Tuesday Trifecta: Not my mama's coffee cake...

...but I wish it was.

This Tuesday Trifecta was a fun assignment. Choose a family recipe that brings back the warm and fuzzy memories, which are the best kind indeed, and recreate. I could do this post over and over again, choosing new old favorites each time. My family has so many wonderful recipes to choose from. Grandmothers, Sisters, Mothers, and everyone in between have shared their favorites over the years. In fact, I will be building on this theme in the future as I have a couple ideas up my sleeve. :) Stay tuned!

So, I attempted to make my favorite cinnamon coffee cake that my mama used to make. Oh, how I love this crumbly cake with cinnamon topping. My mama would make it for special occasions like snow days, holidays and Saturdays.

Many of these such recipes I have copies of the actual recipe cards on hand. A few, however, are saved on the computer only, as is the case with this treat. Somehow the recipe got jotted down incorrectly and I ended up with a cinnamon mess. I should have known 4 teaspoons of cinnamon in an 8x8 cake was too much. Oh my! I did give it another go and got closer to the original. However, this is sadly not exactly like my mama's cinnamon coffee cake. I will have to get the exact measurements from her next time. Until, then enjoy this adjusted favorite!

Rachel's Favorite Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

Cake

• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 ½ tsp. baking powder
• dash of salt
  
• ¼ cup Butter or Crisco shortening (I used a mixture of both)
  
• ¾ cup milk
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
  
• 1 egg, beaten slightly

Topping

• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon (or less depending on your preference...1 T is pretty strong but yummy!)
  
• 3 ½ tablespoons butter (melted)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8x8” square baking dish well.
2. Mix dry cake ingredients in a bowl. In a separate mixing bowl blend egg, milk, vanilla and butter until well incorporated. Add dry ingredients and mix well with electric mixer. Alternatively, you can beat vigorously by hand, if you need a stress reliever or prefer manual labor. :)
3. Blend all topping ingredients and set aside.
4. Spread half the cake batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle with half of the topping mixture.
5. Spread remaining cake batter over the topping and finish with the remaining topping mixture.
6. Bake at 375 degrees for ~25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Don't forget to check out Liz and Julie's lovely recipes! They are both traveling (or about to do so) and will hopefully share their vacation with us once they arrive safely in their neck of the woods. Tis' the season as I have some lovely traveling posts to share with you in the coming week.

The Lactation Chic's Family Recipe
Miss Wanderland's Family Recipe

Until we meet again!
xoxo, Rachel

P.S. I updated the recipe a bit. It turned out more moist (although still a coffee cake by nature) and the cinnamon was delightful. Enjoy!