I’ve never published a recipe before but, all things considered, I thought it might be a good time to share a little something from my home to yours. I don’t know about you, but I get the baking bug in cold weather, and since there’s not much else to do right now in lock-down #2, let’s get into it:

“Mom’s Coffee Cake” is what I call it, but it’s essentially a cinnamon crumb/coffee cake. Well, I drink coffee when I eat it, so that makes it coffee cake, right?

I actually got the recipe from this very old cookbook that my mom gave me. It’s creatively titled, “Bread.” My recipe is a variation on the “Bread” book’s recipe for Pennsylvania Dutch Crumb Cake.

Mom’s Cinnamon Crumb Cake Recipe: Bake @ 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes*

INGREDIENTS:

3 C FLOUR, SIFTED (regular will do, but bread or cake flour works best)*

1 T BAKING POWDER (sift if it’s got lumps)

1 TSP SALT (optional)

1 T CINNAMON

3/4 C BROWN SUGAR, LIGHTLY PACKED

3/4 C WHITE SUGAR

2/3 C BUTTER*

3 LARGE EGGS

1 C MILK

2 TSP VANILLA EXTRACT

*VARIATIONS: *Add as much or as little cinnamon as you want!*If using regular flour, the cake can dry out, so you’ll want to add in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable or olive oil to maintain moisture. *Instead of butter, I like to use all oil in the cake, and butter (or margarine if you’re out) in just the crumb topping. * If you prefer less crumb topping like I do, add 1 tsp more baking powder and more oil or butter to the batter until you get the consistency you want. Be sure to increase the baking time too since your cake will be bigger! *For the topping, I like to add a little extra dash of cinnamon, butter, and brown sugar. This makes a yummy, crunchy, crumbly topping!

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

2. Sift your dry ingredients (flour, cinnmon, baking powder, salt and sugars) into a large bowl. Mix together with a wire wisk for even distribution.

3. Cut the butter into cubes and drop into dry mixture, then work the butter through the dry ingredients, using your hands, until the mixture resembles cornmeal or small peas (If you’re using all oil, skip this step).

4. Set aside 1 and 1/2 Cups of mixture for topping*

5. Into the remaining mixture, combine the eggs, milk, vanilla (and oil).

6. Pour the batter into a greased 9×13 in baking pan and sprinkle with the reserved dry ingredients. (Remember, you can add extra butter, brown sugar, or cinnamon, but do it sparingly. You can always add more, but you can’t take it back out!)

7. Bake on center rack for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, or cake starts to pull away from sides of pan. Remember to increase baking time as needed if you used less crumb topping. Less topping = bigger cake.