Recipe Reviews, Recommendations, Tips and Musings. Thanks for visiting!
Thanksgiving is around the corner and just in time, this Cranberry-Walnut Coffee Cake came up as one of the selections for The Cake Slice Bakers’ monthly bake.
It has the flavors of the holiday – cranberries, walnuts, and fresh orange zest. I knew it would be a good choice!
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This Moravian Sugar Cake (which surprisingly doesn’t have much sugar in it) is amazing to the second power! Another winner recipe from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts.
If you’ve been reading my posts for the last two years, you’ve seen many great recipes from this book – Double Chocolate Pudding, Ligita’s Quick Apple Cake, Shoo Fly Cake, Lemon Molasses Marble Cake, and a few more.
I just adore this cookbook and have to thank my friend, Sherlynn, for giving it to me as a gift several years ago. She has incredible taste in cookbooks!
The name of this cake is what caught my eye. I was actually looking for the Fudge Chunk Brownies recipe and just couldn’t turn the page from this one. It intrigues me that this is a yeast-dough cake. The texture is amazing and really is a cross between a yeast bread and a cake. It’s hard to describe and is so delicious!
Of course, the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter slathered on top that turns into a caramely, crunchy, buttery top is a definite draw, too.
The cake has an ultra soft texture with a lightly yeasty flavor. Oh, and the secret ingredient to keep it so moist? Mashed potatoes. Really. You can use leftover mashed potatoes or, like I did, just chop and throw a potato in water and boil for 10 minutes.
Moravia was a part of Czechoslovakia and then was consumed by the Czech Republic. Not much is known about this recipe and all I know is that it’s outstanding and surprisingly easy to make. Of course, you have to wait for the dough to rise since it has yeast in it, but the end result is way worth it. Yay Moravia!
Moravian Sugar Cake is one of my new favorites. I halved the original recipe – made it in an 8×8″ pan instead of a 13×9″ (recipe below is half of the original). Next time the full recipe will definitely be made.
I can see freezing this, too, and having it available if company pops up. Or maybe I’ll just keep it for myself.
Update: This cake lasts 3 days wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. Microwave for 15-20 seconds and it’s still great!
Ultra-soft, yeast-dough cake - amazing texture and flavor. Cinnamon butter crunchy top.
Nutrition Values are Approximate
Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson is a popular cookbook full of a wonderful combination of all kinds of different cake recipes (layer, cupcakes, rolls, angel, bundt, etc.).
This Mixed Berry Ginger Crumb Cake, published by Brown-Eyed Baker, is slightly adapted from Vintage Cakes (only the amount of berries is changed).
It’s a coffee-cake-ish cake loaded with macerated berries and sprinkled with a buttery crumb topping. The cornmeal in it gives it an interesting crunch which I rather like.
It reminds me of sweet cornbread, just not quite as corn-mealy. Then you top it with a ton of those vanilla soaked (or brandy soaked, your choice) berries and it becomes a substantial, delicious cake.
Berry Crumb Cake
Make sure and get that crumb topping very crumbly. I left a few big butter pockets and it results in pools of butter floating around while the cake is baking. Not to worry, it soaked it after it cooled, but it’s probably best to blend that butter in a little better.
My topping was more flat than crumbly, but good otherwise!
I won’t use candied ginger in the topping again as I don’t care for the bursts of ginger through it. That’s entirely subjective, though – you might like it.
We enjoyed this cake (the royal ‘We’ since Bret doesn’t like berries). It’s good for dessert, breakfast or a snack!
Spongy coffee cake loaded with macerated berries and a crumb topping. The corn meal gives it an interesting texture.
Tips and Stuff:
I used less than a pound of berries (about 4 cups) because that's what I had.
Be sure and mix the butter into the crumb topping until it's crumbs. I left some big blobs of butter and they made a couple of big puddles on top of the cake while it was cooking.
Next time I won't use the candied ginger in the topping. I didn't particularly care for biting into the little ginger pieces.
I put a cookie sheet on the rack underneath the cake while it was baking. Mine didn't bubble over, but if you use the entire 1 lb. of berries, it might.
Nutrition Values are Approximate
Every once in awhile a recipe comes along that calls my name and this Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake is definitely one of those.
Bret brought home a double-pack of raspberries and I knew this was the recipe to make with them. To me coffee cakes are usually a little dry, but this one was light, fluffy, and barely sweet. Then you get the swirls of sweet cream cheese, fresh raspberries, and that wonderful buttery streusel on top.
The raspberries were very ripe and I didn’t want them to go bad, so I put them in a single layer on a cookie sheet and froze them, except for the cup or so I used for this recipe. Then I threw them in a zip-lock bag and will just thaw them out when I want them.
Bret’s not a berry fan, so I’ve learned that this is best way to freeze raspberries and strawberries so they won’t go to waste.
They definitely didn’t go to waste in this coffee cake. This combination is so incredibly good. Since you refrigerate the leftovers, be sure and nuke the cool cake for 15 seconds or so before pairing it with your favorite cup of coffee.
I’m planning on making one of these this weekend for a get together – mainly because mine will be gone by then and I’ll want some more!
Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake is one of those recipes you put in the make-again pile. You’ll make it again and again!
Adapted from omgchocolatedesserts.com.
Tender cake topped with sweet cream cheese, raspberries, and buttery streusel. Awesome.
Tips and Stuff:
I used 1/3 less fat Neufchatel and it was wonderfully creamy.
Be sure the raspberries are patted very, very dry so they won't bleed all over the cake. Nothing worse than a bleeding cake...
This was adapted from a recipe from www.omgchocolatedesserts.com and she used a springform pan. I found that the cake would have been too thin in that, so used an 8x8" square pan.
Nutrition Values are Approximate
Updated: October 2020
I could eat coffee cake as often as you set it in front of me. Number one because I like the cake, but most of all anything I can drink coffee with is tops in my book.
I’ve had this Lemon Pie Coffee Cake recipe forever and promised myself one day it would get made. It’s easy to throw together and, besides the pie filling, you’ll have all these ingredients in your cabinet.
The second time I made this, I used a “can” of lemon pie filling. It’s supposed to be 15 3/4 ounces, but I accidentally picked up a 22 ounce can. And I used it all. Whoops. That’s a lot of filling.
Because of the little filling error, the second Lemon Pie Coffee Cake came out loaded with pie filling and not that much crust. We put a dollop of very lightly sweetened whipped cream and it became a luscious, layered, lemony dessert – almost like a trifle.
The final sugar sprinkled on the top gives it a nice crunch, so don’t forego that part.
A friend made it with blueberry pie filling and loved it – I can’t wait to experiment with the fillings!
Next on the agenda is apple pie filling with a cinnamony-sugar topping. If you’d rather, use your favorite homemade pie filling. You can’t go wrong with this one.
Such an easy lemon coffee cake recipe with simple ingredients. This one is definitely a keeper!
Very tender coffee-cake texture loaded with lemon filling. Try it with
different kinds of pie fillings!
I've made this in a 13x9" baking dish (glass) and an 11 3/4 by 7 1/2" baking dish (glass) and both work fine. If using a smaller dish, bake the cake for five to ten minutes longer. I liked it a bit better in the smaller baking dish because it's thicker.