Honey Bun Cake

I love to iron. (Yes, getting out more would help this, and please don’t send me your clothes.) I love my iron. I love my built-in-the-wall, hung to my height, ironing board. I find ironing to be very therapeutic, and it is one of the only things in my life that I can block out everything else and concentrate on one thing. However, today I found that ironing has become hazardous to my health. My mind forgets that I’m not the size I once was and now I must not stand so close to my ironing board. You see, I ironed myself today. With my sleeping child in the next room I had to quietly complain to myself but no major harm was done. It was just what I needed, one more battle scar. What does this have to do with Honey Bun Cake? Nothing. So I will move on now.
I have made this cake before, but in a chocolate version and found it to be a bit dry. Not this cake. With 16 oz of sour cream and 4 eggs, there is no way! Due to those ingredients, I was a little fearful that it was going to be too custard like, and to me it was a little eggy on the start but was much better when just slightly warm instead of hot out of the oven. I did double the amount of glaze but would use the recipe given if making this in a bundt pan. The bake time was perfect. Exactly 45 minutes and the job was done. The filling was very sweet and brown sugary and a good ratio to the amount of cake. Great for a brunch or potluck.

Honey Bun Cake

1(18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1 (16 ounce) container sour cream

1 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 to 3 teaspoons hot water

Mix cake mix, oil, eggs and sour cream and pour into a greased 9 x 13-inch glass baking pan. Pour one-half mixture into cake pan.Mix brown sugar and cinnamon and spread evenly across batter. Pour other half batter on top and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes to one hour. (Check after 45 minutes - middle should begin to pass the wooden pick test.)Mix confectioners' sugar, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon warm water, adding more water if necessary to make glaze thin enough to spread on warm cake.

Blueberry Coffee Cake

On Saturday I made a Blueberry Coffee Cake from scratch and shared it with family and friends. I think it was well received by all. I found this recipe in a Christmas book from a local mega-chain store during the holidays that I just had to buy it. It contained recipes, crafts, and decorating ideas for the holidays.
This recipe was not hard in the least. The most difficult thing was the lengthy list of ingredients that had to be measured out.
Things to note. I do suggest making the streusel first in a separate bowl so as not to feel rushed after making the cake. I personally enjoy eating and baking with the little Wild Maine blueberries instead of your standard big old berries. I find them to be too large, messy, and bitter or lacking in taste.
Speaking of taste, what the heck does this taste like? Glad you asked. Great! The cake was soooo, extremely fluffy and not too sweet. In fact, you could taste just a hint of salt. The blueberries gave it an extra kick. The streusel was not too thick or thin and had just the right amount of sweetness. Finally, the glaze made it pretty and worthy of a coffee cake.
So that brings me to the best part of all.....the baking time. 40 minutes. The recipe said 40 minutes and 40 minutes was perfection. It was so wonderful not to have to guess between 35-40 minutes like what would be written in most recipes. No guesswork, what a great day.

Blueberry Coffee Cake
from Gooseberry Patch Christmas 10th Anniversary
2 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 c. milk
1/3 c. butter, softened
1 egg
1 T. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 ½ c. blueberries (I used frozen; thawed slightly)
Beat all ingredients, except blueberries, in a large bowl on a low speed for 30 seconds. Then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes scraping the bowl occasionally.
Grease a 13x9 pan. Spread half the batter in the pan. Sprinkle blueberries over batter; then, top with remaining batter. Add Streusel Topping and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Can be inverted onto a serving plate or left in pan. Drizzle with Glaze. Makes 16 servings.

Streusel Topping:
½ c. chopped walnuts or pecans
1/3 c. brown sugar, packed
¼ c. flour
½ t. cinnamon
1 T. butter, softened
Mix all ingredients together until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of cake.

Glaze:
1 c. powdered sugar
2 T. milk
¼ t. vanilla
Combine all ingredients; drizzle over top of cake.

Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake

Today was our Sixth Annual Cookie/Ornament Exchange. It went very well this year, and we had lots of good food too. One item that I made was this Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake that I had wanted to try for several weeks. I had all the ingredients on hand but no motivation until today. Very, very simple and the crowd loved it. To me, the worst part was opening those silly exploding cans. I scream every time. I will be glad when BabyGirl is old enough to open them herself. Maybe she will find it more fun that I do.
I left the orange out of the recipe this time because of allergies in our crowd. However, I can see where that would be delicious. Or, perhaps a little orange extract would work just as well. Mine did take the full 25 minutes and was not doughy in the center like Monkey Bread. Everyone was on an even playing field this time in a 9x13 pan.
Oh yes, we had cookies too. I will get to those at another time.


Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange peel (I made this optional)
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cans (17.5 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!® cinnamon rolls with icing, refrigerated

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. In small bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and orange peel (optional). Pour butter mixture into pan; top with 1/2 cup of the pecans.
3. In small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into 10 rolls. Cut each into quarters. Place dough pieces in sugar mixture; toss to coat. Arrange in single layer in pan.
4. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center. Drop icing by teaspoonfuls over top of coffee cake; sprinkle with remaining pecans. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Cut into squares. Serve warm.

Kittencal's Cinnamon Flop

What a week this has been. BabyGirl had two milestones, I did not bake on a holiday, there was a hurricane, and the Republicans just became interesting. Wait, I’m not political(well, maybe a little). Never supposed to eat and talk politics. Hmmm, wonder if Sarah has a cookie recipe?
Anyhoo, moving on to what I made for Sunday morning. I was going through some recipes in my mind but none of them I liked. I decided to go through my file instead, and came across this cake I found last week on recipezaar.com. The only thing that attracted me to this one, at first, was the name. It seemed fun to say. Then the ingredients looked good. There are a lot of options here so you first must decide how you want to go about this one. I decided to make a half of a recipe of cake in a 9 inch pan with all of the topping and I baked it for 30 minutes. I later read that I could have added things such as fruit, chocolate chips, etc. Very versatile recipe.
The topping is really misleading. It sinks. I used all the topping on half of a batch of batter so my topping sunk to the bottom and made an upside down cake. If I had used half of a recipe of topping it would have sunk to the middle of the cake. I think. My opinion is based on a few photos I saw. I waited 10 minutes before I flipped the pan and plated the cake. A lot of the topping stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to scrape it off and put it back onto the cake. This was all a risk because I did not want to wait too long and have all the topping stick to the pan.
Also, I used one whole egg. I have a hard time halving an egg. However, if you would like to do so it equals about 2 tablespoons. Now, I thought the cake was a little eggy. The people in Sunday School, number 1, were not clear on this phrase and number 2, I did not have a good definition. It was a little heavy, seemed like it had a scrambled egg in the batter. But, that was my fault, I should have halved the egg.
In a nutshell, the things I personally thought were wrong with the recipe were my fault. If I would have used the correct amount of topping and halved the egg it would have been as Kittencal intended it to be. A moist coffeecake with a gooey brown sugary, nutty center.


Kittencal's Cinnamon Flop
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar (add in more for a sweeter taste)
1 1/4 cups milk or half-and-half
1-2 teaspoon vanilla (optional) or almond extract (optional)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
1 large egg (optional; will give it a cake like texture)
TOPPING
1/2 cup brown sugar, more if desired
1-2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup melted butter
chopped walnuts (optional) or pecans (optional)

Set oven to 350 degrees F.
Prepare a greased 13 x 9-inch baking dish, or two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans (although the batter will seem like it will fit into only one 8 or 9-inch pan, this flop rises very high and will run over the sides if baked in just one pan).
In a bowl mix the 2 cups flour, 1-1/4 cups white sugar, milk, vanilla or almond extract, baking powder, pinch of salt and egg (if using) until just combined careful not to overmix. Pour into prepared baking pan/s.
Generously spread brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
If desired sprinkle chopped walnuts or pecans over top.
Drizzle melted butter over top.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes for 8 or 9-inch round cake pan, and about 30 minutes for a 13 x 9-inch

Sticky Buns

Sticky Buns? Looks like Monkey Bread to me.
Due to the popularity of the Monkey Munch post last month I decided to see what other Jon & Kate Plus 8 recipes were out there from their reality TV show. Not a lot and very few sweet ones. I did stumble across the Sticky Bun recipe from their Christmas Show off of a fan blog which, allegedly, came off of the Gosselin’s family website.
I made this before church on Sunday for Sunday School so that it would still be warm. The recipe was easy and a lot of fun to make. No mixer required. Just like the Monkey Munch, it is another treat that involves a Ziploc bag. Make sure you have a good one because 16 Grands biscuits are heavy, and what a messy accident that would make if you had plastic bag failure. As always, I did not include the optional raisins since they are not allowed in desserts in our house. After you allow time for the bread to rest in the pan, be prepared when plating the dessert. A very hot gooey syrup will run out as you are lifting the bundt pan off of the bread. I knew it would probably happen, but my coordination was a little off that early in the morning and I lost some of the syrup as it fell on the counter.
Taste. Thick, rich, buttery, brown sugar syrup on top of mounds of cinnamon-sugar dough balls. Those would be words I would use to describe it. You can come up with your own definition when you make yours!

