Surprisingly Quick and Easy Pecan Crumble Coffee Cake

On a whim, I picked up a magazine called Baking From Scratch, really only because it was beautiful. I had no intention of baking any fussy cake recipes. I’m really more of a cooker than a baker, probably more due to lack of time than anything else. And dinner always takes precedence.. Plus, life has just been very busy lately.

However, this weekend we had probably the most Facebooked snowstorm in years which, lucky us, then led to a Monday snow day. And there I was, a whole day ahead of me, one of which I did not plan to have, with a beautiful baking magazine in my hands.

Right about nap time, I discovered their recipe for coffee cake made in a cast iron pan and low and behold, I already had all of the ingredients. I geared up, ready for the cake to take the entire nap time and to my surprise, this was one of the easiest cakes I have ever made. I whipped the thing together, almost one of those dump it all in recipes (so surprising for such a fancy read), popped it in the oven and like that, it was done. It even looked  beautiful without trying.

Go ahead, check out the magazine because it’s gorgeous. But don’t let the beauty fool you. The recipes are not only meant for the well trained baker. At least not this one.

PECAN CRUMBLE COFFEE CAKE   from Baking From Scratch Magazine

Photo above made with slight changes from original recipe, shown below

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar (I used about half coconut crystals because I like things a little less sweet)

1 large egg

1 cup all purpose flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour, out of a sad desperation to add some whole grain to my children’s diets)

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup whole milk

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 t cinnamon

Crumb Topping:

2 T sugar

2 T all-purpose flour

2 T cold butter

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9-inch cast-iron wedge pan. (I only had a regular pan.) In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with a mixer until creamy. Add sugar then egg beating until fluffy. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt. Go back and forth adding flour mixture and milk to batter, mixing in between. Add vanilla and mix. In a small bowl, take 1/3 cup of the batter and stir the cinnamon into it. Pour the big bowl of batter into the pan. Top with the cinnamon batter. Mix Crumb Topping and sprinkle on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes (however, mine took about 10 minutes longer for a toothpick to come out clean.) Let cool for 20 minutes.

 

 

 

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