Crumb Coffee Cake Recipe

Happy Monday! We had a nice weekend as a family...a little swimming, backyard S'mores making, an afternoon at one of our favorite lakes, church in the morning and then again at night for a special service, some movie time...just a nice weekend! There was one moment of sheer slight panic late Saturday night when my dear husband asked me if I remembered that I'd volunteered to bring in food for our Fellowship Class at church. Well, no, as a matter of fact, I had not remembered. Until then. 11:30 pm.
Bake?
Or go to sleep?
Lucky for me, I remembered a quick and easy recipe I could easily pull off in the AM, so beauty sleep it was!

My mother-in-law gave me this recipe shortly after Bill and I got married. It's been around a while...  :)
And it is SO YUMMY! I love this recipe because it's easy, quick, and doesn't use a million dishes!
I'd tell you it's healthy, but... well, at least there's cinnamon, ha!

for the coffee cake layer:

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch salt

7/8 cup milk 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together shortening, sugar, egg & vanilla in large mixing bowl. Next, combine dry ingredients in bowl and add alternately with milk to shortening mixture.

{this looks a bit lackluster here...it was a little dark at 6 AM, ha!}

Grease a 13x9 baking pan or dish and spread mixture in bottom of pan. Bake for 15 minutes or until edges begin to turn golden brown. 

Make Crumb Topping while cake is baking.

for the crumb topping:

2 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 cup sugar 

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (or more...I always add a little more)

1 1/2 stick butter or margarine, softened

To save on washing dishes, I use the same bowl for the topping as for the flour mixture above. Simply combine dry ingredients and then cut in softened butter until it's crumbly. I usually mash it all up with a fork.

Sorry, no photos of this step! There may have been a clothing emergency...

Remove coffee cake from oven when ready and carefully spread crumb topping mixture over top- the top is spongy and will not be fully baked, but that's the way it's supposed to be. Again I use a fork to gently push the topping over the entire cake. Return cake to oven to bake for another 20-25 minutes. The edges should be golden brown, and it will smell absolutely divine by this point. Use a cake tester to check if in doubt.

Cool. Slice. Devour.  ;o)

sharing here ...