an American-style Coffee Cake

Serves 10.

I am totally obsessed with this Cinnamon Swirl Cake, which I find I can eat any time of day (or night). And that’s a good thing, because I’ve been testing versions of this cake for several weeks now, and I have made it at least a dozen times. Not that you hear any complaints from friends and neighbours!! As an added benefit, it also feels like a science experiment, like the volcano that explodes out of the paper towel roll. I will explain.

The filling and topping are made with a coarse brown sugar, known as “sugar in the raw” or demerara sugar. It produces a delightful crunch on the top of the cake. You could use a few packets of this brown sugar that you’ve grabbed at the coffee shop – I’ve really done this before! If you like nuts in your Cinnamon Swirl Cake, you can include some chopped pecans, walnuts, or your favourite nuts in the topping. I personally prefer to let the cake and cinnamon be the stars of the show (also, in my experience, children tend to pick nuts out and I got tired of seeing the remnants of this).

One more note – this type of cake is known as coffee cake in the US because you could eat it with coffee; in the UK, they actually put coffee in their coffee cakes! This one is without coffee and everyone loves it!

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 113 grams salted butter (one stick)
• 175 grams white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 290 grams Greek Yogurt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 grams)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder (8 grams)
• 250 grams flour

For the Cinnamon Swirl topping

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 70 grams raw or demerara sugar
• Optional – 1/2 cup chopped pecans or your favourite nuts

Instructions

1. Take all ingredients out to bring to room temperature (butter, yogurt, eggs).
2. Prepare the pan: Grease the sides and bottom of a 9 inch springform pan, and line the bottom with a parchment paper circle.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
4. Cream butter and sugar on high speed in mixer until the colour lightens and whitens – around 2 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, combine the yogurt with the baking soda and leave to activate.
6. Then add the eggs to the butter/sugar mixture, one at a time, and then add the vanilla. Mix well, scrape down the sides.
7. Combine the flour with the baking powder in a separate bowl.
8. Add half of the activated yogurt to the batter and mix well. Then add half of the flour/baking powder, mix again. Scrape down the sides. Add the rest of the yogurt, mix well, and lastly the flour, mix again and scrape the sides. You should have a smooth and fairly thick batter.
9. Now create the topping mixture by mixing the sugar, cinnamon and optional nuts together in a small bowl. I use the same bowl that I used for the flour.
10. Pour half of the batter into the prepared cake tin, and spread it out with a spatula so it covers the bottom. Then sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the cake, making sure to cover the edges.
11. Pour the rest of the batter on top of the sugar, and spread it evenly again. Then sprinkle all but a few spoons of the rest of the cinnamon sugar evenly over the top of the cake. Now create the swirl – put your spatula vertically into the pan and make a long clean S or an infinity sign. Finish with the last few spoons of cinnamon sugar to cover any non-sugared surface.

12. Bake in the centre of the oven for 40 minutes. The cake is baked when you stick a toothpick into the centre of the cake and it comes out clean or with just a few crumbs.
13. Let cool for 10-20 minutes and release the springform pan. Use a spatula to help carefully move the cake off of the bottom of the pan onto a serving plate.
14. I like to cut this cake in 5 or 6 long strips vertically and horizontally to produce small square servings – the added benefit being that you can eat any little too-small triangles without anyone noticing! Serve warm or cold.

This cake will keep for 3 days at room temperature, covered. Although, it is worth noting that the sugar topping will lose a bit of crunch once you cover the cake, it still tastes delicious. Enjoy!

Sources

This recipe has been adapted from Love & Olive Oil’s Greek Yogurt Coffee Cake. A fantastic blog – thank you!

For more recipes please visit my blog!