Cinnamon Sugar Crusted Coffee Cake

Some days I just feel like baking. This isn’t something that happens often, but when I do, I can’t stop thinking about a delicious warm, baked good. On this particular afternoon, I really wanted something sweet to go with my afternoon coffee. After looking through my Pinterest (I’d love if you followed me!) I decided to go with a coffee cake,  but couldn’t settle on a recipe.

Since I don’t bake often, I don’t always know the science of things. I cannot often make up a baking recipe myself, so I instead took a bunch of ideas and put them together and hoped for the best! The base of this recipe is actually a bread, but I didn’t have baking soda, so had to make some changes. I also wanted to add some whole grains, so I swapped out some of the AP flour to make this heartier and give it some texture.

The results were great! I loved this with my afternoon coffee. The best part though is the crust. It is hard to tell from the photos, but the top gets very crispy and sugary. When you take a bite you actually hear a crunch, which sets this apart from other coffee cakes. I baked this in a loaf pan so there would be more crusty edges, too. Although the crust makes this bread like, you still have the traditional cinnamon sugar swirl amongst a moist batter, that you find so often in coffee cake.

When I told my daughter I made “cake” she took one look at it and asked where the icing was. When I said it wasn’t birthday cake, she forgot all hesitations and dove right in! She asks me for more of Mommy’s Cake almost weekly now…which means it is probably time to whip another up!

Cinnamon Sugar Crusted Coffee Cake
Adapted from: Averie Cooks

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup 2 percent milk plus 1 tbsp. white vinegar (or use buttermilk)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white-whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch cinnamon
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9 by 5 loaf pan.

Combine your cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl and set aside.

Melt your butter and then let cool for at least 2 minutes. Once cool, add in your egg, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla. Stir to combine and then whisk in buttermilk mixture.

In a different bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, and pinches of cinnamon and salt.

Combine your wet and dry ingredients and stir until incorporated. Don’t overmix! Lumps are okay!

Pour half of your batter into your prepared loaf pan and spread evenly. Distribute 3/4 of your cinnamon sugar mixture over the batter. Pour remaining batter over and then top the loaf with the remaining cinnamon and sugar.

Bake for 45-50 minutes or until your top is crispy and your inside is set. Let this cool before trying to remove from the pan. You want to be able to invert this without breaking the crust (I actually dropped mine because it was too hot and killed my crust) so let it cool and then slide out when you can!

Enjoy! This bread keeps really well and gets moister as the days go on!