Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping

I feel like sharing some historical fun today.

FIRST: Coming soon to a virtual or brick-and-mortar bookstore near you!!!

Amazon's link to this sweet book and so many fun authors involved with it. Please notice how BIG MARY CONNEALY'S name is, oh mylanta.... She's got The Big Head, guaranteed.

Don't you just love, love, love that cover? Sweet, bucolic, pastoral, all the things we love to embrace about homesteaders and pioneers and times gone by....

Those folks worked so hard, so long and in often unforgiving conditions and many of them gave up, called it a day, and went back home, back east, back to some kind of civilization.

Who could blame them? The ones who stayed, who settled in, who toughed it out were either made of grittier stuff (yes!), luckier (most likely!), prideful (uh, huh!!!!) or had a better working knowledge and endurance for making do.

We're a bit spoiled now... And sometimes we take for granted what others did to gain our freedoms, our lands, our growth and our government, but when I jump into a historical like "A Town Called Christmas" (Hope for the Holidays historical collection) or "Prairie Promises" (Homestead Brides) I stand amazed by how stinkin' lazy I am by comparison.

Imagine living in a soddy?

EEE GADS!!!!! And yet 160 acres of FREE LAND?????? Arable land, once you could figure how to get a pitchfork through ten inches of knitted prairie grass roots. Sod potatoes, tiny, measly things. Sod corn, struggling for life to give misshapen ears. No shade, little respite from the sun, few windows, bugs, mice, snakes....

We are so blessed! :)  I love a sacrificial nature, it's like the most amazing gift from God, but heaven help me I whine like a baby when the temps go over 85.... And I'm in deciduous forest land, there are shade trees everywhere, so what am I whining about?

I've learned that success in most anything comes down to this:

Do the best job you can at every job you're given and ...

Don't quit.

Because it's not about the talent or the skill as much as it's about the diligence, perseverance and work ethic. The smartest employees who take regular sick days for every little thing are NOT the most valued....

It's the worker bees!!!! The dawn-to-duskers, the ones who show up, regardless, plant their heels and go.

So today we're going to do a fun, old recipe, something I've loved for decades and a favorite in our house.

Boiled Oatmeal Cake with Broiled Coconut Topping (and if I get done and discover this in our list, well... clearly it's worth a second look, but I scanned and didn't see it!)

350° oven (moderate oven)     

30-35 minutes (cake should be golden and dry on top, moist crumbs on toothpick test)  for 13" x 9" pan, greased and floured

Cake:

Mix together in small saucepan:  

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup quick oats

Let sit while making cake batter.

Cream: 1/2 cup butter

              1 cup brown sugar

              1 cup sugar

              2 large eggs

Divert invading baby's attention by feeding him peeled apple.

Cream until fluffy and smooth. 

Add in:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons.... (So then I had to wonder if the original recipe used Softasilk flour because this is the same ratio.... but I've used both and the cake is wonderful!)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

Mix dry mixture and creamed mixture. Blend. Add cooked oatmeal. Blend again. Bake until done, cool at least one half hour. 

Top with coconut frosting and broil.

Broiled Coconut Topping

Melt 9 tablespoons butter in saucepan or bowl.

Add:

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I forgot this, oops! Faded old recipe!)

1 cup of chopped nuts can be added if desired.

Stir together and then add 1/4-1/2 cup cream or milk until topping is of spreading consistency. Pour onto cake and place a few inches under broiler (it is helpful to turn the broiler ON....) :) and let broil until topping starts to turn golden brown.

One of my favorite cakes in this world, including CHOCOLATE VARIETIES!!!!! I love this old fashioned cake, and if I'm on a cakewalk.... This is where my eye is drawn!

So while I played in the kitchen, Casey was getting our wall display ready for our Water Cycle unit:

And this is what Dave was doing in the living room:

And this video shows what our little Finn thinks of Grandpa's building techniques: