Pumpkin Oat Molasses Cake

Recipe by Tania Burr

This is the perfect fall cake! It has lots of spices and pumpkin, but it's not too sweet. This recipe is adapted from Crosby’s Fancy Molasses.

1¾ cups all-purpose flour
⅓ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
⅓ cup oil or melted butter
⅓ cup Molasses
¼ cup honey or maple syrup
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin purée
¼ cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping (optional but delicious) 
¼ cup butter
2 Tbsp. maple syrup or honey
½ cup oats
1.5 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup chocolate chips
¼ cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 F. Prepare 9 x 13 pan by greasing it lightly. In a large bowl stir together the flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices. If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, substitute the following: ½ tsp. ground ginger, ¼ tsp. nutmeg, ¼ tsp. allspice. In a medium bowl whisk the oil, molasses and honey or maple syrup. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix in the pumpkin purée, milk and vanilla. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and stir just until combined. Spoon batter into pan. Prepare topping by melting butter in a small bowl. Add maple syrup or honey. Mix in the oats and cinnamon until well combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. Should be crumbly.  Sprinkle topping evenly over the cake. If you don’t want the fancy topping, you can fold the chocolate chips into the batter and simple sprinkle a few oats and some cinnamon over the cake. Bake at 325 F for about 45 minutes. Test cake to ensure it is done by inserting a toothpick in the middle. If it comes out wet, bake for 5 more minutes. Repeat until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool. Serve with fresh whipped cream.