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Easy Coffee Cake

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Coffee cake is one of the easiest things to make. This is a simple recipe– and no, it doesn’t even include coffee! Perhaps you are meant to drink coffee while you are eating it?! Mostly like you already have all the ingredients on hand for one of my favorite recipes.

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Coffee cake slice
slice of coffee cake against pink background

ingredients for coffee cake

How Easy is it to Make Coffee Cake?

This easy coffee cake is one of the first things that I remember making when I was learning to bake as a pre-teen.  It takes only one egg, and we almost always had all of the ingredients on hand.  We also had heart shaped pans, and I enjoyed using them instead of round pans.

Today I realized that since my daughter likes to help me bake, that this would be the perfect simple and easy thing to make with her.  So we did!  I used Crisco since someone had given me some–otherwise I would have used butter.  I used water this time; but milk is fine, too.

measuring cups with ingredients
  • Grease the bottom and sides of the pans.
  • Mix the shortening and sugar, then add the egg.
  • The original recipe calls for vanilla, but since it has become so expensive lately I decided to try lemon extract today instead.
  • Then add the 1/2 c. water or milk and stir it in.

You can see below that my helper has mixed the dry ingredients in.  The batter will be a little bit lumpy.  We mixed the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon together for the topping.

stirring the batter

As a child it always seemed hard to divide the batter evenly into enough for two pans. And then came the best part– crumbling the brown sugar mixture over the batter.

unbaked batter in heart shaped pans

If you don’t crumble the brown sugar well enough, big chunks fall in that cook into the bottom of the pan– but it is good that way, too.

crumbling sugar over the batter

The best part after crumbling the sugar onto the top was– licking your fingers!  Cinnamon, sugar, and butter– Mmmm!  My daughter enjoyed doing that today, too.

cinnamon brown sugar on unbaked coffee cake

During baking….

heart shaped pans cooking in the oven

crater cake-- aka coffee cake

This cake’s nickname is “Crater Cake” because of the craters that the brown sugar makes when it cooks.  It is easy to overbake and dry out these coffee cakes, but not today!  They came out perfect.  Isn’t it a funny thing– there isn’t any coffee in this coffee cake!  Maybe that’s because you’re supposed to eat coffee with it?  Maybe sometime I’ll try using coffee instead of water….it would probably be good.

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coffee cake slice ready to be eaten

The lemon tasted just fine.  I would say though, not to use too much.  With vanilla you can use double the amount and it doesn’t make much difference.  With the lemon, I think you could definitely use too much. I like having milk with mine, instead of coffee. Enjoy!

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Easy Coffee Cake

coffee cake with a pink doily background
This simple coffee cake is easy to make. It is a great first recipe for a child learning to bake. You probably have all of the ingredients already on hand.
Liberty Brammer at B4andAfters.com
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 22 minutes
Total Time 42 minutes
Serving Size 12 servings

Ingredients

  • ¼ c. butter or Crisco
  • ¾ c. sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla or lemon extract
  • ½ water or milk or coffee!
  • c. flour
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ c. brown sugar
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • Tbsp. butter

Instructions

  • Cream the shortening and sugar together.
  • Then add the egg and extract and mix well.
  • Then mix in the liquid.
  • Combine the 3 dry ingredients, and add in to the liquid ingredients.
  • Spread the batter into two greased 9 inch pans (circles or hearts).
  • Melt the butter and combine with brown sugar and cinnamon.
  • Then sprinkle the mixture on top of the batter.
  • Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 22 minutes.
  • Be careful not to overbake or it will be dry.

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