Coffee Cake

“A moist crumb cake spiced with cinnamon, brown sugar, & pecans”

I found this recipe buried deep in one of my grandmothers cookbooks. It took me a while to make this recipe simply because I already had a pretty good recipe for coffee cake of my own. That was until one day I was sitting with my father going over some of the recipes I had found, but didn’t know who the names were on the recipes. This was a fascinating conversation. My father, the wonderful story teller, was remicining about the past. I got a lot of family information from that talk. He told me stories about my grandmother, our family, & family friends from his home town that I didn’t know until that day.

I asked him about this coffee cake recipe that had the name of Wilma on it. I could not place the name Wilma. When I asked dad who Wilma was he said “You know who that is. She’s the one who did the apolstry for us.” Then it hit me, I did know exactly who that was! I will never forget the first time I met her. It was when she was recovering my wife’s vanity stool in a purple fabric. We went to her house to pick out the fabric and to take her the stool. We walked in to her “little shop” aka her garage in the back of her house. The shop was like walking in to Batman’s dark lair and cluttered like a hoarder. This women was a spitfire! Wilma told you how it was without holding back, yet she was a sweet and kind person that would have done anything for anybody. The one thing that stuck out in my mind was the hay that she had stuck in her hair, not sure why or if she even knew it was there. I remember her talking to us and I couldn’t concentrate because I kept staring at the hay. It was definitely a memorable experience. The main thing I remembered about Wilma was her WHITE CAKE.

Now, I have an ongoing debate with my wife all the time about which is better, cake or pie. She LOVES pie & I LOVE cake! Don’t get me wrong, I like pie or really anything sweet, but cake is by far my favorite. Especially really good white cake. I don’t really like chocolate cake because I think it can be a bit dry. But white cake that is done right is the best ever! I could eat it every day! The problem I have with cake is I can’t stop eating it. I slice it and think to myself that isn’t straight so I cut off a little more. Then it still isn’t straight so I cut off a little more. It can go on for a while until I realize I need to stop because there is no room on my plate for any more.

Back to Wilma’s cake, the reason I thought about her cake is because she made the best white cake I have ever eaten. It was moist yet dense and delicious. My parents would always get one of Wilma’s cakes for my birthday. Dad would call down and order it and she would leave it on her front porch for him to pick up. I have no idea how she made her cakes but I have never had anything like a cake from Wilma.

This coffee cake is moist and has a wonderful flavor. It has two layers of cinnamon streusel, one on top and one in the middle. I’m going to be honest here, the first time I made this recipe my wife told me it was good but the cake was missing something. I did take this with a grain of salt considering my wife doesn’t care for cake. However, I thought about it for a while and decided to try a mixture of confectioners sugar and water to make a glaze that I usually use for my scones. I have to admit that this small little mixture made all the difference. I just drizzled some on each slice but you could drizzle over the entire cake and let it set up before serving.

I hope you enjoy this recipe and get a little bit of wilma’s personality from this cake.

Enjoy!!!!

Coffee Cake