Coffee Cake: It's What for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner...

This is coffee cake that you can eat all day.  My husband Chris proved that to be true when I made it yesterday, even though I originally made it for breakfast.  But, the cold weather has arrived, bringing with it a need for sweets as he recently proclaimed with great enthusiasm, "Wintertime is upon us...let the excessive eating and weight gain begin!"  I guess I'm just trying to do my best to satiate his sweet tooth (and mine too).

Everyone needs a good coffee cake recipe, and this is about as good, and traditional, as they come.  Admittedly, I wished I could have just opened a coffee cake mix from a box yesterday morning since it would have been a bit quicker, but the result was definitely worth the effort!  (I mean, who has time to let butter soften before breakfast???  I ended up putting the stick of butter in the microwave for a few seconds to speed up the process.)  And yes, Chris ended up eating this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with some "regular" food here and there.  Hope you enjoy this as much as he did!

Very Best Coffee Cake
(Courtesy of Cheryl Bartel, as found in "Favorite Recipes from Quilters")

Ingredients:

Cake
3/4 cup sugar
8 T. margarine or butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sour cream

Streusel Filling
1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 T. margarine or butter, melted

Method:
Cream together the sugar and margarine in a mixer.  Add vanilla and eggs.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add this flour mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating with the sour cream.  Begin and end with the flour mixture.

In a small bowl, combine all filling ingredients and mix well.

Spread half of the batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan (I used an 11"x7"x1.5" pan - see adjusted baking time below if you go this route).  Sprinkle with half of the filling and repeat layers.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  (I baked mine for 50 minutes using the different sized pan than the recipe called for.)