If you like coffee cake, you’re going to want to try this old fashioned Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake recipe. This vintage recipe is worth the effort.
Coffee cake is one of those things. It’s comforting and familiar and perfect for breakfast. This one, made from a recipe from the 1930s, has a dense crumb and an irresistible buttery cinnamon sugar topping.
No, it’s not that impossibly fluffy and almost-dessert-sweet coffee cake from the grocery store. But it doesn’t want to be. It’s a totally different coffee cake — one that stands up to the fork without squishing into oblivion and that can be eaten by hand without crumbling all over. And it’s really great with a hot, steaming cup of coffee.
It is coffee cake after all.
Making this, I wasn’t sure if the vintage sensibilities would make it a winner for us. But it was. Hugely.
I whipped it up for a brunch with friends last weekend where the cake quickly vanished. Seriously, not a trace was left behind. Good sign, right? And it was so good that I baked another just for our family.
Back to the brunch for a second. Though I adore brunch, I don’t have people over (or go out) for it nearly enough. So I was thrilled to have a little one at my house. The brunch menu was simple — bagels and lox with all the fixings, scrambled eggs, berry and pineapple fruit salad and this Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake.
In the course of the conversation, I shared that this was a vintage recipe — something dug out of my great collection of early 20th-century cookery books, pamphlets and recipe cards.
This recipe comes from the third edition of All About Home Baking, published in 1936 (the original was published in 1933) by the General Foods Corporation, a now-defunct company whose products (Calumut baking powder, Post cereals, Maxwell House Coffee and General Foods International Coffees, to name a few) live on. I bought this hardcover book off eBay a while back.
My friend asked about my interest in vintage recipes, which really got me thinking about why I have been so into pre-1960s cookery. I made this conscious decision to reclaim lost cooking techniques because I feel like as the reliance on prepared, prepackage and shortcut based cooking has grown, we’ve lost some of the skill and technique that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used in the kitchen.
To them, making a quick coffee cake for breakfast or brunch or whatever was just that. It was simple, uncomplicated and easy.
And when I find a winner — like this coffee cake — I love to share it.
All told, this recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Coffee Cake takes about 30 minutes to make — maybe 40, if you include the cooling time. And most of that time is totally hands-off (making the dough for the cake takes maybe 5 minutes).
Be warned, instead of a batter this really makes a crumbly dough. Don’t worry if it doesn’t form a ball — you just need all the ingredients to have come together before you press it into a pan with floured hands.
And don’t change a thing about the buttery cinnamon-sugar topping. It’s the best part. (Aren’t topping always the best part?)
You can do this. Dust off that cake pan this weekend and give this Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake recipe a try.
Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
recipe from All About Home Baking, 1936
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
Topping:
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9-inch cake pan all over the inside with a little butter.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or two knives.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk until light and frothy.
Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir well until all combined. The dough will be somewhat stiff, but keep stirring until everything is incorporated.
Transfer the dough to the prepared pan. Using floured hands, gently pat it down into one even layer.
Brush the top of the coffee cake with melted butter. Then, stir together the sugar, flour and cinnamon for the topping. Sprinkle all over the top of the coffee cake.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanly. Let cool for five minutes in the pan. Then, gently loosen the sides with a butter knife. Turn out onto a plate and then turn back onto a serving plate.
Aunt Jemima is no longer producing this product due to challenges competing with other products in local supermarkets which resulted in declining sales. Please don't deny our families and future generations the simple joy of this wonderful home baked coffee cake on a Sunday morning (or any morning!).
Oh yes, you sure can. This recipe has a combination of butter and oil to give off that nice buttery taste while keeping it soft and moist at the same time. Cake using pure butter tends to be more dense and dry compared to adding oil into the batter.
The difference between coffee cake and regular cake is the topping. Coffee cake and regular cake are made with the same ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, and butter and a leavening agent like baking powder. The difference is that instead of frosting on top, coffee cakes have crumble or streusel.
In June 2021, amidst heightened racial unrest in the United States, the Aunt Jemima brand name was discontinued by its current owner, PepsiCo, with all products rebranded to Pearl Milling Company, the name of the company that produced the original pancake mix product.
Quaker Oats, which has been owned by PepsiCo since 2001, announced its decision on Aunt Jemima days after a TikTok video describing the brand's history was shared widely on social media. In retiring the name and character, the company acknowledged that Aunt Jemima's origins were “based on a racial stereotype.”
The texture of cakes made with oil is—in general—superior to the texture of cakes made with butter. Oil cakes tend to bake up loftier with a more even crumb and stay moist and tender far longer than cakes made with butter. So why do most cake recipes start with butter? Flavor.
Texture:Cakes made with oil tend to be moister and have a more tender crumb. Oil coats the flour proteins better than butter, resulting in a softer texture. Cakes made with butter can have a richer flavor and a slightly firmer texture. Butter contributes to a more traditional and dense cake structure.
American Coffee cake—also referred to as gugelhupf or Austrian German: kaffekuchen—evolved from other sweet dishes from Vienna. In the 17th century, Northern/Central Europeans are thought to have come up with the idea of eating sweet cakes while drinking coffee.
A buckle is a funny name for an old fashioned fruit studded coffee cake. Like many other desserts in the extended cobbler family buckles take their name from their appearance—grunts grunt as they cook, slumps slump when served, buckles—you guessed it—buckle.
If you're baking something with milk in it, replace a measure of the milk with a robust coffee-milk infusion. Basically, it's a case of not looking at coffee exclusively as a dry ingredient - try adding it to your cake mix in its liquid form.
Alternatively, you can pair it up with additional treats, such as whipped cream, fresh berries, or a drizzle of caramel sauce. For a special occasion, you can also turn your coffee cake into a show-stopping dessert by layering it with fresh fruit and topping it with a rich chocolate ganache.
A slice of this cinnamon coffee cake is great on its own, served with coffee or tea for breakfast or an afternoon treat. The cake is also a fantastic addition to a weekend or holiday brunch. Pair it with something savory, like a frittata or scrambled eggs, and fresh fruit.
Melted butter is key for moist coffee cake, but this dessert tends to get drier over time. If you want to prevent coffee cake from getting stale for as long as possible, storing it in an airtight Tupperware is your best bet.
Rice brand Uncle Ben's changing name and logo because of racist connotations. The Uncle Ben's rice brand is getting a new name: Ben's Original, because the previous name and logo has been criticized as a racial stereotype.
Aunt Jemima No More; Pancake Brand Renamed Pearl Milling Company. Quaker Oats will replace the 130-year-old Aunt Jemima brand and logo in June, one year after it announced plans to do so. Quaker Oats cooked up a new image for an old, offensive brand Tuesday. PepsiCo Inc.
and its subsidiary Quaker Oats announced in February that they would rebrand Aunt Jemima as the Pearl Milling Company because of the former brand's racist origins. Products in the new packaging will continue shipping over the next few months, the company said, so they're not available everywhere just yet.
For generations, stereotypical imagery of Black and Indigenous people has appeared on food brands. Amid 2020's “racial reckoning,” Uncle Ben's, a subsidiary of Mars, Inc., announced that it would modify its name and remove the Black man on its products who was inspired by an African-American cook and waiter.
Hobby: Gunsmithing, Embroidery, Parkour, Kitesurfing, Rock climbing, Sand art, Beekeeping
Introduction: My name is Roderick King, I am a cute, splendid, excited, perfect, gentle, funny, vivacious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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