Sticky Buns or Monkey Bread
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cans (16.3 oz each) Pillsbury® Grands!® Homestyle refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, if desired
1/2 cup raisins, if desired
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 12-cup fluted tube pan. In large plastic food-storage bag, mix sugar and cinnamon. Separate dough into 16 biscuits; cut each into quarters. Shake in bag to coat. Arrange in pan, adding walnuts and raisins among the biscuit pieces. Mix brown sugar and butter; pour over biscuit pieces. Bake 28 to 32 minutes or until golden brown and no longer doughy in center.(I would bake it for 37-40 minutes.) Cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn upside down onto serving plate; pull apart to serve. Serve warm.

Starbucks Coffee Cake

Here’s the thing, I do not drink coffee therefore I do not go to Starbucks. However, when it gets really cold outside, which is only about 2 weeks in February; I will drink a tall hot chocolate, no whip. (The whipped cream takes up too much room in the cup, and cools down the hot chocolate too quickly.) My husband on the other hand was an everyday customer of theirs until he got a Keurig. All to say, I have no idea if this coffee cake tastes like their coffee cake since I am not addicted to their brew. My husband has tried their cake before, but at the time of this post he had not tried mine.
This is another recipe from Picky Palate who received the recipe from a friend. Apparently, the recipe below was trimmed a bit because a whole recipe makes a lot of cake. I found the measurements to be puzzling at first because I was a little leery of the quantities. I will assure you they are written correctly. I first thought that the topping was not going to come out having so much flour, cinnamon, and vanilla. Nope, it was right. I did also have to use the longest length of baking time that was given. I was troubled by the fact that the topping was so heavy, while crumbling on the surface of the cake, some of the batter seeped through and caused the top of the cake to have a strange appearance when it was finished. The solution for that was to go ahead and pre-cut all the pieces before serving.
Finally, if you are like me and never go to Starbucks to drink something that requires a college degree to be able to simply place an order. Or, perhaps you have been there but have not had a one of their tasty treats; let me describe this to you. You have your standard yellow cake as a base. Then on top you have a thick, thick layer of streusel topping. The streusel is extremely heavy causing the cake to fall slightly and be very moist. However, even in the moist parts you still get a bit of a crunch. The cinnamon and vanilla really shine through all the different layers and textures. I think I would have preferred it baked in a round pan because the cake has a tendency to rise to high along the edge taking away from the moist, almost gooey, crunchy center.
So, what have we learned today from The Baking Redhead? Save some money! Buy a Keurig and make this cake.
Oh and two more things. Number 1, if you only have unsalted butter add 1/2 tsp of salt to the topping mixture. (1/4 tsp per stick)
Number 2, BabyGirl said,
"Happy Birthday Mia and Granddad! "

Starbucks Coffee Cake from Picky Palate
1 Box Yellow Cake Mix (plus ingredients on back of box)
Topping:
2 Sticks cold salted butter
2 1/4 Cups flour
1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
1 ¾ Cups sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla
Powdered sugar (for dusting)
PREHEAT oven to 350.
PREPARE cake mix in large bowl according to directions on box. Spray 9X13 pan with non-stick spray. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until center is just barely set.
WHILE cakes are baking, prepare crumb topping. In large bowl of electric mixer combine, butter, flour, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla until all crumbly.
IMMEDIATELY after cake is removed from oven, break crumb topping into marble size pieces with fingers, sprinkling over top. Put back in oven and bake an additional 10-15 minutes (topping will begin to look a little less wet/raw). Let cool fully then dust with powdered sugar, using a sieve.CUT into squares and serve.
*You can double the recipe by using an 8 or 9 inch baking dish in addition to the 9x13 inch dish, feel free to double it to make more if desired. 2- 9X13 inch baking dishes would also work fine.

Apple Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake

So I was in the kitchen today making my sister-in-law a cake for her birthday. (I have not given it to her yet so I will not reveal it until later.) I decided to make something for church tomorrow when an idea struck me. I had some muffin mix so I thought I would make a coffeecake. If I had two packages I would have used them both to make a thicker cake. A simple streusel on top and the cake was finished well, once it was baked of course. Very easy. I guess you could call this Kelli’s Apple Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake. I like the sound of that.

Apple Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake
Cake:
1- 7oz package Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix (i.e. Martha White)
Topping:
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 stick butter, melted
1 tablespoon water
Prepare the mix as directed on the label. Pour the batter into a lightly greased 9-inch round cake pan. Mix the topping ingredients together until crumbly, and sprinkle over the batter.Bake the coffeecake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-32 minutes, until the topping is slightly browned and the cake springs back when lightly touched with a finger. Cool slightly before serving.
Variation: To make a thicker cake, use 2 packages of muffin mix with the same amount of topping. Increase baking time to around 42-45 minutes. Also, another idea is to use Blueberry Mix instead of Apple Cinnamon.

