Make a cake with oatmeal left over from breakfast! This chocolate oatmeal cake turns out fudgy, moist, and delicious using leftover oatmeal and pantry staples.
We all know that eating leftovers is a great way to save money, right? But sometimes eating leftovers is just boring.
Or unappetizing…like the case of leftover oatmeal.
I recently learned how to make Leftover Oatmeal Cakes – thick slices of oatmeal that are pan-fried in butter and drizzled with syrup. They’re crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and so delicious you never would have thought leftover oatmeal could taste so good.
Hold on to your hats, friends! Your oatmeal-making days are about to multiply because I have another great way to enjoy leftover oatmeal.
I had to restrain myself from licking my fingers and forks and plates and picking at crumbs while taking the photos for this blog post because OH MY GOODNESS, this chocolate cake with oatmeal is like cake meets brownie meets there’s no way there’s leftover oatmeal in this because it’s too stinkin’ good!
Yep. That about sums it up.
WHY MAKE LEFTOVER OATMEAL CAKE
So why make leftover oatmeal cake? Aside from being super yummy, it’s also:
- Made with natural sweeteners. As we continue to quit processed sugar including brown sugar, I’ve shifted some of my baking to using honey and maple syrup instead. Unless you’re truly making a cake – like you would with Homemade Yellow Cake Mix or Homemade Chocolate Cake Mix – you can get away without using granulated sugar.
- A great way to prevent food waste. Even if your people aren’t excited about leftover oatmeal, they’re probably excited about cake!
- Frugal. Leftover oatmeal plus pantry staple ingredients (and plenty of substitution options) means you won’t need to run to the store to make this oatmeal cake.
- Easy! Mix up the cake batter, spread it in the pan, and bake.
Pretty soon you’ll have kids requesting oatmeal for breakfast just so there’s a chance to have cake the next day…
CHOCOLATE OATMEAL CAKE RECIPE INGREDIENTS
This chocolate oatmeal cake recipe includes plenty of ingredients you’d expect to find in a cake.
- Melted coconut oil. Melted unsalted butter works too.
- Honey + maple syrup. You can use one or the other, or both. I like to use both because then neither flavor really stands out in the end.
- Yogurt. You can substitute buttermilk if you have some leftover from another recipe and don’t know what to do with it, or try kefir.
- Eggs. A flax egg substitute will work in this recipe just fine.
- Vanilla extract. Here’s how you can make your own.
- Extra thick leftover oatmeal. See the note below if you don’t have leftover oatmeal, or your oatmeal is still runny.
- Whole wheat flour. You can also use einkorn flour or all-purpose flour, if that’s what you have on hand, or gluten-free flour for a gluten free oatmeal cake (assuming your oats are gluten free as well).
- Salt. Not all salts are made the same! I love Ava Jane’s Kitchen because it doesn’t have microplastics (gross, right?) and it’s SO GOOD! Plus, you can get a free 8oz. bag of sea salt (just pay shipping and handling!).
- Baking soda. This is what gives the oat cake a bit of lift, so it isn’t just a dense blob of oatmeal.
- Cocoa powder + chocolate chips. This is leftover CHOCOLATE oatmeal cake, after all.
LEFTOVER OATMEAL FOR CHOCOLATE OAT CAKE
- You want THICK leftover oatmeal. Fresh oatmeal tends to be soupy, and the texture isn’t consistent. Leftover oatmeal is crazy thick, and that’s what you want for this recipe. You can use oatmeal made from old fashioned oats or quick oats.
- Add oat flour. If you absolutely cannot wait to make chocolate cake with oatmeal and you don’t have leftover oatmeal: make oatmeal as you normally would, and then stir in oat flour. I recommend adding 2 tablespoons at a time until your oatmeal is very, very, very thick.
- My favorite oatmeal methods. I make Instant Pot Oatmeal and Oatmeal in a Slow Cooker.
HOW TO MAKE CAKE WITH OATMEAL
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8×8 or 9×9 square baking dish. Set aside.
Step 2. Combine wet ingredients – coconut oil, honey, maple syrup, yogurt, egg, and vanilla extract – in a large bowl and whisk well to combine.
Step 3. Add leftover oatmeal to the wet mixture and whisk well to combine.
Step 4. Add the remaining dry ingredients and chocolate chips and stir well. The batter will be thick.
Step 5. Pour into the prepared baking dish and use a spatula to make the surface mostly smooth.
Step 6. Bake the cake with oatmeal for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean.
Store leftover cake with oatmeal in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months. I recommend wrapping individual slices in plastic wrap for the freezer so it’s easy to grab what you need.
CHOCOLATE OAT CAKE RECIPE TIPS
- You can make thin leftover oatmeal thicker by adding oat flour. Add 2 tablespoons at a time until the oatmeal is so thick you’d have to bite into it and chew it.
