Are you ready for it? It seems everyone is heeding the warning by the weather forecasters for a potential ice storm this weekend which is a very good thing. I am trying not to get too carried away but I want to be prepared. Do I wish we had gotten a generator a while back instead of looking for one last minute? Of course. But at this point, we have resolved that we will have to tough it out and just be prepared for the worst case scenario and hope and pray for the best.

We have planned for drinking water, the toilet, the food preparation and warmth as much as we can. We have our back-up battery chargers for our devices, charged our devices, downloaded movies, gathered our books and games to entertain us, set out our candles and lighters and filled our propane and gas tanks. I did my laundry. Thankfully we have a gas cooktop and fireplace that should work to help with food and warmth to some degree. I feel thankful for that.

But I know me. The one thing that will make this all bearable is something sweet and comforting to eat while hunkered down. Believe it or not I still have a few Christmas cookies and as luck would have it, we bought four boxes of Girl Scout cookies last weekend. Perfect timing.

But I was thinking of cake. Cake just sounded comforting. I was thinking of a good old fashioned chocolate cake but then I remembered the old-fashioned oatmeal cake with coconut brown sugar frosting from my childhood and my mind was changed. I figured it would be fine as breakfast in a pinch since there is oatmeal in it (just kidding….pure indulgence).

I pulled out my recipe from when I was a kid and made a homemade cookbook of my favorite recipes at the time and compared it to another “church” cookbook. They were very similar so I combined both recipes and below is what I used.

Here is the recipe:

1. Oatmeal Mixture: In a small bowl, pour the boiling water over the oatmeal. Stir and let stand until all the water is absorbed.

1 1/2 cups of boiling water

1 cup old-fashioned oatmeal

2. In a larger mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until smooth.

1/2 cup softened butter or shortening (I used butter)

1 cup of white sugar

1 cup of brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp of vanilla

3: Add oatmeal mixture to mixing bowl and mix until combined.

4. In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients by hand into rest of the cake ingredients.

1 1/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

5. Prepare 9×13 cake pan by spraying with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 25-30 minutes, removing when knife inserted in middle comes out clean.

6. A few minutes before cake is done, prepare frosting. Melt butter in saucepan, add brown sugar and milk and stir to combine. Let boil for a minute. Add the coconut and stir until combined.

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 Tablespoons milk cup

1 cup sweetened coconut

Take cake out of oven, pour frosting on top of hot cake and spread to edges. Place back in oven under broil for just a minute being careful not to burn, just until it starts to bubble slightly. Remove and let cool.

Oh my goodness. Just as delicious as I remembered it and oh so good with a cup of coffee or glass of milk. Hope it helps.

Denise