Any Day Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Happy Holiday Season! This coffee cake is perfect for any part of your festivities this year. Whether it’s a breakfast pastry with a fresh cup of coffee, warmed up with a scoop of your favorite ice cream, or just a cozy feel-good snack, you’ll be happy to have it’s company.

TIP: For this recipe, I melted 1 & 1/2 total cups of butter and held it on my stove ready to go. I used the excess butter to grease my pan and then added whatever remaining into the filling and streusel topping. Butter makes everything better.

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground decaf or regular coffee
• 1/2 cup salted butter, melted

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.

Cinnamon-Almond Streusel Topping

• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground decaf or regular coffee
• 1/2-3/4 cup salted butter, melted
• 3/4 – 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 cup toasted almonds, cut into pieces (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside. Note: Streusel should be crumbly, if it’s to wet add more flour, if it’s to dry add more melted butter.

Cinnamon Coffee Cake: Yields 1-9×9″ baking pan.

• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 cup whole milk (or a milk alternative of your choice)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. decaf or regular coffee grounds
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Assembling the Coffee Cake:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl add the vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla, almond extract, milk and sugar. Whisk until all ingredients are combined. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, coffee grounds and cinnamon. Whisk until batter is smooth.
2. Pour half of the batter into a greased pan. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar filling over the batter.
3. Pour the remaining batter over the filling, spreading the batter to completely cover the filling.
4. Spread the cinnamon-almond streusel topping over the top of the batter.
5. Bake for about 25 minutes starting on the bottom rack, cover with foil, then bake for an additional 20-25 minutes on the top rack.
6. Let cool completely before cutting and serving.

The texture of the cake is moist with subtle notes of coffee and sweet almond, the cinnamon sugar filling comes in with a spicy zing, finishing off with the crunchy cinnamon-almond streusel on top. Absolute perfection! The thing I love the most about this coffee cake recipe is that it’s quite versatile and keeps perfectly at room temperature for a few days. I made cranberry-lemon version for my parents that they raved about! (I really regret not taking any pictures of that one). I have plans for a pumpkin, apple and chocolate-coconut version too, mostly to indulge in my own cravings. This coffee cake fills the house with joy and warmth, perfect for this time of year.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe. Share it with a friend. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday, whatever you may be celebrating. Cheers and happy baking!