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Food

Come on over

Bake a coffee cake for the holidays, when there is plenty of company to enjoy it.

By JANET K. KEELER
Published December 13, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Patty Yablonski] The aptly named Honey Bun Cake starts with a boxed cake mix that is doctored to make it more rich.

The convivial coffee cake wants to be part of the celebration. Not like a fussy child, but rather as a good friend with whom you could gab for hours. Put on the coffee, dear, and grab yourself a slice of something sweet. We've got some catching up to do. There's a lot of catching up - paired with a lot of winding up - during the holidays. Family and friends from far and near descend on each other to celebrate, and food is a centerpiece of those gatherings. After all, there's more to the holidays than whining, shopping and wrapping.

Coffee cakes, typically swirling with cinnamon, occasionally studded with dried fruit and sometimes topped with a streusel crunch, are easy to make (some even start with cake mixes), plus they are bake-ahead friendly. You can make a couple tonight, let them cool completely, wrap tightly and freeze. That makes them good for gifts, too.

As people come and go before, during and after Christmas, and when they stay overnight, coffee cake is a wonderful way to start the morning. Especially if you want to leave something for guests to nibble while you are at work or stalking the mall for the umpteenth time.

Happy at 350 degrees

For many years, my mother's friend Sally would ring our doorbell on Christmas Eve day, signaling the delivery of her sour cream coffee cake. Sally baked hers in a lovely fluted Bundt pan and always brought it in a cardboard box. The dressing wasn't fancy, but we looked forward to that slightly sweet cake almost as much as we did the gifts under the tree. Almost. I think she put something boozy in hers, which made the cake extra moist and borderline dangerous for an underage nosher.

My husband also has a sour cream coffee cake memory that I am asked to re-create every year. Last week, he helped hunt for his late mother's much-used recipe card. We found it, tucked in the beat-up recipe box between Shoofly Pie and Can-Can Chicken. Her pretty, loopy cursive on the plain card was splattered many Christmases over by flying batter and possibly drops of vanilla.

Cinnamon and chopped nuts are layered in the buttery batter, and though many versions can be found in cookbooks and on the Internet, this is the cake that reminds him of home and Christmas morning.

Traditions are sweet in December, when memories are conjured so easily by baked goods.

A simple plan

Coffee cakes, so friendly at the table, are also good pals in the kitchen. Make them in molded pans, such as the Bundt, or in tube pans for interesting shapes. They eat just as well cut in squares from an 8 by 8 or the utilitarian 9 by 13.

My latest favorite is a version that starts with a cake mix and tastes much like a cinnamon bun. It's called Honey Bun Cake and looks so pretty that it could easily be the star of the post-gift meal (and maybe a late-afternoon snack).

A yellow cake mix is made luxe with sour cream and an additional egg. Pour the batter in a 9- by 13-inch pan, then drizzle with honey and sprinkle with brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts (always optional). Drag a knife through the batter to let the toppings seep down, then bake.

While the cake is still hot, drape it all over with a glaze of confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Honey Bun Cake is best served warm, so if you make it ahead, bring it to room temperature and put in a 200-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Apricot-Pistachio-Lemon Coffee Cake is a scratch coffee cake worth the effort. The recipe says it can be made in a Bundt or tube pan, but my first effort in the tube pan was undercooked.

I recommend the molded cake pan because the batter cooks better and the finished cake, flecked with green nuts and yellow-orange apricots, looks so festive. Lemon juice and zest provide a subtle citrus undertone.

A dollop of lemon yogurt or even freshly whipped cream (well, okay, Cool Whip) is a tasty accompaniment.

As much as I like the apricot-pistachio cake, it won't become a tradition in our house. There's no way it can replace sour cream coffee cake in our hearts.

Maybe it can be a new tradition in yours.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at (727) 893-8586 or jkeeler@sptimes.com.

Food history

About coffee cake

Food historians believe that the cake and coffee link was made in the 17th century in northern Europe, when the caffeinated drink became prevalent.

Coffee cakes probably evolved from sweetened yeast breads popular in Germany, France and Denmark. They were simple affairs, slightly sweet and perhaps goosed with some dried fruits. (Ah, the birth of the dreaded fruitcake.)

They called them stollen and kuchen and galette, and they still grace holiday tables today.

Janet K. Keeler

Breakfast

Honey Bun Cake

Cake:

Vegetable oil spray for misting the pan

1 package (18.25-ounce) plain yellow cake mix

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 large eggs

Filling:

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)

Sugar glaze:

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly mist a 9- by 13-inch baking pan with vegetable oil spray. Set the pan aside.

- Place the cake mix, sour cream, oil and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and well blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the spatula.

- Add the filling. Drizzle the honey on top of the batter, then sprinkle on the brown sugar, cinnamon and pecans, if desired. With a dinner knife, swirl through these ingredients to blend slightly. Place the pan in the oven.

- Bake the cake until is it golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 38 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool while you prepare the glaze.

- For the glaze, place the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla in a small mixing bowl and stir until the mixture is well combined. Pour the glaze over the top of the hot cake in the pan, spreading it to the sides with a spoon. Allow the cake to cool for 20 minutes more before cutting it into squares and serving warm.

Note: Store this cake, covered in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in aluminum foil, for up to six months. Thaw the cake overnight on the counter before serving.

Source: The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn (Workman Publishing, 1999)

Breakfast

Apricot-Pistachio-Lemon Coffee Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup plain yogurt

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups chopped dried apricots

3/4 cups (3 ounces) unsalted pistachios

- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan.

- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon or an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Mix in the lemon zest, lemon juice and yogurt. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir to blend. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing just until blended. Stir in the apricots and nuts. Spread evenly in prepared pan.

- Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then unmold right side up on a wire rack and let cool completely.

Source: Coffee Cakes: Simple, Sweet and Savory by Lou Seibert Pappas (Chronicle Books, 2006)

Breakfast

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Cake:

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups sifted four

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Topping and filling:

3/4 cup chopped nuts

3 tablespoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mist a 10-cup Bundt or tube pan with nonstick spray.

- Cream together butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs and blend well. Add sour cream and vanilla.

- Blend in flour, baking powder and baking soda.

- In a separate bowl, mix together topping ingredients.

- Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle half of topping evenly over batter. Add remaining batter and top with remaining sugar-nut mixture.

- Bake for 1 hour.

Source: Keeler family recipe files

[Last modified December 12, 2006, 12:00:05]