This is a very good, very basic cake. I remember making it with my girls and we loved it. Usually, it comes with a nutty type topping, but we didn't have the ingredients on hand for the nutty topping, so my daughter Aster suggested we make our own frosting.
And she suggested that we make up the frosting recipe ourselves. I'm always up for an adventure, and her ingredients for it sounded reasonable. She suggested maple syrup, marshmallows, cream cheese, and vanilla....those can make the foundation for a pretty decent frosting. I told her that I think we'd need to add some powdered sugar to make the consistency (spreadability) of it better. So we did that. It took a few tweaks (added some milk when it got too thick) to get it right, but it really turned out pretty darn good. I'll put Aster's recipe below and, of course, she was so excited that she made up a frosting recipe that I'll be sharing with all of you.
💰 Great Depression Recipe
The cake itself is a very flavorful cake. So don't just count on the frosting, the whole dessert is very good. This is a classic "depression" recipe that the Amish are famous for. In other words, during tight times when money needs to be stretched but you still want something sweet, the Amish are good at making something that might not seem like it could be a dessert into a dessert. Like vinegar pie. Or oatmeal pie.
📋 Step-by-Step Cake
You can use an electric mixer for the cake, probably would not be a bad idea, but I didn't feel like getting out the mixer, the beaters, etc. We did use a mixer for the frosting. So, here is our adventure in photos:
The ingredients in this cake work great. But you could add a little nutmeg or cloves if you want a 'spicier' flavor.
Mix the oats and boiling water, that is key, just like you are making your morning oatmeal.
One of my daughters stirring the batter, it is a great cake for kids, especially if you just do the one-layer version.
You could use mini-marshmallows, but we used the bigger ones.
Use a stand-mixer or hand-held electric mixer to whip the marshmallows as smooth as you can.
When the frosting is done, spread it onto a cool cake. You can also make this cake in two round pans instead of one long pan. The round pans will give you the layer cake option of stacking on top of one another.
To get a really bright white frosting like the photo below, A) use a better camera (ha!), and B), make sure you have enough cream cheese in there to really make the white frosting.
🎂 More Popular Amish Cake Recipes
Cake For Company
🖨️ Full Recipe
Indiana Oatmeal Cake With Marshmallow-Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Oatmeal Cake
- 1 ½ cups quick-cooking oats
- 1 ¼ cups boiling water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter or margarine, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
Aster's Marshmallow-Cream Cheese Frosting
- ⅓ block cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 7 large marshmallows
- 1 tablespoon butter
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Oatmeal Cake
- In small bowl, mix oats and boiling water; let stand 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9-inch pan with shortening or cooking spray; lightly flour.
- In large bowl, mix sugars and butter with a wooden spoon, scraping bowl occasionally.
- Mix in vanilla and eggs.
- Beat in oat mixture and remaining cake ingredients until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally.
- Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Marshmallow-cream cheese frosting
- Dump all ingredients into a mixing bowl
- turn mixer on high until a smooth, spreadable consistency.
- Spread onto cool cake.
Christine Monroe
Please tell Aster I am very impressed that a girl her age has such good recipe making abilities! I am going to use her recipe on my banana cake today. tell her I said thank you!
Kevin
Aster said she thinks that it would taste good on banana cake and that she is glad you like her recipe, that made her day, thanks!
Heather
Re the choice of "1/3 block" cream cheese in the frosting recipe, do you mean 1/3 of an 8 ounce (1/2 lb) package (typical packaging in the 2020s). You did mention that the addition of more cream cheese would have made the frosting more "white," (no matter whether or not captured accurately by the camera). Please answer and update the post! I'm thinking even if you go with 4 oz (1/2 of the 8 oz packaging) it wouldn't hurt.
Kevin Williams
Sorry about that, Heather, a little unclear, I did mean 1/3 block 8 ounce cream cheese, but I agree with you, going with a half a block is probably simpler and tastier too!