Coffee Cake

My brother Jason has a thing about coffee cake.  You know those square ones from Entemann's that are dusted with powdered sugar?  He can eat an entire one by himself.  I kid you not.  He takes a knife, cuts it into bite size pieces and goes to town.  My grandparents bring him one whenever they are asked to bring a dessert for something and the rest of us are basically resigned to the face that we will never get any.  Oh well.

Jason has decided to join us for Sunday True Blood and snacks.  He took time this summer to watch all the past seasons and got caught up with the current season so a couple of weeks ago he came over for his first installment of our time honored tradition.  I couldn't think of a better way to introduce him to our Sunday night ritual than with one of his favorite sweet treats.  I hit the cookbooks to find the perfect recipe and my handy All New Good Housekeeping Cookbook did not let me down.  I have had this book forever and it has definitely produced some good recipes.  This one was no exception.  The recipe makes 2 nine inch round cakes.  We used one for Sunday night and I brought the other one to work.  It was gone by lunchtime to rave reviews.  If you are looking for a good classic crumb cake, this is one to try.

Coffee Cake
From All New Good Housekeeping Cookbook

Ingredients:
 Crumb topping
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened

Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Prepare crumb topping:  In a medium bowl, combines flour, granulated and brown sugars, and cinnamon until well blended.  With fingertips, blend flour mixture and butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Set aside.

Prepare cakes:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.

In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat butter and sugar until blended, frequently scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  Increase speed to medium; beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl.  Reduce speed to low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

In a cup, combine milk and vanilla.  With mixer at low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating until smooth and occasionally scraping bowl.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans.  With hand, press crumb mixture to form 3/4 inch chunks; sprinkle evenly over batter.  Bake cakes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.  Cook in pans on wire racks 15 minutes.   With small metal spatula or butter knife, loosen cakes from sides of pans.  Invert cakes onto plates, then transfer, crumb side up, onto wire racks to cool completely. (I actually just let them cool completely in the pans and they were fine.)  Dust with powdered sugar before serving if desired.