Quick Coffee Cake

not my coffee cake, but a good look-a-like

based on the Joy of Cooking, 1964 recipe

This makes a nice, moist cake, not too sweet or too crumbly but just right. YUM! It’s great for a quick brunch treat, to free up the stovetop and the cook. The absolute best thing about this cake is that all the ingredients are things typically found in the pantry, not special ingredients like sour cream or applesauce needed!

If you’re looking for something sweeter, feel free to double the streusel and place 1/2 the batter in the pan, top with streusel and then lay down the other 1/2 of the batter on that and top that again or use a full cup of sugar rather than 2/3 of a cup. You could probably add some chopped apple to this too, but it might come out too dense.

Whoops, I was about to take some photos outside but then it started raining. Sorry, folks, no pictures for you. CAKE

• 1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) – room temperature
• 2/3 c sugar 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 c milk (2% or whole milk)
• 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla paste (or vanilla extract, if that’s all you’ve got)
• 3 c AP flour (or 2 c AP 1 c white whole wheat)
• 4 tsp baking powder

STREUSEL

• 3 Tbs AP flour
• 3 Tbs butter, cold
• 7 Tbs (or a shy 1/2 cup) sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer
2. MAKE THE STREUSEL
   1. using forks or a pastry blade, mix the streusel ingredients until well blended, set aside (in the fridge, if necessary) where they won’t get too warm
3. BUTTER/OIL AND FLOUR A TUBE PAN OR THREE LOAF PANS
4. preheat the oven to 375 F
5. to the creamed butter add the eggs, salt, mix to combine; add the milk and mix to combine
6. to the wet ingredients (creamed butter, etc.) add the dry ingredients (flour and baking powder), let the paddle turn for just a few seconds -lumpy and not combined DON’T OVER STIR
7. make a few more passes at the batter with a spatula by hand, scraping down the sides of the bowl and place lumps or spoonfuls of batter  into the prepared tube pan
8. sprinkle the streusel evenly on top of the batter in the pan
9. bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle
10. remove the outer ring of the pan after cooling for 10-15 minutes, serve warm

Total cooking time: about 1 hour (20 min prep, 35 baking)