- I like to bake mine for 25 minutes for a gooier oat cake, like a fudgy brownie texture. If you want a more cake-like texture, bake for 30 minutes.
- A brown sugar or cream cheese frosting makes it dessert!
- If you want to double the recipe, I suggest using two 8×8 pans rather than trying to fit the cake with oatmeal in one larger pan.
CAKE WITH OATMEAL FAQS
Can you make a different flavored cake with oatmeal?
I personally love chocolate, so I stick with the original chocolate oatmeal cake recipe. However, readers have had some success with experimenting and making cinnamon pumpkin oatmeal cake, peanut butter banana cake, or good old fashioned oatmeal cake without cocoa. Any of them can be topped with nuts like pecans and walnuts!
Can you bake with oatmeal instead of flour?
Oatmeal doesn’t have the natural lift in it that flour does, so without any flour, you’ll end up with a pretty dense block of baked oatmeal. Adding flour to this oatmeal cake recipe makes for a soft, cake-like texture.
MORE YUMMY CAKE RECIPES
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake
- Chocolate Brownie Cake
- One Bowl Pumpkin Cake
- Homemade Yellow Cake Mix
- Strawberry Poke Cake
- Homemade Lemon Cake
- Overnight Einkorn Coffee Cake
Fight Inflation Workshop!
Sign up for my FREE Fight Inflation Workshop and learn simple strategies to save money, even with rising food costs!WATCH HOW TO MAKE LEFTOVER OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CAKE
Leftover Oatmeal Chocolate Cake
Make a cake with oatmeal left over from breakfast! This chocolate oatmeal cake turns out fudgy, moist, and delicious using leftover oatmeal and pantry staples.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 9 1x
- Category: Desserts
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ½ cup melted coconut oil (or melted butter)
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup yogurt (or buttermilk)
- 1 egg (or flax egg)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup extra thick leftover oatmeal (not runny)*
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (or all-purpose)
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 3 Tbsp cocoa powder
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8×8 or 9×9 square baking dish. Set aside.
- Combine wet ingredients – coconut oil, honey, maple syrup, yogurt, egg, and vanilla extract – in a large bowl and whisk well to combine.
- Add leftover oatmeal and whisk well to combine.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and chocolate chips and stir well. The batter will be thick.
- Pour into the prepared baking dish and use a spatula to make the surface mostly smooth.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes**, or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean.
Notes
* You can make thin leftover oatmeal thicker by adding oat flour. Add 2 tablespoons at a time until the oatmeal is so thick you’d have to bite into it and chew it.
** I like to bake mine for 25 minutes for a gooier cake, similar to a brownie. If you want a more cake-like texture, bake for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 400
I used 1/4 C Cardamom Coconut Mousse in place of yogurt/buttermilk. Surprise combo but it worked! Oatmeal had chia sees, cranberries, currants & pecans. This resulted in mini random texture events. I feel it would have been better with just the oatmeal. I used Rice Flour instead of whole wheat/All Purpose as I am gluten free. I used 1/4 C Lily’s Milk Chocolate Style Baking Chips and 1/8 C Lily’s dark Chocolate Baking Chips as I am trying to reduce my sugar consumption. Honestly I was thrilled with the outcome of this cake. It was light, moist, tender, not grainy and it really dazzled with the Cardamom Coconut Mousse as frosting. Thank you so much for this exciting find!
Found this recipe while travelling in our caravan around South Australia. Had leftover porridge, cream that needed using that I made into buttermilk(ish) and honey that I needed to use before we headed into Western Australia. Perfect. And it was perfect. Yumm
My husband also tested positive for Covid so we are isolating in our van!!
Sure brightened up our day xx
Thank you for sharing, Lynne!!!
What an awesome recipe! I can’t wait to try this as I seem forever destined to
Always have made too much oatmeal!! I applaud you for quitting sugar! Our family is always striving towards this but it truly is a struggle in the culture today. I wanted to give you some food for thought! Do with it what you will.😊 Have you considered getting a grain mill and milling your own wheat? We’ve done this for several years and it’s been such a fun and yummy adventure! One resource for you might be Sue Becker with Breadbeckers on Youtube. Thank you for the recipe!
Great recipe. I used 2T oil and 80 grams of very ripe banana. Did not use sour cream. Added 1tsp vinegar. Used Hershey chocolate syrup instead of the honey and maple syrup. Great texture. Baked as cupcakes about 22 minutes.
Love it! Not too sweet and super moist, with a very pleasing crumb. Perfect for my leftover steel cut oats.
question – have you ever doubled the recipe? If so, what size pan did you use?
I’m wanting to make this cake, with icing for a party of 14.
