An Oatmeal Cake Just for Me

In the old days, before diabetes, I liked to bake. Cook, not so much, but bake, yes. A few weeks ago, as the weather got cold, I suddenly felt like I wanted to bake again. Looking in my old Joy of Cooking, I found a recipe for an oatmeal cake. Since I had all the ingredients on hand, I tried it and it turned out pretty good. Too sweet for me, of course, but I froze a large piece for my husband. Then I got that cold, and feeling bored and sorry for myself.....well, there went the rest of the cake.

Then my friend sent me a zucchini bread recipe and the last time I was in town, I got all the ingredients for it, or so I thought. I didn't have a grater, so I spent some time in a couple of different stores, looking for a reasonably priced (cheap) one. I finally found one in K-Mart. I guess I was so focused on the inexpensive grater that I didn't notice I had forgotten to get baking powder! Well, I wasn't going back to town just for that. So the zucchini went in the vegetable soup I made that day and I didn't bake a cake.

I still had the urge to bake, so I thought why not make another oatmeal cake for now? I knew it would be good and I also had 1/2 cup of baking Splenda that I wanted to try.

This is the setup:

I don't have a mixer or any other helpful baking tools around here, so I did it by hand and got that wonderful pioneer woman feeling all over again. I'm really loving the more primitive life I'm living here in the canyon.

Here is the cake batter on its way in the oven:

I'll eat the cake without frosting because that would be way too sweet for me. It actually looks and tastes more like a banana or zucchini-type bread than a regular cake, anyway, so it's fine like this.

Here is the cake, all done:

I have a baby gate on one side of the kitchen and I can bring in the gate you see i the background, if I have to isolate a dog for some reason. We last used it when puppy Samson came to visit, planning for him to spend the night in the kitchen (he was not yet housebroken). Needless to say, that didn't work out, but the gate stayed. Now I just love to close it when I want to be alone in the kitchen to cook. I get tired of tripping over dogs in this tiny space that is my kitchen, where they all have to gather as soon as there is any food in sight.  Here is Soldier, sneaking in before I closed the other gate. Looks like he knows where the food is kept, doesn't it?