and incredibly easy to make. The ingredients are made up of regular pantry ingredients, and it's certainly an economical and budget-friendly recipe.
For this recipe, we've made it in a large sheet pan, so it's perfect for a party, to take to a pot luck or if you're baking for a lot of people. It'll make around 12 to 18 slices.
It's a traditional, old fashioned cake recipe. As you'll probably know, many cakes back in the day were made using whatever ingredients were available in the pantry. Particularly when certain staples, such as sugar, butter, and other items were scarce or rationed. Grandma always came up with a good recipe!
This site contains affiliate links. I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. For more information, check Privacy Policy.
The addition of the nutmeg and cinnamon spices lifts the cake to another level, giving it bags of flavor. The aroma when this is baking is out of this world!
This delicious recipe has been generously shared by one of our great cooks, Carina. Carina says this cake is very easy to make, and if you're wondering what it tastes like, well, it's similar to a carrot cake.
It is quite a sweet cake, (Carina's hubby has a very sweet tooth!) and Carina advises that you reduce the sugar in the frosting to your taste, or leave out completely and make a cream cheese frosting if you don't like very sweet cakes. It's up to you!
Needless to say, this cake is a hit with Cari's family and especially hubby, who couldn't wait to have a slice!
Check out our handy Oven Temperature Conversion Guide!
Recipe by Carina Duclos
Prep time
15 minutes
Baking time
18 - 22 minutes
Serving size
9 x 13 sheet pan (approx 12 - 18 servings)
Ingredients you'll need
The Cake
1-¼ cups very hot milk
1 cup quick-cooking oats
¼ cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup Apple Sauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
***PLEASE NOTE: This cake is VERY sweet! Feel free to reduce the amount of sugar in the cake ingredients by ½ if you prefer not so sweet.
The Caramel Icing
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup butter
¼ to ⅓ cup milk (depending on how runny you like your icing)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
⅛ teaspoon salt
1- 1 &½ cups confectioners' sugar
*** Please note, you can reduce the sugar quantities by ⅓ to ½ according to taste.
You can always try a bit of the cake (from underneath) to taste for sweetness and then you can decide how sweet you would like to make the icing.
Instructions
1. In a small bowl, pour boiling milk over oats; let stand 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in applesauce and vanilla.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in the oats.
4. Pour into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray.
5. Bake 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs. Cool completely on a wire rack.
6. For icing, in a small saucepan, combine brown sugar and butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 1 minute.
7. Gradually whisk in milk. Return to a boil. Cook and stir 1 minute.
8. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in vanilla and salt. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.
9. Immediately spread icing over cake.
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our post. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
Recipe Card
Old fashioned Oatmeal Cake with Caramel Icing
Old fashioned Oatmeal Cake with Caramel Icing. A wonderful moist, fluffy, soft sheet cake, using oats and apple sauce. Tastes like carrot cake! Easy homemade recipe and a family favorite.
Ingredients
The Cake
- 1-¼ cups very hot milk
- 1 cup quick-cooking oats
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup Apple Sauce
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
The Caramel Icing
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ cup butter
- ¼ cup to ⅓ milk, depending how runny you like your icing
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 to 1 & ½ cups confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- In a small bowl, pour boiling milk over oats; let stand 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 F. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in applesauce and vanilla.
- Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Gradually add to creamed mixture. Stir in the oats.
- Pour into a 13 x 9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray.
- Bake 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs.Cool completely on a wire rack.
- For icing, in a small saucepan, combine brown sugar and butter. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir for 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in milk. Return to a boil. Cook and stir 1 minute.
- Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in vanilla and salt. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.
- Immediately spread icing over cake.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 18 Serving Size: 18Amount Per Serving: Calories: 293Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 39mgSodium: 251mgCarbohydrates: 52gFiber: 1gSugar: 35gProtein: 5g
Sheet Pan Style Cakes
Here's a selection of our delicious sheet pan cakes.
Cherry Almond Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is a lovely soft cake and great tasting. Perfect for parties too!
Deliciously refreshing lemon upside-down cake recipe, fluffy lemon sponge with a layer of sharp lemon curd to give a great combination. A great family-sized cake recipe, perfect for afternoon tea or a party.
Strawberry Shortcake Cake, a wonderful refreshing classic sponge cake packed with fresh strawberries and a whipped cream frosting.
Strawberry and Coconut Poke Cake with Fresh Whipped Cream. Easy made from scratch recipe. Yummy!
Pineapple and Coconut Poke Cake.
A delicious pineapple combined with creamy coconut cake recipe, topped with fresh whipped cream and more coconut, making a soft and fluffy great tasting tropical cake
A quick & easy made from scratch recipe with a delicious streusel crumble topping. Great tasting simple cake recipe. Perfect for dessert or tea time
Easy Homemade Pineapple Cake.
Soft and fluffy cake loaded with juicy sweet pineapple gives a flavourful dessert. Easy simple recipe for a delicious homemade pineapple cake, made from scratch.
Lazy Daisy Rhubarb Oatmeal Cake.
Just like grandma used to make, old-fashioned Lazy Daisy Oatmeal Cake with rhubarb, delicious served warm, this gooey gooey cake is a great dessert!
Easy Homemade Rhubarb Cake. Quick & easy made from scratch recipe with a delicious cinnamon streusel crumble topping. Great tasting sweet & tangy cake. Great for dessert or tea time
Pineapple Zucchini Cake, a lovely soft cake with shredded zucchini, pineapple, nuts, raisins and spices. Smells fabulous when it's baking! Easy recipe. Instructions for baking in a loaf pan or sheet pan
Easy Pineapple Upside Down Cake. This is a very easy, made from scratch recipe. The cake is so soft and moist, bursting with pineapple flavor. Delicious served simply on it's own or with some ice cream or whipped cream. Easy, fuss free recipe using regular ingredients and so good!
Easy Red Velvet Party Cake recipe with a lovely cream cheese frosting. Soft, fluffy and so delicious! Make as a sheet or round cake, you decide!
Gold Miner's Almond Joy Cake. A super moist, delicious and rich cake loved by all! Loaded with chocolate, marshmallows, coconut, almonds... this is a pretty amazing cake and perfect for parties too!
Honey Bun Cake! This is a delicious, moist cinnamon and brown sugar cake, and always popular with the family!
Easy Strawberry Upside-down Cake is REALLY EASY! Uses simple ingredients and the cake turns out soft and fantastic tasting.
Pineapple and Walnut Cake is a lovely sheet style cake with crushed pineapple and nuts. There's also a really easy cream cheese frosting for the top of the cake
Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting.
A quick and easy recipe for a buttery coffee cream cheese frosting, perfect for cakes, cookies and other desserts.
ramona endicott
says:I thought was a fabulous cake will definitely be making again added a little shredded apples really good
Dee Dee
says:I made this recipe and decreased the sugar by 1/3 in the cake mixer, leaving the icing according to recipe.
After supper I brought my boyfriend a piece and asked him for one word to describe his first impression, his word was squishy and my word was interesting. We both agreed it was good but is different than what you may consider most cake. Will probably make again with some adjustments.