Cakes

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!!!!

Grease & flour a bundt pan with removable bottom

Combine dry ingredients

Cream butter and sugar

Add Eggs and vanilla

Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined

In a separate bowl combine streusel ingredients

Spread half batter in prepared pan

Sprinkle half of the streusel mixture

Spread remaining batter

Sprinkle with rest of the streusel

Bake 350 degrees for about 60 minutes

Enjoy!!!

“Jailhouse Cake” aka Oat cake

A wonderful and easy cake spiced with cinnamon and a caramel coconut topping

When my search through my grandmothers family recipes began, I was a little overwhelmed. The recipes where put in my house as storage. There were a ton of every kind of recipe you could image. As I was going through them my dad kept asking me if I had found a recipe for “jailhouse cake”. I told him no but would keep an eye out for it. Little did I know what kind of an undertaking that would be! I looked through family cookbook after family cookbook and didn’t see any cake by the name “jailhouse cake”. My father was relentless! Asking me every time I saw him or talk on the phone about grandma’s “Jailhouse cake” recipe. Finally, becoming exasperated, I asked him to describe the cake. He said it was a sheet cake that had coconut topping and she would pour a sugar syrup on the cake and then put the cake under the broiler………. then it hit me! I remembered a recipe that sounded familiar. When I arrived home that night, I looked through her recipes (that were in no particular order) and found a cardboard recipe for an oat cake that looked as if it was taken from a quaker oat box a LONG time ago. So that weekend I decided to give the recipe a try. The next day I took a piece over to my father and he said, as if striking gold, “THAT’S IT!”. He said it took him back to that small mining town that he had grown up in all those many years ago. My curiosity got the better of me so I eventually had to ask him why it was called the “jailhouse cake”? He said “Well, your grandmother and grandfather had belonged to some organization in Athens county. This led them to become good friends with the county sheriff. The sheriffs wife, who lived at the jail, had brought this cake to one of the group functions and your grandmother had asked for the recipe. The sheriffs wife would make it for the prisoners because it was a pretty easy recipe and would feed a good number of people. So every time your grandmother would make this cake we would all call it the “jailhouse cake”. When I make any of my family recipes I usually try to change up the ingredients or add something that I think the recipes are missing to make them better. However, this one is so delicious that I could NOT think of anything to change to make it look or taste better. Now I will say, it may not be the prettiest cake in the world but it is so moist and tender and has an unbelievable cinnamon spice flavor that it is now one of my favorite sheet cakes of all time.

By the way, about a year after I had made this cake for the first time my mother had found a box of recipes from my dads mother. They were in a small green index card box that looked like it had been to war. When I opened the card box for the first time, there was that “jailhouse cake” recipe, and it was in my grandmothers own handwriting. This recipe has become so very special to me and extremely sentimental since she has been gone for such a long time.

Gather all your ingredients

Combine boiling water and quick oats let sit 20 minutes

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy

Add eggs and mix

Combine dry ingredients and mix just until combined

Add oat mixture to batter and mix until combined

Pour in to prepared pan and bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes

Meanwhile combine topping ingredients in a saucepan

Bring to boil & boil for 1 minute

Spread evenly over hot baked cake

Place under broiler 5 minutes

let cool completely before serving.

Now I know this may not be the most beautiful cake you’ve every seen, especially after you remove it from the oven, but trust me once you cut into it and taste all the warm cinnamon flavor and the wonderful caramel coconut topping I’m sure this will become one of your favorite cakes  as it is one of mine. Enjoy