German Oat Cake

I made this tonight and it was the most moist, delicious cake ever! I made some substitutions (see below):

German Oat Cake

This is my Grandma's recipe and it’s my favorite cake. Oatmeal gives it some redeeming nutritional value.

1¼ cup boiling water
1 cup quick oats (instead of uncooked oats and water I used 2 cups already-cooked steel cut oats I had in my fridge)
½ cup buttter
1 4-oz. bar German chocolate broken in pieces (I used half a bag of chocolate chips)
1½ cup sifted flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup white sugar
½ tsp. salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Pour boiling water over oats in a mixing bowl. Add butter and chocolate. Cover with a plate and let stand 20 minutes; stir. Sift together flour, baking soda, white sugar, and salt. Stir in brown sugar. Add eggs and oatmeal mixture; beat. Pour into greased 9x13 pan and bake 35-40 min. Spread on topping and broil 1 minute. (I made cupcakes, and I did not bother to broil the topping.)

Caramel Topping:

6 tablespoons real butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. evaporated milk
1 c. oatmeal (also can add coconut, chopped nuts)

Melt the butter together with the brown sugar over medium-low heat in saucepan, watching & stirring constantly. When sugar seems dissolved (doesn't feel grainy) and mixture bubbles for a minute or so, remove from heat and stir in evap. milk, then stir in oatmeal, coconut, etc.