Oatmeal cake with coconut pecan topping…what more could you want? Amish Breakfast Cake makes the perfect indulgent breakfast or delicious dessert. You really can’t go wrong either way.
I have a little bit of news for you guys: Alex and I are buying a house!
That’s right; if all goes according to plan, in the span of a year we will have gotten engaged, gotten married and bought our first house. Phew! I won’t give a ton of details at this point (because, if I’m honest, I don’t want to jinx us before we close) but we will be closer to our families than we are now, which means my Instagram is soon to be taken over entirely by my adorable niece and nephews – because if you think Aunt Stephie can stand to be close to her babies and not see them constantly, you can just think again.
It also means that I will have more space for storing my many (many) dishes, a larger kitchen, and we can get a dog! Only two of those things are related or probably important to you. I’ll let you decide which two those are.
A few weeks ago when Alex and I were in town house hunting, we stopped by the town coffee spot (which we both know well, having both gone to college in this town) to pick up breakfast and, of course, I found myself perusing the pastry case. Would you even know me if I didn’t? A sign labeled “Amish Breakfast Cake” caught my eye. I wasn’t really sure what it was, or if it was actually a breakfast item, but if you label something “breakfast cake” you can be sure that I will take the opportunity to eat it before noon.
As it turned out, it was a delightful oatmeal cake with a moist yet crunchy coconut-pecan topping. I knew I had to make this happen in my kitchen. After a little bit of Googling, I found this recipe for Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting on For the Love of Cooking. I did a little bit of tweaking, primarily to make it a little less sweet and thus more appropriate to possibly eat for breakfast, or at least elevensies, and ended up with what may just be my new favorite cake.
Now, I have no idea where the coffee shop I referenced earlier came up with the name “Amish Breakfast Cake” – I couldn’t tell you if this is remotely Amish or not – but I rather liked the name. Who doesn’t want permission to eat more cake for breakfast? And so, Amish Breakfast Cake it will be. Eat it for breakfast, or dessert, but for the love of all that is good – eat it!
Amish Breakfast Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
For the topping:
- 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour an 8x8-inch cake pan. Set aside.
- In a bowl, combine the oats and the boiling water. Cover for around 5 minutes while you assemble the other ingredients.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugars, flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. In a large measuring cup, whisk together the applesauce, egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients and the oatmeal mixture to the dry ingredients and fold to combine. Pour into the prepared baking pan. Bake for about 25 minutes or until the center of the cake is set.
Prepare the topping:
- In a bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients until well mixed. Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, turn the oven to broil. Gently spread the topping over the hot cake; broil until the topping is golden brown. Do NOT walk away from the oven during this time - this took less than a minute in my broiler, but may fluctuate based on your oven.
- Allow cake to cool before cutting and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Congratulations! Homeownership certainly has its charms. While we’re renting when we first get down to Texas, I look forward to buying or building soon. And this cake. WHOA. I love oatmeal and pecans together, any way I can get ’em.
Spoken like a true Southern girl. 😉
Congratulations on the new house. That is super exciting news and the bonus of being close to family is priceless. The cake looks super yummy and I will have to try it because it looks delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Thank you! We can’t wait to be closer to our families. It truly is a gift.
I hope house hunting goes smoothly for you and you find your perfect house! I would love to start my day with a cup of coffee and a slice of this cake!
Yum! Love how you used applesauce in this 🙂
I can report that this cake is just delicious! It was so quick to mix up with stuff I pretty much had in the pantry. This is a keeper for me.
Good luck with the house, how exciting!
I’m so glad you made it and loved it!!
Oh my golly! Congratulations beautiful!!! You and Alex have definitely had a massive year, exciting times! Haha…. Aaron and I were going to wait til we had a house before buying a dog too, but then… Well. I’m not good at waiting. So we bought a tiny dog and I still don’t have enough cupboard space for my collection of kitchenware, ha! Anyway, back to the house. YOUR house! And this gorgeous cake. Soon you and Alex will be eating many a breakfast cake in your gorgeous new kitchen! P.S I can never disassociate the Amish community from that Tim Allen movie, I can’t even remember what it was/is called… Do you know the one I mean? I think that was my introduction to Amish society as a wee kid (real Amish probably hate it) xxx
Haha I love you. I am so excited about ALLTHETHINGS. Alex is, too. And we have a guest room now, perfect for Australian visitors. 🙂
EEEE A HOUSE! that is so exciting! I’m jealous! of the space and the cute nieces and nephews 😛
and this cake looks like pure breakfast perfection, I want some!
Haha! Both will come in time for you, I am sure!
Congrats on your new house! So exciting!!! And this breakfast cake sounds like the perfect weekend treat!!!
This sounds like the perfect thing to eat for breakfast!
You have a lot going on! Having ez go to recipes like this makes life better! I love everything about this cake!
Love this recipe – it seems so easy to make, somewhat like a snack cake. Congratulations on the new house – you will have so much fun!
Cake for breakfast? Yes, please!!!
Wow! What an eventful year! Congratulations on house-buying!
WOW sounds like quite the exciting year!! This cake sounds perfect too : ))
Congratulations… but I have to say, you think you will have room for all of your plates, platters and stuff…. but trust me, you;ll fill up that space very soon! lol 😉
Found you on Pinterest by looking into the No-Knead Rolls, yum! Then went on to the Pot Pie recipe and ended up at the Amish Breakfast Cake, oh my! Really looking forward to making all of these. But I have a question; on the Amish Breakfast Cake…if you don’t care for coconut, what could I substitute do you think?
Thoroughly enjoyed your blog!!
Thank you so much for your kind words! The coconut in the topping is pretty critical in order to get it to set up right. But — you could try just making the cake itself and perhaps doing some kind of brown sugar/pecan frosting or glaze instead of the coconut topping. Let me now how it turns out!
Any chance this college-town coffee shop was near Illinois State University? Was just there this weekend eating one of their delicious Amish cakes which is the sole reason I am looking for this recipe. Must recreate at the commercial kitchen and coffee shop I work at! Thanks for this recipe Stephie; excited to try it out!
Girl, YES! Coffee Hound!! Only my fave coffee shop ever. (Also…um…small world.) 😀
Do you know.how many carbs this cake has? On low carb diet, but it sounds wonderful.
I am honestly not sure. I don’t dabble in that realm, so I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving you a count! (I don’t want to calculate incorrectly!)