Old-Fashioned Coffee Cake

March 1, 2009 · Filed under cake · Tagged breakfast, brown sugar, cinnamon, coffee cake, easy, food, options, recipe, walnuts

Recently, while reading Vintage Cookbooks, I decided to pull out one of my old cookbooks. Since I’ve been going through a phase of wanting to throw every excess thing away (especially books) in preparation for my potential return to university, I figured I should try baking something from it to see if it was worth keeping.

I have two old cookbooks: one is from the very early 1900s but it’s in storage;

The book with the original recipe

the other is an old Duncan Hines recipe book – last copyright 1946 – that I literally found on the street that has been sitting in my bookshelves unused ever since. In other words, I’ve had this book for nearly 6 years and never baked a thing from it. But I was really hoping that it would prove to be worth the space since it entertains me to no end with it’s peculiar salads, it’s essential cocktail recipes, and it’s near complete disregard for what is now considered healthy. (I may have to write more posts about that, a la Vintage Cookbooks, just because I find them so funny.)

It's hard to read, I know. If you would like the original recipe and can't read this, just let me know. I'll be happy to pass it along.

The recipe had to be modified a little bit, of course, so here’s my version:

1 cup of white sugar
5 Tblspns of softened margarine

1 egg, beaten

1 cup of skim milk
1 tspn of vanilla

2 cups of regular flour
1/2 tspn of salt
2 tspns of baking powder

1/3 cup of brown sugar
cinnamon
chopped walnuts (about 1/2 cup for the whole thing)

Preheat the oven to 350F.

First of all, you want to start off with a bigger bowl than I did. I used my smallest one for all the wet ingredients and that made it hard to mix it without splattering it all over myself. So, in a medium bowl with a handheld mixer, cream the margarine and white sugar together. Add the egg to it. Then combine the milk and vanilla with it – this will make it pretty liquid-y. I was afraid that mine was too wet but when I added the dry ingredients later, it was fine.

In another medium or large bowl, sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together with a fork. Dump the wet ingredients in and mix them (I used the handheld mixer, which saved me from all that stirring and didn’t effect how much it rose at all.).

Pour the batter into a shallow, well-greased pan; mine was about 9 inches square and 1 1/2 inches deep, which worked out well, so something close to those dimensions. Sprinkle the brown sugar on the top. I had some brown sugar that had gotten clumpy after one of us apparently didn’t push the lid down all the way but it was perfect for this. I’ve had lumps of brown sugar burst in baking before, so I knew that the chunks of brown sugar would end up breaking into tasty partially-caramelized craters on the top because of the heat. Sprinkle on a generous amount of cinnamon (I think I used about a half teaspoon) and some chopped walnuts if you want. Brad isn’t a big fan of nuts on baked goods so I left them off of half of it, but they were easy to scrape off too.

Then place the coffee cake in the oven. The recipe said to bake it for a half hour but after checking mine with a fork and having it come out with tons of batter on it twice, I ended up baking it for 10 extra minutes – 40 minutes altogether.

Who wouldn't eat this coffee cake??

Brad and I were both really impressed. It wasn’t super sugary like a lot of coffee cakes are these days, but it still had a good flavor. I especially liked the nuts with it, since it added just a little extra dimension of flavor. And it was very spongy and light, perfect for a breakfast with sweetness but no heaviness.

The verdict on the cookbook: Even if I never use another recipe (but why wouldn’t I? Who could resist Popped Wild Rice, Asparagus Souffle, Roast Mallard, or a cocktail called “Hot Brick”?), I’ve got to keep this book. Even if it spends most of it’s time shoved in one of the few cracks left in my bookcase, collecting dust.

My very crowded bookcase. (I have about 4 times as many books in storage right now.)