Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake - or Muffins

Ellie's birthday is not actually until March, but we are going to have her birthday celebration with a small group of friends this Friday-Saturday. We thought it would be easier and more fun since she has not started back in on the racing, yet. Each year she tries to pick an unusual cake for her party. This year it is red velvet. Being the ever-baked-from-scratch kind of cook, I tried out two different recipes. Each of them was not a flop, but a disaster. If I was going for a erupting volcano disguised as a cake theme, then I would have hit the jackpot. Alas, that was not was I was looking for. Ellie then went back to the drawing board. I pulled out an old recipe that I had not made for many years. I remembered loving it, but actually forgot what it tasted like, so I made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffins, sans the walnuts. I thought she would go for it. Even though she ate three of the muffins within a hour of them coming out of the oven, she did not select this recipe as the birthday cake prized recipe for 2008. She thought about a giant cookie and ice cream sandwhich, but that had transportation issues since we want to take it to a restuarant. In the end she confessed that she liked Grandma Gay's Red Velvet Wonderful cake. My mom, ala Grandma Gay, is a make-from- a-box mix kinda' gal, so I knew it would be easy. We made it last night and will frost it today. Frosting frozen cakes is the best way to do it. It is a professional cake baker's secret. Those great cakes you get from the pros. are often made ahead of time and frozen, frosted and then thawed. (Wink,Wink - this is kind of a trade secret, so let's keep this on the down low...) Anyhow, here's the recipe that I bet you don't already have:

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake with Walnuts

1 3/4 cup Boiling Water
1 cup Oatmeal
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Sugar (I often leave this second cup of sugar out - they still taste great without it)
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 3/4 cup Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 tablesppon Cocoa
12 oz. SemiSweet Chocolate Chips
3/4 cup Walnuts, chopped

Pour boiling water over the oatmeal, sugar and butter. Let it sit for ten minutes. Add eggs and mix well. Combine the dry ingredients, add to mix. Fold 3/4 of the bag of chocolate chips and the walnuts into the batter. Pour into greased and floured 9x13 pan, or into a muffin tin with muffin paper cups. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate chips. A few bits of walnut can be great on top, too. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.