Coffee cake
January 25, 2011 in Uncategorized
You’d be forgiven for wondering if I accidentally left the ”coffee” off the ingredients list below. I didn’t … but when I first examined the recipe I thought the same thing. But then I realised that I was looking at an American website for “coffee cakes” … and not one of the recipes had coffee in it. And then I googled … and Wikipedia filled in the blanks:
“A class of cakes intended to be served with coffee or for similar breaks and snacks. Under this definition, a coffee cake does not need to contain coffee.”
I’d never heard of “coffee cakes” before … but I’m particularly delighted at this new discovery. This is my kind of cake – that is to say, it’s delicious … but most importantly it’s very quick and easy to make. Ideal when you need to throw something together at a moments notice.
I found this coffee cake recipe which called for “home-canned plums” … which I guessed to mean “tinned” fruit. I didn’t have any plums at hand … but I did have some left-over tinned pears which I needed to use up … so I just adapted the recipe to suit. I guess you could use any tinned fruit.
(I did wonder about using fresh fruit – but you only bake this cake for 20 – 25 minutes … which wouldn’t be long enough to cook “raw” fruit. I think this would work with berries though. I’m going to give it a go with raspberries next.)
Anyway – here is the recipe for …
Buttermilk Pear Cake
Ingredients
1/4 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar (if you are using a particularly tart fruit you might want to add another 1/2 cup of sugar)
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarb (baking soda)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of buttermilk
Tinned pears (or other fruit)
Brown sugar (or demerera)
Cinnamon
Heat oven to 180 degrees and grease a square cake tin.
Cream the butter and sugar and then the eggs. Add the buttermilk and the dry ingredients and beat together to form a smooth batter.
Pour batter into the tin and layer the tinned fruit on top. I sliced the pears into pieces about 1 inch thick and arranged these to cover the top of the batter. You don’t need to be very exact with this.
Liberally sprinkle the top with the cinnamon and brown sugar. I recommend at least 3 tablespoons of sugar and at least 1 teaspoon of cinnamon … more if you like the flavour!
Bake for 20 – 25 minutes … until the top is puffed up and golden. Your kitchen will smell like heaven!
Enjoy a large slice with a steaming cup of coffee. Sigh.
x Sim x
Sous-Chef said on January 25, 2011
A slice and a coffee would go down very well right now!
Sous-Chef said on January 25, 2011
A slice and a coffee would go down very well right now!
sharonsmit said on January 25, 2011
Thanks – I’d take a slice or 2… A coffee cake for me, will have coffee in it. Perhaps they should call this – cake for coffee!
Have a great day!!
Zabwan said on January 25, 2011
Sigh….I’ll also have a slice or two now
oh and a BIG cup of coffee
janicetripepi said on January 25, 2011
Oooh goodness me – this looks too good for words Sim. How i could just pop a piece of that into mymouth right NOW!! I shall definately give this a try when my dieting is over – it LOOKS so nice and easy without too much fuss and bother! Have a great day xxx jan
ninatimm said on January 25, 2011
Aaaah, I also made the same mistake looking for coffee in a coffee cake….pear cake will do just fine too!
tandy.sinclair said on January 25, 2011
lovely coffee cake
SimoneB said on January 26, 2011
Thanks
SimoneB said on January 26, 2011
Glad I’m not the only one Nina!!
SimoneB said on January 26, 2011
Dieting is the bane of my existence Jan! I feel slightly redeemed by the fact that there is only a smidge of butter in this cake and some buttermilk which is oh so healthy!
SimoneB said on January 26, 2011
I’m with you on the BIG cup of coffee for sure! Some days I just need the caffiene to get me through!
SimoneB said on January 26, 2011
Agreed – but you know these Yanks … they like to shake things up!
SimoneB said on January 26, 2011
Happily the cake lasted for 2 days … so I got to sneak in a few slices before hubby and family polished it off.