This gluten-free oatmeal cake recipe is soft, moist, and packed with warm cinnamon flavor. Made with soaked oats and topped with a rich cinnamon cream cheese frosting, this old-fashioned oatmeal cake tastes like something straight out of grandma's kitchen-but with a gluten-free twist. If you're looking for an easy oatmeal cake recipe that works for birthdays, holidays, or everyday dessert, this one is guaranteed to become a favorite.
This is a gluten-free cake that you'll actually want to eat.
It's ridiculous how tasty it is.
It's definitely not another sad, dry, gluten-free cake that mimics the flavors of sawdust and cardboard. No mama. This cake is ridiculously divine, ridiculously hard to just eat one slice of so you'll eat three instead, and ridiculously perfect.
If you share it with others, expect to be asked to make it for the next bazillion birthday parties.
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🎂 What Is an Oatmeal Cake?
Yep, it's a cake...made with oatmeal.
But it's magical oatmeal 💫 because with just a few other ingredients we're turning our lumpy oatmeal-in-a-bowl into something that tastes like a cake from a high-end dessert shop.
Surprisingly (at least to me), oatmeal cake has been around for aaaaages. Like your grandma's grandmother probably had a grandma who made it way back when. This recipe came to me from a scenario like that but then I decided to add my own riff to this cake's long history by making it gluten-free with a cinnamon-ey flair and decadent cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It's not cancel culture if you're just making it better right?
🌟 Why You'll Love This Oatmeal Cake
- Super moist texture thanks to soaked oats
- Warm cinnamon flavor in both the cake and frosting
- Easy gluten-free dessert that tastes like a classic bakery cake
- Perfect for holidays or family gatherings
- Rich cinnamon cream cheese frosting takes it over the top
🛒 Ingredients & Suggestions
- Hot water: Make it boiling hot. This is how we'll soften those oats.
- Gluten-free quick cooking oats: Quick-cooking oats are the way to go in order to get that perfect crumb.
- Unsalted butter: Always the way to go so you can control the salt without the salt controlling your food.
- Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Flour: The ingredient make-up and proportions of every gluten-free flour you'll find on the grocery store shelves are nowhere close to being similar to each other. This is the gluten-free flour I suggest for this cake. If you opt to try a different brand, it's at your own cake's risk.
For a full list of ingredients and quantities see the recipe card at the end of this post.
🔪 Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1: Add hot, boiling water and quick cooking oats to a large bowl and let it sit for 20 minutes or so.
Step 2: After the oats have soaked, it's time to transform them from plain oatmeal to something amazing. With an electric mixer, add in butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla to start the magic.
Step 3: Add in a couple of beaten eggs.
Step 4: In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients: gluten-free flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
Step 5: Add the dry ingredients to the wet, but probably a little at a time so that the flour doesn't poof up into your face when you turn on the electric mixer.
Step 6: Grease and line two 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper. To get those parchment paper circles set the cake pans on the parchment paper, trace the bottom, and cut out with scissors.
Step 7: Divide the cake batter evenly between the two cake pans.
Step 8: Bake until golden and perfectly spongey. Allow the cake layers to rest in their pans for several minutes. Then gently remove cakes from their pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting and decorating.
👩🍳 Recipe Tips
- For perfect, spreadable frosting make sure the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature prior to blending. This will ensure that you don't end up with little clumps of butter and cream cheese in your frosting.
- Do not frost a warm cake. Allow the cake layers to completely cool to room temperature prior to frosting the cake so that you don't end up with sloppy, melted frosting.
- How to frost a layer cake: I prefer to leave both of my cake rounds intact versus slicing off their rounded tops to make them flat. So to make my cake still look flat once finished, I place the first cake layer top-side-up on the cake plate. Once I frost the top of that layer, I place the second cake layer top-side-down on the first cake. Then I just fill in the space between the layers with more frosting and continue frosting until the sides and top of the cake are covered completely and evenly with frosting. There are definitely other 'professional' methods to frosting a layer cake which can be found with a quick Google search if you desire.
- To prevent your bottom cake layer from sliding on the cake plate when frosting just add a dollop of frosting to the center of the cake plate before laying the first cake layer down.
- If you need to refrigerate your cake prior to serving, make sure to remove it from the refrigerator about an hour beforehand. Room temperature cake is usually more enjoyable to eat than cold cake straight from the refrigerator.
Oatmeal Cake Variations
You can easily customize this cake depending on what flavors you love.
• Old-Fashioned Oatmeal Cake - top with a coconut pecan frosting instead of the cinnamon cream cheese frosting
• Nutty Oatmeal Cake - add chopped walnuts or pecans to the batter
• Maple Cream Cheese Frosting - swap vanilla for maple extract
• Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cake - fold ½ cup chocolate chips into the batter
💭 Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you can. It will change the texture of the cake slightly but it will still be delicious.
A coconut pecan frosting, like what would typically be used on a German chocolate cake, is a great substitute for the cinnamon cream cheese frosting in this recipe.
