Oatmeal Fruit & Nut Cake (Vegan Gluten-free Tea Loaf)

How do you take your oats? Cold with fruit and milk? Oatmeal? Baked oats? Well maybe I can tempt you with something even better. Oatmeal loaf cake that's filled with sweet chewy dried fruit and crunchy nuts, topped with a thick layer of strawberry frosting. Now that's the kind of breakfast that can get me out of bed.

In celebration of Earth Month - April, I created this recipe using organic, sprouted oats from One Degree Organics. For sure there's no need to blab on about why choosing organic food is good for our health (simply put, no poison used in the process of making the stuff you put in your body, you get it), but let's take a second to consider the what else does choosing organic food benefit. That includes but not limited to our soil, our water, and even the animals living near the farm land, all of which would not be contaminated or poisoned when our food is being produced sustainably and organically.

Moving on to the deliciousness part. This oat fruit cake is moist, nutty, and has just the right amount of sweetness. And pro tip, it's even better the next day! Maybe it's because the sweetness and juiciness from all the dried fruit inside had perfectly blended in with the rest of the cake overnight and as a result, making each bite extra flavorful and moist.

Here are more yummy oatmeal recipes that will brighten up your mornings: Oatmeal Tiramisu, Oat Mug Cake.

If you make this recipe I'd love to hear your feedbacks! You can also find me on Instagram @veganbunnychef.

INGREDIENTS:

2 1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup apple sauce, I made my own using this recipe

1 1/2 cup dried fruit, I used dried blueberries, figs, and raisons

1/2 cup chopped nuts, I used pecans

3 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoon melted coconut oil

2 tablespoon maple syrup

1 cup water

TO MAKE:

- Preheat the oven to 350°F, grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. For reference, my loaf pan is 8.5'' x 4.4'' x 2.7'';

- Blend the oats till they become a fine powder, sift and whisk together with baking soda and cinnamon;

- In a separate bowl, mix together the apple sauce, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, mayple syrup and water, you can add more syrup for more sweetness but I'd say the dried fruit makes the cake quite sweet enough;

- Pour the wet into dry, and stir till just combined, DO NOT OVER STIR;

- Roughly chop all the dried fruit and nuts, fold into the batter;

- Transfer the batter into your prepped loaf pan, bake for 50 - 60 minutes, do a toothpick test, it should come out clean;

- Let it cool down and add your preferred frosting (optional), enjoy!

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