Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Great-grandma's coffee cake


Or at least I'm guessing that this is great-grandma's coffee cake.  I found this in a cookie-dough splattered recipe book that my mom received when she married my dad.  The book has several handwritten recipes from my grandma and possibly my great-grandma, who passsed away before I was born.

My mom told me that one of my great-grandmothers used to make coffee cake every morning.  Every morning!  Well, there were two handwritten coffee cake recipes in her book, so I just picked the one that appealed to me.

My husband gave this recipe a thumbs-up.  I hope you enjoy it, too.  I may not have time to make this every morning, but I imagine I'll be making this coffee cake again soon.

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Quick Coffee Cake
  • 1/2 C. shortening
  • 2 C. sugar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 4 eggs, beaten
  • 3 C. flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 C. milk
 Combine shortening and sugar. Mix all.

Filling:
  • 1 C. brown sugar
  • 2 tsp. butter
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 C. nuts, chopped
Put 1/2 of batter in pan. Add 1/2 of the filling. Top with another layer of batter, then remaining filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until brown and springs back when touched with finger.

3 comments:

  1. This is such a heady experience to be cooking from your great grandmother's recipes; I am surprised they were already using sugar; in Lebanon in these days, they used grape molasses.

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  2. I couldn't believe how much sugar this recipe calls for. And 4 eggs! I think if I make this again I'll cut back on both. I've heard that a lot of old recipes have more sugar than is actually needed to maintain the sweetness. I've never heard of grape molasses, but it sounds wonderful. Wonder if I could find it in a store around here? There are some great international grocery stores in Des Moines.

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  3. This looks like a good old-fashioned coffee cake. I am sure it's delicious.

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