AKA Tablespoon Cake - AkA The Easiest Cake You’ll Ever Make
This one started out as a copycat recipe - we tried some fancy, expensive diet company snack bars this week. We enjoyed them, but we didn't enjoy the price tag quite so much. So we decided we were going to take a crack at producing something similar, with similar nutritional value. We're even going to do out the irritating math for you, so you know what your calorie intake and your approximate nutrition facts are for each serving.
Keep in mind, for that to stay accurate, you'll need to follow the instructions to the letter... But you could also be like us and wing it, and then re-do the math later. Like we did. Three times.
There was a lot of "less this, more that," and a lot of "what if?" in the making of this one. If you make it better, let us know over on our Facebook page!
Ingredients:
7 Tablespoons granulated sugar
4 Tablespoons quick oats
2 Tablespoons coconut flour
2 Tablespoons whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons light brown sugar
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1 Tablespoon water
2 eggs
Tools:
Mixing bowl, one! measuring spoon - a tablespoon, fork, 9x9 baking pan, aluminum foil, baking spray
Grab your trusty tablespoon and let's get to work.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Measure your two different kinds of sugar and your two different kinds of flour into the mixing bowl - and please do not add more coconut flour in an attempt to make the recipe gluten-free unless you have used coconut flour before. Coconut flour is a very mercurial ingredient and can really muck up a recipe if you're not familiar with its properties.
Add in your oats, your ground flax and your cinnamon. If you're not a fan of the texture the oats add to this, feel free to toss them into a blender for a few pulses and chop them down before you add them.
Take the fork we suggested you have handy, and stir all your dry ingredients together. We know it's all basically one color to start with, but still, you want these things to be uniformly distributed. Otherwise you'll end up with pockets of too much sugar, caramelizing and causing divots in the final product. We're not against crunchy spots where the sugar turned into hard candy, or spicy little lumps of cinnamon for that matter - but these things are not part of the original goal.
Break your eggs into the dry ingredients and toss that tiny little bit of water into the bowl while you're at it. We know one tablespoon doesn't sound like a lot, but it's very important in this recipe. It's low enough moisture to start with that every bit is absolutely necessary - and the coconut flour is going to make it disappear really quickly.
The fork is still the ideal tool to mix your batter. That batter is going to be thick, and it's also going to be sticky. We promise, that's actually what you want. It will yield a dense, chewy oat bar with a brownie-like texture and crunchy edges good for grabbing and running. And since that was the big nameless diet company's original intention with it, we think we're doing alright with this copycat thing.
Once you have everything mixed well, line your baking pan with a layer of aluminum foil (leave enough around the edges to lift by later) and spray the bottom thoroughly with cooking spray. Scoop your batter from the mixing bowl to the center of the baking pan, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go. After you've gotten as much as you can from the mixing bowl, take the fork (yes, again!) and use it to smooth the layer of batter out and push it as far as you can into the corners of the pan. Be gentle and work slowly so that you don't accidentally poke through the aluminum foil.
Pop the pan into the oven and let it bake for half an hour. If you're not sure if it's done after the half-hour, give the pan a little shake. If the center jiggles, put it back for five more minutes. If not, it's ready.
Let it cool for ten minutes, then lift the aluminum foil out of the pan. Invert it over a plate and peel to remove the foil from the bottom of the oat bars. It helps to hold the center down gently and lift up from the corners of the foil.
Flip that plate over onto another so your creation is right side up again, and cut into four equal pieces. We know we've called them oat bars this whole time, but we like to cut them into triangles to mix things up a little.
Each of these four servings will have 5 grams of protein and just under 4 grams of fiber, along with almost 40% of your daily value of vitamin D and 10% of your necessary iron - all for about 190 calories.
Be mindful that there's quite a bit of sugar and carbs in this, also - so it's not exactly a diabetic-friendly recipe as shown here. A little quick math says using Stevia instead of granulated sugar would make quite a dent. That could trim calories down to 130 a serving, cut sugar from 23 grams to only 5 grams, and take total carbohydrate per serving from 34 grams to 18, while also giving a tiny boost to iron and potassium. Even bigger diet company goals accomplished - still without the big name brand price tag!
And if you need new appliance performance, preferably also without the jumbo-sized price tag, maybe reach out to our service department. You can reach them through our contact page, or by giving us a call at ((214) 599-0055)