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!
Banana Oatmeal Cookies or Smoothies with some added peanut butter :)
Can’t wait to try. My 4-year old will love it!
I love oatmeal for classic oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies! My family loves them as well, and like you said the oats aspect makes them semi healthy right? :)
If you want to use ordinary steel cut oats but have to be somewhere in the morning – like work – you can put your oats and other things (apples, raisins, dates, etc.) into a slow cooker before bed. I like the texture when they are cooked this way.
I recently tried baked oatmeal… what a great idea! Reheating in the microwave with milk made great breakfasts all week!
Love this cake. I’m totally making this. My family goes through so many rolled oats a week. We put them in snacks, breakfast, cookies.
I love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! More recently I have been making energy balls with oats for a quick and filling on the go treat!
I eat Quaker oatmeal cups everyday. This recipe for the Oatmeal-Raisin Snack Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting looks yummy. I like that is light and moist. I am anxious to make it for my family.
Oatmeal spice cake.
Old fashioned oats done overnight in the crockpot- low and slow, use extra liquid, then top with butter and brown sugar!
I love steel cut oats with just a little maple syrup, brown sugar, a very small pat of butter and a little milk.
Brilliant! An oatmeal raisin cookie cake. I look forward to making this recipe.
Make Caramel Apple Steel-Cut Oatmeal using the new Quaker Quick 3-Minute Steel Cut Oats Original.
My tweet -https://twitter.com/neiddy_ruiz/status/582487780514615298
I like adding the quick steel cut to bread recipes!
What a time saver. I can’t wait to try the steel cut oats. I love how versatile it is!
oatmeal protein bites. Love oatmeal!
Oatmeal muffins with raisins and walnuts
Old fashioned oats with walnuts and raisins – a perfect breakfast!
I love making oats with pwanut butter, strabwerry jam, and strawberries. It’s like a pb&j!
Gotta say my favorite use for oatmeal is in no bake cookies, or as we call them in my house “plop drops”
I can’t wait to try the quick cooking steel cut oats. What a brilliant idea. I love oatmeal for breakfast with any kind of dried fruit . Oatmeal raisin cookies are my favorite cookie and I love the oatmeal cake my mom used to make.
Amazing recipe with steel cut oats…would love to try it :)
My family loves Oatmeal raisin cookies ~ also raisin spice or apple cinnamon instant oatmeal if we’re in a hurry :)
Soak oats in milk with flavorings overnight, then blend into a filling bfast shake the next morning! Yum! #QuakerUp #SweepsEntry
Shared on Twitter: https://twitter.com/vamcd89/status/582415443261988864
I love oatmeal, both for breakfast and in cookies and other baked goods. You can make so much with it! I wished we would have the quick cooking steel cut oats in my country as well.
Baked steel cut oats topped with vanilla greek yogurt and blueberries.
I love oatmeal for breakfast and am intrigued by the quick steel cut oats.
This cake looks amazing. I love to make banana oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
I love steel cut oatmeal with unsweetened whipped cream, maple syrup, and fresh fruit.
Yup, we love fruit N oatmeal too. Would love to win this basket for my wife, she absolutely loves Quaker oats! So like Donkey in Shreck, pick me….pick me!!
chocolate chip oatmeal cookie skillet pie!