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Dessert

Oat Cake

A baked oat cake made with oatmeal, dripping, baking soda, and salt, cooked on a griddle or in an oven until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Oat Cake

Oat Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Melt the dripping in the almost boiling water.

  2. Mix the baking soda and salt into the oatmeal.

  3. Pour the water mixture onto the oatmeal and mix thoroughly.

  4. Turn the mixture out onto a well-floured surface and form it into a round cake.

  5. Roll the cake into six or eight pieces.

Cook and store

  1. Bake on a griddle over a clear fire until the cakes begin to curl up.

  2. Transfer the cakes to toasters until crisp, or bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until crisp but not browned.

  3. Store in an air-tight box.

  4. If the cake becomes soft, place it in an oven for a few minutes to restore crispness.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Forms the bulk of the cake and gives it its structure and hearty texture.
Dripping
Adds fat, giving richness and tenderness to the cake and helping it crisp when baked.
Baking soda
Reacts with the mixture to lighten it slightly and help it brown.

The step that matters

Baking until crisp but not browned. Oat cakes dry out and crisp as moisture leaves the dough, so they must bake long enough to firm up. Browning too far, however, makes them bitter, so the oven must be watched closely.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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