Oatmeal Crumb Coffee Cake
Spring is on its way here, with lots of rain and still some occasional hail and snow. I feel bad for the tulip bulbs that have already peeked their heads through the ground. Fingers crossed for their survival. Anyways, with all the wet weather and the approach of a good friend's birthday, here is a sweet coffee cake.
I've got a good story behind this cake though. It was my good friend's birthday this weekend, and we were all going out to a restaurant to have dinner later in the day. I was worried that after gorging at the restaurant we wouldn't have room for cake, so I wanted to surprise him in the morning with a breakfast birthday cake, candles, singing and all. Considering he loves crumble-toppings, I thought a crumb coffee cake would be a great idea. It all went really well. Only mishap, thank god, had nothing to do with the recipe. I was trying to sing, carry the cake with lit candles, and not put out the candles at the same time when the worst possible thing happened. I took a quick intake of breath while singing..."Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, *gasp for air*...happy..." and on the third happy birthday, I blew out half of his candles myself! Woops...
Can anyone else offer a good breakfast birthday cake? Or was this just a really weird idea?
So here is a recipe for Oatmeal Crumb Coffee Cake. I warn you, this cake is moist beyond belief. I thought my banana bread recipe was moist, and boy was my moisture-gauge meter off. Sorry to keep using the word moist, but this coffee cake is so moist that each bite almost explodes with syrupy moisture, and I suspect it will stay this way for a couple of days. This is most likely due to the yogurt and the buttermilk in the recipe. Either way, not only is it moist on the inside, it's crunchy on the bottom from the crumb-topping and has wonderful textures throughout. A slice of this cake goes fantastically well with a cup of coffee, though I do drink my coffee black. So, if you add lots of sugar to your coffee, then the cake might be a bit sweet. Do see the notes in the recipe below though to avoid this. Otherwise, head over to my blog to see a more complete post. I love comments so I'd welcome your visit!
Recipe in insert.
Oatmeal Crumb Coffee Cake
1 bundt pan
crumb topping
8 TB unsalted butter, cold
6 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 C rolled oats
1 C packed light brown sugar
1 C pecans or walnuts, chopped
1 TB cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
granulated sugar, to sprinkle
batter
2 1/2 C cake flour*
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
12 TB salted butter, softened
1/2 C of plain Greek yogurt1 C of buttermilk
1 C granulated sugar*
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
juice of 1/2 a lemon
*Note: You can easily make cake flour using all-purpose flour with cornstarch (actually, this is what I did). Just subtract 5 TB of all-purpose flour from the total amount (from the 2 1/2 cups) and add in 5 TB of cornstarch. You can also think of it as removing 2 TB of flour for every cup of all-purpose flour and adding 2 TB cornstarch back in.
*Note: I found this coffee cake to be a bit sweet, so I'd recommend using 3/4 C of sugar next time.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter a Bundt pan very well (make sure to cover all the nooks and crannies or else the cake will stick or break when inverted).
First prepare your crumb topping (a traditional streusel has a ratio of 1:1:2 for sugar to butter to flour. This is a little off, which is why I decided to call it crumb). Mix together all your ingredients, except the butter, in a large bowl. Then chop the cold butter into small cubes and add to the bowl. Using your hands, rub the crumb mixture until the everything is evenly coated and the butter is in small pea-size lumps. You can also do this in a food processor, but I was trying to be quiet to avoid waking up Pinky and ruining the surprise, so by hand is fine. Once ready, place this bowl in the refrigerator.
Prepare your batter next. I also did this all by hand, because I didn't want to over-mix the batter and cause gluten to develop, which would toughen up the cake. Sift together all your dry ingredients in one large bowl. In another bowl, to prepare your wet ingredients, cream together your sugar and butter. Add your vanilla, and then your eggs one by one, mixing each one completely into the batter and scraping down the sides before adding another. Once all the egg is added, mix in your yogurt and lemon juice. The wet ingredient mixture should look chunky at this point.
Now mix the wet and dry ingredients together. With your cup of buttermilk ready at hand, fold your flour gently into the wet ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk. It will be flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, and remaining flour (make sure to end on flour). Once all the flour is evenly incorporated, although the batter should still be lumpy, pour it into the bundt pan. Pour half of the batter into the bundt pan, shaking to make the top even. Then cover with half of the crumb topping. Pour the remaining batter into the bundt pan over that, and sprinkle with remaining crumb topping. Dust with with extra granulated sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the top is browned and crispy. Remove from oven and let rest at least 30 minutes. You must let it cool or else the bundt will break when trying to remove from the pan. After cooled, run a spatula along the edges to release, invert, and voila. Oatmeal crumb coffee cake for breakfast.