Category Archives: Recipes

Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Frosting

Oatmeal cake with coconut icing recipe. Easy and delicious!

When I was a little girl, my family attended our small town Baptist church. We were there every time the doors were open. My brother and I went to Sunday school and VBS. I memorized lots of Bible verses, went to Awana, and learned stories via flannel graph (the old kind made out of paper with yellow or green fuzz on the back).

And then there were the potlucks. They were still called potlucks in those days. I’ve heard that now they call them pot blessings and carry-ins. I remember eating this oatmeal cake with crunchy coconut frosting in the church basement. The church basement is also where my brother and I experienced those little BB-shaped silver balls on our sugar cookies for the first time. I think the walls were painted pink but that doesn’t sound right, does it? Of course, it was the 1970’s so pink it very well could have been.

Ingredients for Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Frosting. Church food is the best.

I found a recipe for this cake on Pinterest about year ago. I’ve since adapted it for my tastes. My mom came for dinner awhile back and I served this cake and told her all about how I remember eating this in the basement at Spencer Baptist Church as a little girl. She told me that I may have eaten it there, but more than likely I remembered it from all the times my grandma served it. Let me tell you, whether it is from one of the ladies at the Spencer Baptist Church or from my grandma who went to Chatham Methodist church, this cake is nondenominationally delicious! I mean, it’s got cooked frosting. And then you broil it!

Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Frosting. Nondenominationally Delicious!

So that’s my small-town, small-church food memory. Do you have a favorite food you remember from similar get togethers when you were young? Please share them in the comments!

Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Frosting

Oatmeal Cake Recipe

1 cup rolled oats (I used old-fashioned.)
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 1/3 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 9×13 pan that is broiler-proof.

Measure oats into a large bowl. Pour boiling water over oats. Cut up stick of butter and add to water and oats in bowl. Let sit until butter melts.

Add flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, vanilla, and eggs to mixture in bowl. Stir well.

Pour batter into greased 9×13 pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

Coconut Frosting Recipe

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup cream or half and half
1 or 2 cups shredded coconut
1 tsp. vanilla
(You can also add 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans to this recipe. I have never made the frosting with nuts. Decrease the coconut to 1 cup.)

Melt butter in a pan on the stove. Add sugar, cream or half and half. Bring to a boil. Stirring constantly, cook for about four minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and add coconut, nuts (if using), and vanilla. Stir until coconut is well coated. Spread frosting over cake. Place under broiler until coconut is toasted.

Sharing at Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life * Smart Party Planning *

Houligan, Dutch Baby, German Pancake- I Call It Delicious!

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Houligan recipe from www.beautyobserved.com Free downloadable recipe. Makes a great holiday breakfast!

Around the time Cranberry Pie came into my life, a friend shared her recipe for Houligan. I’ve seen it called different things over the years but they all share the same basic recipe.

My recipe was hastily scratched on the back of some handwriting practice paper from my oldest daughter oh-so-many years ago. I think she was three at the time. I make this for breakfast or brunch every holiday and serve it with Cranberry Pie. The buttery taste of the eggs blends perfectly with the tart and sweet pie. Try it! You’ll like it!

This pictured recipe shows the recipe that I use for a 9X13 pan. Today, I decided to halve the recipe and make it in a cast iron skillet. It turned out nicely. I’ve included both versions of the recipe at the bottom.

The first step is to melt the butter in the pan in the the oven. Here are two important tips that I’ve already learned for you from experience. I’m sure you’ll appreciate it. 1) Set the timer for 3-5 minutes so that you don’t forget that the pan is in the oven and fill your holiday home with burnt butter smoke. 🙂

I like to mix the eggs and milk by themselves first.

Add the flour and mix thoroughly. A few small lumps are okay.

Here’s your second hard learned tip. 2) Don’t forget the hot pad. After the butter is melted, you will probably place the hot pan on top of the stove before you fill it with batter. Don’t forget the hot pad. Pour your batter into the melted butter. Don’t forget the hot pad. Replace in the oven and bake for 20 or so minutes. Don’t ask me how I learned not to forget the hot pad!

Your houligan will puff, puff, puff up around the edges. If you want, you can check that a butter knife comes out clean when tested in the middle. After taking the pan out of the oven, the eggs will deflate a little. No worries, this is normal. 🙂

Here is the link to my Cranberry Pie recipe. They go soooo well together!

Houligan for 9×13 pan

1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
1 c. milk (I like whole)
6 eggs
1 c. flour
dash of salt and pepper

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt butter in pan in oven. (Set timer so you don’t forget the butter and burn it.) While the butter is melting, mix together milk and eggs. Add flour, salt, and pepper and mix well.

Add batter to melted butter in pan. Bake for 20 minutes or so. Eggs will be puffed up and a cake tester will come out clean. Serve warm with confectioner’s sugar, maple syrup, or cranberry pie.

Houligan for cast iron skillet

1/4 c. butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 c. milk (I like whole)
3 eggs
1/2 c. flour
dash of salt and pepper

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt butter in pan in oven. (Set timer so you don’t forget the butter and burn it.) While the butter is melting, mix together milk and eggs. Add flour, salt, and pepper and mix well.

Add batter to melted butter in pan. Bake for 20 minutes or so. Eggs will be puffed up and a cake tester will come out clean. Serve warm with confectioner’s sugar, maple syrup, or cranberry pie.

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Cranberry Pie Recipe

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Cranberry pie recipe. Free downloadable recipe. It's what our family eats on Christmas morning.

I love family traditions. Anticipating the expected is very comforting to me. While some roll their eyes at “predictablity,” I think that deep down, they might even find some comfort in things that remain the same.

I used to read Country Home magazine and I was very sad when it was no longer published on a regular basis. I especially looked forward to the December issue. One such issue has become a part of our family traditions.

Having moved to the Nashville area, I was quite pleased when the 1994 issue of Country Home featured the town of Franklin, TN which is south of Nashville. Amongst the recipes listed was Cranberry Pie by Salli LaGrone .

I have baked Cranberry Pie every year since for Thanksgiving and Christmas morning breakfast. I now have to freeze a bag or two of cranberries because it might be requested for one of my children’s summer birthday breakfasts.

Just to let you know how deeply I am affected by tradition, I will tell you that I must mix the pie batter in the pictured blue bowl which was a wedding present. It just doesn’t taste the same if it’s not mixed in the blue bowl. 😉

Cranberry Pie adapted from Salli LaGrone’s recipe.

1 bag fresh cranberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted (1 1/2 sticks)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup white sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Grease and flour a pie plate.

Rinse cranberries. Place cranberries in pie plate. I usually check each cranberry as I place them in the pie plate. This takes a little longer but prevents any spoiled cranberries from becoming part of the pie. Sprinkle cranberries with the 1/2 cup of white sugar.

In a bowl (preferably blue *wink*), whisk together melted butter, 1 cup white sugar, flour, beaten eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Pour over cranberries in pie plate and smooth batter to the edges.

Bake for 45-60 minutes in a 325 degree oven until a cake tester comes out clean.

I’ve served this pie both warm and cold. Cranberry pie goes well with houligan. Refrigerate leftovers.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Who knows? It just might become a tradition for your family as well!

Linked at the Life in Grace online Christmas Cookie Exchange. Head over and see all the wonderful things that are linked there. I’ve already seen a few I’d like to try!