Baked Oats Breakfast Cake

Heidrun Kubart
by Heidrun Kubart
1 Baked Oats
1 hr

Start your day right – with these vegan baked oats that are so tasty, fluffy, sweet, moist, and soft that make you feel like you are enjoying a cake for breakfast. They are actually like baked oatmeal, but much finer, more of an “oat flour cake”. The best thing is, that these baked oats only taste like cake but are actually dairy-free, sugar-free, and can be made gluten-free! True to the motto “the more you eat, the better” – no joke! Let me prove to you with this recipe, that healthy food with so many “restrictions” can still be very delicious.


Oats can be baked?!


Oh yes, they can! Admittedly, baked oatmeal – that sounds pretty dry at first. But here the opposite is the case, because these baked oats taste so good, just like a dessert. Hellooo! Dessert for breakfast, and with the best of conscience! Just like some of the many millet porridge variations, but with a much more sinful bite and taste.

Baked oats are actually something like porridge (oatmeal), but baked. Therefore, often referred to as baked oatmeal, i.e. baked porridge, which is called oatmeal in the USA. Baked porridge is probably not a common name, even in England. In any case, baked oats are not prepared with oats as they are (no matter if old-fashioned/rolled-oats or quick-cooking oats) but with oats ground into oat flour.

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs

A little Baked Oats nerd talk


This type of preparation is known from Tiktok, which is why this (or a quite similar) dish is also called Tiktok Blended Baked Oats. But for the Tiktok baked oats the ingredients are all mixed together in the blender. Great thing. But that doesn’t work with this recipe because I use much less liquid, but they become more of a cake-style than those from Tiktok.

Ultimately, these baked oats are actually nothing more than a breakfast cake, which is usually healthy, or at least healthier than a regular cake. In any case, this baked oats breakfast cake is very healthy – and delicious.

The whole family loves this sugar-free cake. Not only adults and children or toddlers, but even babies can nibble on it thanks to the healthy ingredients. It is also the perfect baked oats birthday cake for a baby’s first birthday (or second, or…).

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs
Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs

Oats, and what else?


As I already told you enthused, baked oats are not only very tasty, but also very healthy. And also quite filling! Only the best ingredients are found in it: oats (obviously), walnuts, bananas, tahini, dates, plant-based milk (I always use oat milk), cacao nibs, cinnamon, salt and some baking powder (ok, we can argue that the baking powder might not be healthy, but probably not unhealthy either. It is necessary that the baked oats can rise like a cake).

Cacao nibs are not only delicious and healthy, but also slightly crunchy, I think they go really well with these baked oats and have only been part of them for a few weeks. Since it is always important to me to cook (relatively) inexpensively, I buy them online in larger packs. This makes them a lot more affordable!

The ingredients make the baked oats cake a sugar-free treat. These baked oats are also oil-free – if you skip the glaze and use a baking pan that does not require oil. And gluten-free – when you’re baking with gluten-free oats that haven’t been “contaminated” with gluten-containing grains during cultivation and in the supply chain. And as the baked oats are vegan they are also without eggs or milk. Plus, this goodie is high in protein too, thanks to oats and tahini.

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs

Space for your ideas


Another great thing about baked oats is that they’re very flexible. Just like I recently started adding cacao nibs to the batter, the possibilities are endless. For example, if you want to bake the whole thing with even more protein, you could use peanut butter instead of tahini. And maybe add some protein powder.

Variants with berries (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries) or other fruits such as nectarines or mangoes (the latter tastes delicious together with coconut chips as an additional ingredient, I’ve tried that combination already a few times) are also ideal. If you use apples, don’t skimp on the cinnamon and make baked oats in the style of apple-cinnamon-rolls. By the way, you can also exchange the cinnamon for gingerbread spice or pumpkin pie spice, which gives the whole thing a wintry touch.

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar Free Oat Flour Cake
Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs

An additional good morning “push” with coffee is also wonderful. The coffee further brings out the chocolate taste even more, which becomes particularly interesting if you also add some cocoa powder to the batter itself, a kind of baked oats brownies, so to speak. Speaking of chocolate, if it doesn’t have to be overly healthy, you could also press larger chunks of chocolate into the batter before baking, for a lava cake-style liquid core.

And and and. I have a few ideas that I want to work on. Gradually they should find their way here.

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar Free Oat Flour Cake

How to make and store Baked Oats


The preparation of baked oats is very easy and quick, only the baking time takes time. If you are also making the cake with a glaze, then there is also the waiting time until the cake has cooled, and the glaze has (slightly) set.

