Jailhouse Cake

“Jailhouse Cake” aka Oat cake

A wonderful and easy cake spiced with cinnamon and a caramel coconut topping

When my search through my grandmothers family recipes began, I was a little overwhelmed. The recipes where put in my house as storage. There were a ton of every kind of recipe you could image. As I was going through them my dad kept asking me if I had found a recipe for “jailhouse cake”. I told him no but would keep an eye out for it. Little did I know what kind of an undertaking that would be! I looked through family cookbook after family cookbook and didn’t see any cake by the name “jailhouse cake”. My father was relentless! Asking me every time I saw him or talk on the phone about grandma’s “Jailhouse cake” recipe. Finally, becoming exasperated, I asked him to describe the cake. He said it was a sheet cake that had coconut topping and she would pour a sugar syrup on the cake and then put the cake under the broiler………. then it hit me! I remembered a recipe that sounded familiar. When I arrived home that night, I looked through her recipes (that were in no particular order) and found a cardboard recipe for an oat cake that looked as if it was taken from a quaker oat box a LONG time ago. So that weekend I decided to give the recipe a try. The next day I took a piece over to my father and he said, as if striking gold, “THAT’S IT!”. He said it took him back to that small mining town that he had grown up in all those many years ago. My curiosity got the better of me so I eventually had to ask him why it was called the “jailhouse cake”? He said “Well, your grandmother and grandfather had belonged to some organization in Athens county. This led them to become good friends with the county sheriff. The sheriffs wife, who lived at the jail, had brought this cake to one of the group functions and your grandmother had asked for the recipe. The sheriffs wife would make it for the prisoners because it was a pretty easy recipe and would feed a good number of people. So every time your grandmother would make this cake we would all call it the “jailhouse cake”. When I make any of my family recipes I usually try to change up the ingredients or add something that I think the recipes are missing to make them better. However, this one is so delicious that I could NOT think of anything to change to make it look or taste better. Now I will say, it may not be the prettiest cake in the world but it is so moist and tender and has an unbelievable cinnamon spice flavor that it is now one of my favorite sheet cakes of all time.

By the way, about a year after I had made this cake for the first time my mother had found a box of recipes from my dads mother. They were in a small green index card box that looked like it had been to war. When I opened the card box for the first time, there was that “jailhouse cake” recipe, and it was in my grandmothers own handwriting. This recipe has become so very special to me and extremely sentimental since she has been gone for such a long time.

Gather all your ingredients

Combine boiling water and quick oats let sit 20 minutes

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy

Add eggs and mix

Combine dry ingredients and mix just until combined

Add oat mixture to batter and mix until combined

Pour in to prepared pan and bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes

Meanwhile combine topping ingredients in a saucepan

Bring to boil & boil for 1 minute

Spread evenly over hot baked cake

Place under broiler 5 minutes

let cool completely before serving.

Now I know this may not be the most beautiful cake you’ve every seen, especially after you remove it from the oven, but trust me once you cut into it and taste all the warm cinnamon flavor and the wonderful caramel coconut topping I’m sure this will become one of your favorite cakes  as it is one of mine. Enjoy

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