Starting on the left: flour and sugar. Middle: cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, mace (ungrated), baking powder, shortening, butter. (We forgot the allspice; also the milk. Oops.) Right: vanilla, eggs.

Merrill packs cumulus clouds into a 1/2 cup measure. Or shortening.

Merrill shows offer her pan-greasing trick -- use the butter wrapper!

Amanda grinds the mace (the husk on a nutmeg) in a mortar and pestle. Isn't it cool looking? Smells great, too! Not sure why commercially ground mace is white.

And now she grates the nutmeg. We both favor grating it yourself, rather than buying it pre-ground. The aroma is so much more intense.

Sifting the dry ingredients.

Merrill creamed the butter and sugar. See how fluffy it is? It's important to beat it really well, to get as much air in there as possible. Makes for super-light cakes.

In go the eggs.

Then the twice-sifted dry ingredients.

Some milk.

Vanilla.

This batter is so gorgeous, we're not wasting any of it.

It's as moussy as a souffle batter.

While the cake bakes, Amanda assembles the icing. Cream, butter and dark brown sugar are cooked briefly over medium heat.

It gets to an angry boil quickly!

After the mixture cools, Amanda beat in the confectioner's sugar, and vanilla. It starts out worrisomely lumpy but smooths out at the end.

See!

We weren't sure how to go about icing it, so we started with a spidery drizzle. Sorry, ENunn, hope we haven't horrified you! (Or your mother.)

Looks cool, but there's not enough icing on it, so we start over. Turns out it's a malleable cake and icing.

Much better.

Merrill adds two sticks of butter to the pot (yes, two sticks!), while Amanda opens the family-sized canister of oats.

Londonfoodieny calls for a mix of white sugar and golden syrup.

Everyone is excited about pioneering an ingredient new to the "test kitchen" here at food52: golden syrup.

Merrill's attempt at a "heaping" 1/3 of a cup of syrup.

It looks like liquid amber.

The recipe calls for 4 1/2 cups of oats -- it makes quite a lot!

The goal is to melt the butter and heat the mixture just until the sugar starts to dissolve.

Pepitas!

It may look like it's destined for a bird feeder, but never fear.

One of the more rewarding kitchen moments.

The butter and sugar have thickened considerably and are now smooth.

In go the oats and seeds...

We used a non-stick tart pan, since we didn't have a rectangular tin the right size. It worked quite well.

We shook the pan and patted it gently to smooth the mixture before putting it in the oven.