Everyday Cinnamon Coffee Cake

This is a nice cake to serve with morning coffee or afternoon tea. It comes together easily and the pockets of cinnamon tucked into the batter give it a unique rocky appearance and distinctly sweet-spicy flavor that's unusual in cakes of this type. For years now, I've been trying to duplicate the flavor of the original Sara Lee coffeecake. Since my own attempts have been middling, I've spent more than a little time paging through the work of other cooks and bloggers. When I find a recipe that sounds like it might come close, I'll give it a try. That's how I found the cake I'm featuring today. I stumbled on it while browsing through a blog called Divas Can Cook. The recipe on that site is accompanied by a video that shows how the cake should be made and I thought some of you might find it helpful. There are some potential trouble spots you might encounter when preparing the cake. Working on the theory that forewarned is forearmed, you should know that the cinnamon mixture is really to stiff to swirl through the batter. You can thin it with a little milk or simply push the cinnamon pockets into the batter to achieve a bumpy swirl effect. Those pockets also make it difficult to tell when the cake is done. Starting at the 25 minute mark, test in the yellow cake rather than pocket areas for doneness. My cake took nearly 45 minutes to cook. The cream cheese glaze is what makes this cake special, but the original recipe makes far more of it than is needed for one cake. The quantities in the recipe below have been halved and will be more than enough to top the cake. The cake should be served while it is still warm, but it should sit long enough for the cinnamon pockets to firm up a bit. The cake, by the way, stales quickly so try to serve on those occasions where you have enough people to serve it in one sitting.  This is a nice everyday coffeecake, but I'm still looking for my Sara Lee clone. Here's the recipe for today's cake.

Everyday Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Cinnamon Topping
1 cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Cake
3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup butter, melted

Cream Cheese Glaze
1-oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons milk milk (may need more)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x13-inch pan. Set aside.

2) To make cinnamon topping: Mix together butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon until mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside.

3) To make cake: Sift flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together in a large bowl. Beat in milk, eggs and vanilla. Stir in melted butter. Pour batter into prepared pan. Drop spoonfuls of cinnamon mixture on top of batter. Use a knife to swirl cinnamon mixture into batter. Bake for 20-35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before glazing.

4) To make glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Beat until smooth and silky. Add more milk, by teaspoons, to achieve a consistency that can be drizzled over cake.

5) To serve: Drizzle glaze over cake and serve warm from the pan. Yield: 12 servings.

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