Nope, this cake (even with its cream cheese frosting) will be absolutely fine hanging out on the counter for 2-3 days as long as your house stays around 70 degrees or cooler. Just cover it with a cake dome or aluminum foil. If refrigerated, the cake will typically keep for 5-6 days.
Yes! Slice it into individual portions and store in freezer-safe containers. When you're ready to eat a slice of cake, just set the cake out at room temperature to thaw for 20-30 minutes prior to eating.
Here's something funny (at least to me). If you Google oatmeal cake, there are a bunch of people claiming that the recipe was their grandma's recipe, with hand-scripted recipe cards to prove it (there were no computers back then so of course they wrote it on a recipe card). Now unless everyone had the same grandma, I'm calling malarkey on that.
So here's the real question. Who was the OG ('original grandma') that all the grandmas took the recipe from? Because that grandma was definitely the original gangsta when she figured out how to transform oatmeal into a decadent cake.
Nice work g-ma. ♡
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Did You Make This Recipe?
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📖 Printable Recipe Card
Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Oatmeal Cake
- 1 cup (106 g) gluten-free quick cooking oats
- 1 ¼ cup (303 g) boiling water
- ½ cup (112 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup (220 g) white sugar
- 1 cup (180 g) brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs beaten
- 1 ⅓ cup (225 g) Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup (112 g) unsalted butter room temperature
- 8 ounces (226 g) full-fat cream cheese room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 cups (480 g) powdered sugar
Optional topping decorations
- sprinkle of cinnamon
- cinnamon sticks
Instructions
Oatmeal Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, grease the sides, and set aside.
- Place oats in a large mixing bowl. Pour boiling water over oats and let stand for 20 minutes.
- After oats have soaked, add butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla to the oats and mix until combined with an electric mixer (or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment).
- Add eggs to the oat mixture and mix until combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together gluten-free flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Then add to oat mixture and mix well.
- Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 25 minutes or until light golden brown and a knife inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean. Allow the cake layers to rest in their pans for several minutes. Then gently remove cakes from their pans and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- With an electric hand mixer (or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment), cream the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the vanilla extract, cinnamon, and powdered sugar (just one cup at a time so you don't have a powdered sugar explosion when you turn on the mixer) and whip to combine, about 1 minute more.
Cake Assembly
- Place the first cake layer on a plate and top with a large dollop of frosting. Spread the frosting across the top of the cake evenly. Add the second cake layer and top with frosting. Finish by frosting the outside of the cake with the remaining frosting.
- If you'd like, decorate the top of your cake with a sprinkling of cinnamon and top with an arrangement of cinnamon sticks. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information should be considered an estimate only; please consult a registered dietician, nutritionist, or physician for specific health-related questions.
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Steve says
Can this be made as cupcakes? Would appreciate suggestions on altered baking time if possible.
Shannon Emery says
Hi Steve, this cake definitely be made into cupcakes. I haven’t made it as cupcakes yet myself but since cupcakes bake much faster because they’re smaller I would expect them to need about 15-25 minutes total to bake, but start checking them around 15-18 minutes. They’re done when a toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Also, be sure to fill the cupcake liners no more than 2/3 full so that they don’t overflow. I’d love to hear how your cupcakes turn out!
Mishara says
I am unable to eat eggs. Do you think flax eggs or applesauce would work? Any other suggestions?
Shannon Emery says
I haven’t tested egg substitutes in this recipe yet, so I don’t want to give a recommendation I can’t personally stand behind. That said, if I were to test it, I’d likely start with a flax egg (2 tablespoons ground flaxseed mixed with 5 tablespoons water, allowed to thicken before adding). I can’t guarantee the results since I haven’t tested this myself, but if you try it, please come back and share how it worked—I’d love to hear!
Bethany Riddle says
we aren't particularly gluten free and I was wondering if I could replace the gluten free flour with whole wheat flour? do you have any measurement adjustments if I do so? like more liquids and less flour?
Shannon Emery says
Hi Bethany, thanks so much for your question! I’ve been gluten-intolerant for over a decade, so I don’t test any of my recipes with flours that contain gluten. Because different flours behave quite differently in baking, I’m not comfortable recommending a substitution that I haven’t personally tested. If you do try it with whole wheat flour, I’d love to hear how it turns out!
Jo says
I made this cake and added raisins for an oatmeal raisin cookie lovers birthday, it was absolutely delicious! Super moist and chewy, this was easy to make and everyone loved it. The only other difference I made was to double the cinnamon in the frosting to a heaping teaspoon. This is a keeper, thank you!
Shannon Emery says
I'm so happy to hear that you enjoyed it! Adding raisins is a fantastic idea too!
Jo says
Hello, do you have any times or tips for converting this into a three layer, 6 inch cake? Thank you!
Shannon Emery says
Hi Jo, thanks for your question. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I have never tried making this cake into a 3-layer cake so I can't give you specifics on converting it. However, the temperature it is baked at should not change, that will always remain the same. Also, cakes made in smaller pans will often take longer to bake so I would just keep a close eye on it to avoid overbaking it. Let me know how it goes!