Basically, you preheat the oven with top/bottom heat, chop and mix the ingredients in your Food Processor, put the whole thing in a baking dish and bake it in the oven at 180 C (350 F) for approx. 45 minutes when using a flat casserole dish, like you would use for brownies, or for approx. 60 minutes in a loaf pan, like I use.

As briefly described at the beginning, I have already tried once (actually twice, because I absolutely had to know…) to put all the ingredients in the blender and mix them at once. But that didn’t work for me, because it would need a lot more liquid.

But what could work is to prepare the baked oats without a blender or food processor. Namely, by using oat flour and ground nuts, mashed bananas (use a fork), and date paste instead of dates. All information is subject to change.

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs

When the baked oats are baked and cooled, store them in a Tupperware container in the fridge. So far they have always kept fresh for a few days, at least up to five (I never kept them longer). But then they are obviously cold and also hard.

So either take a piece out of the fridge in good time or reheat it briefly, 5-7 seconds in the microwave is enough. Or, this is how I do it, I put the piece to be reheated on the bun baking rack of my toaster for a minute or two.

In any case, I wish you a lot of fun baking it, and I hope that you like this vegan baked oats breakfast cake at least as much as I do.

Vegan Baked Oats: Sugar-Free Oat Flour Cake with Chocolate Glaze and Cacao Nibs

Did you try this recipe?

I would love to see the result. Please do not forget to tag me on Instagram: @plantbased.redhead.cooks


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Recipe details
  • 1  Baked Oats
  • Prep time: 10 Minutes Cook time: 50 Minutes Total time: 1 hr
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Ingredients
Baked Oats
  • 1 cup walnuts
  • 2 cups of oats
  • 2 bananas
  • 3 tbsp tahini
  • 7 dates
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 cup vegan milk, room temperature
  • 4 tbsp cocoa nibs - add 1 tbsp if you also want to decorate your cake with them
  • if necessary, 1 tsp (coconut) oil for the baking pan
Chocolate Glaze
  • 8 dates
  • 4 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 3 tbsp (coconut) oil
  • 4 tbsp (40 ml or 1.35 oz) water or vegan milk
Instructions
Baked Oats
Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
In the food processor, grind the oats and nuts until fine (they don't have to be superfine like flour) and put them in a bowl.
Then chop and combine the bananas, tahini, dates, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in the food processor.
Add this mass, together with vegan milk and cocoa nibs, to the ground oats and nuts, and stir.
Pour the batter into a casserole/brownie pan or loaf pan. Depending on the baking pan, spread a teaspoon of oil if necessary.
Bake the baked oats at 180 C degrees (350 F) top/bottom heat for approx. 45 minutes in a casserole dish or for approx. 60 minutes in a loaf tin.
At the end of the baking time (toothpick test!) open the oven door and let the cake cool down a bit.
After the baked oats have cooled down for about 15 min., you can place a (long) plate onto the baking dish, and turn it around so that the cake slides onto the plate. There you let it cool down further.
Chocolate Glaze
Mix all the ingredients in the food processor.
Spread the frosting around and on top of the cooled baked oats breakfast cake. The icing will become quite firm over time, especially in the fridge.
Optional: If you want to add cocoa nibs on top, then add them immediately after applying the glaze.
Tips
  • So far I have only ever prepared the chocolate glaze with coconut oil, except once, when I dared to try rapeseed oil. That worked too, but somehow the coconut oil made it firmer, so I had the feeling that everything held together better.
  • A simple and cheap thing but so helpful: If you don't have a reasonable and flexible spatula, please buy one! I don't know why I waited so long to do this. This piece is great for getting whatever you need out of the food processor quickly and easily without the problem, that too much stays inside, sticking to the walls. I also use it to spread the chocolate icing.
Heidrun Kubart
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Comments
  • Rosalee Rosalee on Nov 30, 2022


    THANK YOU

    I am wheat, dairy and egg intolerant (on a scale of 0-4 I test 3 on all of them)

    I have been living on pea/rice protein powder and coffee with

    oatmilk for breakfast

    THIS is what I have been waiting for!!!!

    • Heidrun Kubart Heidrun Kubart on Dec 25, 2022

      Thank YOU Rosalee for your comment :-)

      I could live on coffee with oatmilk, but when it comes to pea/rice protein powder, I would be quite hungry :-P If you have these three intolerances, then gluten-free vegan recipes are perfect for you. There are so many delicious things to discover - but with this breakfast cake, you already found a good one. ;-) Glad I could help! Enjoy it.

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