Coffee Cake Recipe (aka Breakfast Cake)

 

Ingredients:

Flour 2 ½ cups

Brown Sugar 1 ½ cups

Butter ½ cup or 1 stick

Buttermilk 1 cup ~ or ~ *substitute 1 cup of milk with 1 teaspoon of vinegar to make sour milk

Baking soda 1 tablespoon

Pans to use:  2 small round pie pans or 1 small cake pan. If you double the mix, you can use one large cake pan.

Parchment paper (optional but recommended)

White sugar (optional for crumb top variation)

Set oven to 375 degrees

Directions:

1. Cream together brown sugar and butter (make sure your butter is soft to mix well with the brown sugar).
2. Next add flour to your creamed butter and brown sugar mix.
3. After you have mixed the butter, brown sugar and flour together well, now take out ¾ cup of this dry mix and set it aside. This will be used to make the “crumbles” at the top of your cake later.
4. Add one tablespoon of baking soda to your dry mix. Mix well.
5. Add one cup of *buttermilk to your dry mix. Mix well.  *You may notice that your batter will become thick.  That is the correct texture.  You may also substitute for the buttermilk by using 1 cup of milk and adding 1 teaspoon of vinegar to make sour milk.
6. Now that your cake batter is prepared, time to make your crumb topping for the cake. Take the ¾ cup of dry mix you separated in step #3, add to a small bowl.  Take a tablespoon of buttermilk or substitute and add it to your mix and stir with a fork.  The buttermilk will start making little clumps.  Carefully add a few drops of buttermilk to make more clumps/crumbs.  If you add too much buttermilk, you turn your crumbs into cake batter, but no worries if that happens, as I’ll have suggestions for resolving this below in topping variations.
7. Now that your batter and your separate crumb topping are prepared, time to line your pan(s) with parchment paper. Take a little butter and line your pan with butter. I usually use a plastic sandwich bag to line my pan with butter.  Cover the butter with the parchment paper that’s fitted to your pan size.  *Parchment paper is optional as long as you have sufficient butter in a non-stick pan. 
8. Your pan(s) are now ready for the cake batter. This batter is usually thick and pours out slow.  Use a spatula to get the batter remnants from your mixing bowl if needed.
9. Smooth out your cake batter and now add your crumb topping, spreading as evenly as possible across your pan(s).
10. If you used parchment paper, make sure to cut any excess paper from the sides of your pan.
11. After you have pre-heated your oven to 375 degrees, you may place your pan in the oven for baking. If you are using two small pie pans, I’d check your cake at 30 minutes to see if it’s ready.  If you are using one large cake pan, it takes about 40 minutes, but I’d check it about 35 minutes.  Every oven is different.  It’s normal to see some browning.  When checking my cake, if I see more browning then normal and it seems almost ready, I’ll take it out of the oven and cover with foil to finish the middle if it seems very close to being ready.  You can cut to taste as soon as you are ready.  This cake is rather dense, as it's not fluffy and cutting it will not cause it to fall like a normal cake. 
12. Refrigerate after 24 hours; lasts for a week.  Reheat to serve after refrigerated or just sit out a slice for a little while. Freeze slices to have ready as a treat You can garnish with fresh fruit, and you can also add more butter to enjoy a new variation.

 

Crumb Top Variations:

1. Original crumb topping: Take the ¾ cup of dry mix you separated in step #3, add to a small bowl. Take a tablespoon of buttermilk or substitute and add it to your mix and stir with a fork.  The buttermilk will start making little clumps in your dry mix.  Carefully add a few drops of buttermilk to make more clumps/crumbs but do not add too much buttermilk or you will now have a batter texture instead of crumbles for your top layer. 
2. Variation crumb topping #1: If you have added too much buttermilk and turned your intended crumble top into almost batter, add more flour (try ½ a cup) and mix with your fork.  This will correct the batter texture, but it will also change the taste and appearance of your topping.  Your topping will now be crisp like a muffin top after it’s baked.
3. Variation crumb topping #2: If you have added too much buttermilk and turned your intended crumble top into almost batter, add more flour (try ½ a cup flour and white *sugar- ¼ a cup) and mix with your fork. This will correct the batter texture, but it will also change the taste and appearance of your topping.  Your topping will now be crisp like a muffin top and with the added sugar, a bit sweeter on the top.  *I use the organic cane sugar; the sugar is larger crystals.  This sugar doesn’t blend when cooked and remains an extra texture to your topping mix.  If you would rather change this to regular sugar where it blends, that works also, but will blend the flavor, which is also good if that’s your preference.

 

Notes to the baking process.

1. I’ve been using Keri Gold Irish Butter (salted). Recently, I switched to Vital Farms Organic Butter (salted).  Keri Gold Irish Butter seemed to be a more liquid type butter when melted, so I tried the Vital Farms butter because it had a sweeter taste.  When I prepared my batter, the mix became super thick.  My only conclusion is that the Vital Farms butter was a thicker creamy butter compared to the Keri Gold Irish Butter.  My recommendation is use the butter you like in taste and that you have cooked with most often. 
2. This coffee cake (breakfast cake) recipe makes a drier cake because it does not call for egg, and the buttermilk is also thicker then milk. It’s normal for the cake to be dense when baked.  I've noticed when I add the buttermilk to the dry mix, the temperature of the buttermilk will cause the butter to get cold again.  I've often just let the mix rest for a little while and let the ingredients infuse better together at a more tepid temperature.  Then I mix again really quick and prepare to pour into my baking pan(s).
3. If you are imaginative with this recipe you can convert it into almost any variation you can think of. You can add some banana and it would be a delicious banana cake.  You can also add any fruit in it like strawberries, or blueberries and make it into a muffins. You can add applesauce for more moisture and a subtle flavor change.  I’ve observed this is the most basic recipe that you can alter easily to your taste.
4. Also, to note, this is egg free. If you need to make it dairy free, you can *substitute the buttermilk for another “milk like” drink such as rice milk and just add 1 teaspoon of vinegar to sour your milk substitute.  I realize this will change the taste somewhat, but this is the beauty of this recipe, it’s modifiable with some patience as you experiment with it.
5. History of this recipe ~ This recipe is my mom’s that she used from her mom, so it’s at least a 100 year old recipe, since my mom was using this recipe as young as five years old, baking with her mom. It is handwritten on an old recipe card too.  I hope this gives you some joy if you try it someday.
6. If you are really imaginative, you can freeze this batter in shapes and use as a cake pop (no baking) or add it to any of your homemade or favorite ice cream.  Since this is egg free, it's okay to sample the batter.

 

Pictures ~

Batter (after adding buttermilk to the dry mix)

Crumb Mix (variation with added flour and sugar)

Crumb mix (original recipe; no other added ingredients)

Ready to bake cake with variation crumb topping

Baked cake *the parchment paper makes it easy/cleaner to remove from the pan.

This post was edited by Web Diva at February 26, 2023 9:31 PM CST

It was my pleasure. 

 

This is the only recipe that I use buttermilk.  I've also noticed that because the buttermilk is a "cultured" product, the cake, while having the most basic of ingredients, has some health benefits along with having a unique and unforgettable flavor.  I grew up with this cake and always loved when my mom baked it.  It was such a treat. 

Yeah, you did, thank you...you helped keep me on my feet when I couldn't eat very much!  It's a very tasty recipe.  I suppose it's time to make more, it's been awhile.