Coffee Cake

Merry Christmas!

This morning I wanted to make our family's favorite coffee cake. In fact, I think the original recipe was called Favorite Coffee Cake. The version we've been making for thirty-something years calls for regular milk and shortening, so I updated it a bit to use real butter and buttermilk.

The streusel topping on this cake is more of a streusel filling. It tends to sink down into the middle of the cake, leaving rich pockets of buttery cinnamony sugary goodness. We usually fight over the middle pieces of the cake, where the most cinnamon filling rests.

Ingredients
Cake:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Cinnamon Topping/Filling

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.
2. In one extra-large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, buttermilk, and eggs.
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into the baking pan.
5. For the topping/filling, mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Crumble/Drop evenly over the top of the cake batter.
6. Bake 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.