Hi Eileen,
You can mix the ingredients together the same doubles but we recommend using 2 8×8 or 9×9 dishes. It may not bake evenly in another sized pan. 🙂
I love this recipe, we make it all the time, but I did a variation- Peanut Butter Banana! I added peanut flour for the cocoa and subbed a banana for half the oil and it turned out great. Thanks for all the awesomeness going on over here at DWTC!
Made this into a pumpkin chocolate chip cake! Subbed yogurt and 1/2 the oil for 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, changed the 3 TBSP cocoa to flour and added 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. So great, thanks again for the recipe!
Based on your comment I reduced the oil to 2T and the rest banana. Worked well
Could you use Einkorn flour? I’m not a fan of regular wheat.
Absolutely!
I was searching for recipes that used leftover porridge and found so many uses for it! Love this recipe and it freezes well. I cut up into even smaller slices and froze most of it. It’s delicious to grab a slice then zap in microwave for 20-25 seconds it reminds me of self saucing pudding as it’s warm and gooey. The texture is amazing and I will always make chocolate cake this way now. So damn good.. 🙂
Came out amazing. I doubled the recipe, used melted butter, and milk that was going sour instead of buttermilk. I bake with whole wheat flour a lot lately and one big tip I learned is to let the batter sit for a while before baking it. The whole wheat takes longer to soak up the moisture, so I always put everything together first and then set the oven to preheat. That usually gives the batter enough time. I also always end up adding more milk to my batter. It’s always way crazy thick when I follow these kinds of recipes, but I add in extra milk (in this case, the sour milk) till it’s more the usual consistency and it comes out great. Not to mention saves my arms in the stirring. Thrilled to find this recipe!
Really lovely cake, we had cinnamon in the porridge too and I used coconut oil instead of butter and it was delicious. Just like a brownie, but better as only good ingredients in it! Thanks.
You’re very welcome, Katherine!
This was delicious. My eight, three, one year olds loved it. I didn’t have yogurt or buttermilk so I Substituted it for with avocado.
Ooh, great substitution idea, Laura! I’m so glad your kids loved it! ♥
Great minds think alike 🙂 My flavors were a bit off on last creative oatmeal and wanted to change up leftovers for my girls after 2 mornings of it. So chocolate makes most things better, added some egg, baking powder…and fed them cake for breakfast 😉
Nice!
Happened upon this recipe when searching for ideas to use my leftover oatmeal, made from steel-cut (Irish) oats. Used a chia seed “egg”, coconut oil, dark chocolate baking bits, yogurt, and 50/50 graham wheat/all-purpose flour, but I’m convinced any of the options given would be equally satisfying. Texture was light but moist, with the flavor of a dense brownie, and “nutty” – I believe from the oatmeal. Was deliciously addicting; decadent but not sinfully so. It took great discipline to not eat the entire pan right out of the oven. I highly recommend slightly warming leftovers for a few seconds in the microwave before eating, as the warmth brings out the chocolate flavor beautifully and makes it a “melt in your mouth” experience. Though not needed, a spot of whipped cream or small scoop of vanilla or mint ice cream on the warm cake would class it up beautifully.
Oh Karen, mint ice cream or whipped cream?! You just took leftover oatmeal and made a decadent DESSERT!! ♥
Made this last night. My leftover oatmeal had cinnamon and raisins already stirred in from the morning’s breakfast, so raisins and all went in. The cake turned out ridiculously delicious and moist! Asked my hubby his opinion before I revealed the secret ingredient. He loved it! Might have to make a double batch of oatmeal tomorrow morning specifically to have leftovers for another cake. Super good and we can tell ourselves, with the inclusion of oatmeal, that it’s “healthy!”
I love that you added the leftover oatmeal, spices and raisins and all! I bet that made for a delicious cake, and high fives for the husband loving it too!!
I used coconut oil but when the egg, maple syrup and buttermilk were added, the oil hardened. I am having a terrible time getting this to loosen up. I don’t want to throw all this out.
It shouldn’t make too much of a difference in the end Judith. Mix it as best as you can and bake. Next time, make sure your ingredients are room temperature and add the coconut oil last. That will help slow the hardening of the oil!
Whoops! Think I posted this here instead of on oatmeal recipe-sorry…
No worries! Glad you liked it Kimmy!
I just made this in my 2 qt electric pressure cooker & it turned out awesome!! Didn’t have to add milk, it was naturally creamy. My hubby, Mr Picky, loved it too! We really like oatmeal but don’t have it much cuz i hate having to stand there & stir. I told hubby were going to be eating a lot more oatmeal this winter!! Lol…
Just wanted to tell you how much I love this recipe! I make it at least once a week, usually before bed so we can have it in the morning. I use my own gluten free flour blend and like to switch things up. Recently I added fresh cranberries along with the dark chocolate- yum! I have another batch in the oven with mashed banana, pecans, and chocolate chips. Since we’re a family of six we typically polish off the whole pan; I’ve been known to double the recipe.