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake

There is probably going to be a large crowd at church tomorrow so I thought I would make a coffee cake. Very substantial, easy to serve. I was looking through my Taste of Home magazine and found a coffee cake to check out on their website, but when I got there I found a different one that looked intriguing. I'm pretty sure I can honestly say, wait, yes, I have never made anything in a springform pan but a cheesecake. I know, I know, where have I been? I’m sure all of you out there are making wonderful desserts, besides cheesecakes, in springform pans but me. Time to jump on the bandwagon. If I may move over to the sidebar quickly, did you know that you can layer dips or salads in a Springform pan? Just make sure you line your pan with parchment and chill the recipe before removing.
Okay, now moving back into Sugar World.... My nuts burned. What a predicament. The cake rose very tall in the oven and was too close to the top heating element therefore, it burnt my nuts. I took some off and left the rest on. Overall, it was a fairly easy cake to mix up and was not a problem to get out of the pan. I did place a piece of buttered parchment in the bottom as a means of insurance. The taste was also good. Very moist and buttery, with a cinnamon sugary topping like on a cinnamon doughnut. The chocolate chips could have been optional in my opinion. Just kind of unnecessary for this dessert which is funny since it is in the name. If I were to make this again I would leave the chips out and replace them with the pecans. This should also solve my nut burning problem at the same time. How efficient!

Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake
Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar, divided
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and 1-1/4 cups of sugar. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into a greased 9-in. springform pan. Combine the pecans, cinnamon and remaining sugar; sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen. Remove sides of pan. Cool completely before cutting. Yield: 10-12 servings.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

One thing, I guess you could call it a downside, about having a baking blog is all of the baked goods that tend to pile up if you do not give them away. So, to alleviate this problem I try to foresee opportunities to give away my goodies. One of those places is church. I asked my husband what he would like me to bake to take tomorrow and he wanted a coffee cake. There are thousands of recipes for coffee cake. I decided to make a pretty basic one with a streusel feel.
A few things to note: I used a bundt pan because it is my favorite pan. The recipe does call for a tube pan and I do not have one to my knowledge. However, a lot of my kitchen equipment is in storage right now. I know, excellent time to start a baking blog when half your kitchen is in storage. It just makes it more of a challenge and I'm up for it. Also, the batter is very thick and a little difficult to spread. This cake taste a lot like the Pecan Coffee Cake from Collin Street Bakery if you are familiar with our area. I also added a little cinnamon to the topping just to spice things up. Pun intended. :)

Sour Cream Coffee Cake
2 cups flour, sift before measuring
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces sour cream (1 cup)
Topping
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup butter, room temperature

Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder.
In another mixing bowl cream together butter with sugar until fluffy and light; add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing just until flour is blended. Blend in sour cream then stir in remaining dry ingredients.
Topping: Mix together flour, sugar, salt and chopped pecans. Add butter in small pieces. Work butter in with hands until mixture is crumbly.
Spread half of batter lightly into a greased and floured 10" tube pan. Sprinkle half of Topping and spread with remaining batter. Sprinkle with remaining Topping. Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes.

Pecan Pie Surprise Bars

I know now what the "Surprise"is in the recipe. Surprise! It's a coffee cake. Funny. Today's recipe came from an old cookbook called the "Park Street Baptist Church WMU Cookbook 1972," that just appeared in my kitchen one day. This is not that unusual because I think that one of my parents put it there when I was not looking. Hmmm. I am starting to think that I'm receiving my inheritance from my parents one piece at a time.
Anyhoo, I love old cookbooks. The recipes give so little detail on how to actually make the recipe. In this day and age you don't have a lot of room for error or creativity in a recipe because every detail is spelled out for you. Which is a blessing and a curse sometimes. It can make you narrow minded. Now back to this recipe. So when I found this one I thought that it was going to be a gooey pecan pie bar. Wrong! It is a cake with a pecan pie topping. The crust or cake is the bulk of this dessert.
When you bake the crust for 20 minutes and take it out of the oven it will be puffy in the middle. Wait until that deflates before pouring the filling on top. That way you will have equal distribution of filling.

Pecan Pie Surprise Bars
¾ cup Butter, softened
4 eggs
1 Box yellow cake mix
1 ½ cup Karo syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Grease a 13x9 pan. Mix butter, 1 egg, and cake mix less 2/3 cup. Spread in bottom of pan dish, this will be the crust. Bake for 20 minutes.
For filling, combine the remaining cake mix (2/3 cup) with 3 eggs, Karo syrup, and vanilla. Mix on medium speed. Pour mixture over crust. Sprinkle pecans on top and return to oven for 30-35 minutes. Cool in pan.