Carlo's Bakery

Anyone who loves to bake knows who Buddy Valastro is. Or maybe it's just us. We love to bake and so we watch any baking show that we can. Well, his show, Cake Boss, is one that we always watch. We have been watching it for a couple years and we really wanted to visit his bakery. His bakery is Hoboken, NJ and is about 8.5 hours from us :(

Well, this summer we finally got to visit! Yay! We were so excited, but we expected to have to wait in line for hours, like the website says is possible (which we were not excited to do!). Fortunately though, we didn't have to wait for hours, maybe only an hour and a half, which was great!

When you get into the bakery it's so crowded, but it's a cute shop. We went on our birthday, so we got an 8 in.  chocolate cake with fudge frosting. They also wrote "Happy Birthday" on it for us. Not only did we get that, but we also bought a lobster tail (the pastry kind, of course), biscotti, and a bag of assorted cookies. Everything was really good, but the cake was the favorite.

Above is a picture of us in front of Carlo's!

So, we didn't get to the bakery until about 6 p.m. and by the time we left the bakery it was around 7:30, and we didn't leave Hoboken until around 8, but we couldn't eat the cake until we got to the hotel (which was a 2.5 hr drive). Well, we got stuck in traffic because of a semi accident, so we didn't get to eat the cake until about midnight. Everyone was so tired, but we just had to eat the cake, so we ate cake and crashed!

Oatmeal Cake with Coconut Pecan Topping

This cake is superb. The topping is the best part, it doesn't even need a cake, simply a spoon would be great! But, eating it with the cake is just as great. 

Oatmeal cake might sound weird but it is actually good, especially with this topping. If you don't like it or don't want to try it (though you should, because its good) we think that the topping would be even better on some brownies!

This is just a closer up picture of the cake:

 From this view you can see that the cake is moist and some of the topping absorbed into the cake:

• 1/2 cup quick cooking oatmeal

• 3/4 cups boiling water

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 2/3 cups flour

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1 egg

• 1/4 cup of butter

Mix the oatmeal with the boiling water, stir and cover. Mix the remaining ingredients then stir in the oatmeal mixture. Grease and flour a 8×8 inch pan. Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes.

• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts(we used pecans)
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Carefully spread frosting over the top of the cake.