Loose lips sink chips

I hate to say this, but for the first time, my favorite cookbook of all time of the moment has failed me.

I'll start at the beginning: The first item that demanded my attention in the Baked Explorations cookbook was a recipe for Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake. Oatmeal and chocolate chips just so happen to be two of my favorite things in the world, and cake is not too shabby either. Furthermore, this cake happened to be in the breakfast section of the cookbook. Breakfast IS my favorite thing in the world, so naturally, I went for it.

Now don't get me wrong - this cake ended up being far from disgusting. It was not only edible, but even tasty (a certain co-worker of mine had three pieces). Sadly, though, it entirely failed to live up to my (lofty) expectations. Here is how it went:

Oatmeal chocolate chip cake

From Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

* 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbsp flour

* 1 cup rolled oats

* 1 stick unsalted butter (I have become very good about using unsalted butter when called for, and, on the whole, I hate to say I don't think my diligence has been sufficiently rewarded in the taste category)

* 2 eggs

* 3/4 cup sugar

* 1 1/4 cups brown sugar

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1 tsp baking powder

* 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (note: next time, I would diminish this to 1/2 tsp or eliminate completely. The cinnamon overwhelmed all other flavors and otherwise contributed nothing. Dani agrees)

* chocolate chips, 3/4 of a bag or so

* 1/2 tsp-ish bourbon, scotch, or, when all else fails, rum

Preheat oven to 375˚ F.

Boil 1 1/4 cups water. Cut the butter into cubes. Put the butter and oats in a medium sized bowl. Pour the water over the butter and oats and stir until the butter is melted (my heart sang with joy upon seeing these instructions. Firstly, nothing is more delicious than oatmeal with butter and secondly, nothing is more thrilling than realizing you will not have to do any strenuous butter creaming in the baking process). Set aside.

Put the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Add the liquor (I used rum because house guests drank all our Scotch) and mix with the chocolate until each chip is covered. Add the 2 tbsp flour and coat each chip. Now, I will pause to complain: this additional step was meant to keep the chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of the cake because presumably the flour will cling to the batter and keep the chips afloat. I have encountered such a step before in baking, so the Baked dudes did not just include this to make my life harder and drive me to the rum bottle. Apologies for ruining the suspense, but I must reveal that in the final result virtually all the chocolate was at the bottom of the cake. Perhaps sinkage would have been worse had I not coated the chips. Either way, having religiously followed this recipe, I was more than a little perplexed at the apparent failure of this extra measure.

But I digress.

In a larger bowl, give the eggs a quick whisk, then add the sugars, salt, b. soda, b. powder and cinnamon (or no cinnamon). Fold in the oatmeal. If the oats are not quite cool yet (they are supposed to sit for 25-30 minutes but who has that kind of patience), add them slowly so as to temper the eggie batter (I made this step up, and I also think tempering mixtures in general is kind of b.s., but eh, I don't think it hurt in this case. Or did it?). Lastly, stir in the drunken chocolate chips.

The recipe had me pour the batter into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan, but I think a loaf pan would have yielded a preferable cake. After consulting yesterday with foodie Victoria, I am convinced that this would have drastically improved the cake.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. Let the cake cool (or don't, and endure mushiness and a burned mouth), then cut up and serve to your friends and work compadres.

Final note: I am somewhat ashamed to share this, but my baker's integrity obliges me to. The original recipe includes a cream cheese frosting (yes, still in the breakfast section. I might have to move to Brooklyn to marry these boys). Being me (lazy and blasé), I did not produce a cream cheese frosting to accompany the cake. There is no doubt in my mind that aforementioned frosting would have exponentially bettered the cake (as cream cheese frosting does with everything it touches). Lesson learned (and deeply embedded in my head).