This coffee cake has a special place in my heart because it’s based off of a Streusel Coffee Cake recipe from my 84-year-old American Grand-Uncle Ted. My father was a high school exchange student in Iowa in 1964, and stayed at Ted’s sister’s home. I’ve been visiting Iowa with my father fairly often since I was young, and Uncle Ted would always bake this home-made coffee cake for breakfast. To me there’s nothing more American than waking up to a wonderful smell of fresh coffee and sweet cinnamon warming in the oven. This cake is like a fluffy and light pound cake with cinnamon swirls. It’s called coffee cake because it goes so well with coffee (or tea!), but there’s no coffee in it. Ted puts chopped nuts in his. My husband Ben thinks we can try adding raisins. It’s a simple recipe with no need for special ingredients or gadgets, and it’ll be fun to try variations!

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Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Servings 1 8×8 cake

Ingredients

For the batter

• 1/2 tablespoon unstalted butter for greasing pan
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cups whole milk

For the cinnamon swirl

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 cup canola oil

Instructions

• Grease a 8 x 8 pan with the butter.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla and egg.
  
• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the egg mixture.
  
• Add the milk and beat.
  
• Pour the batter into the greased pan.
• In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the cinnamon swirl.
  
• Spread the cinnamon mixture over the batter.
  
• Cut through the batter with a table knife and swirl.
  
• Bake in the oven for 30 minutes (convection oven) or until a toothpick comes out dry from the cake.
  
• Let the cake rest for 15 minutes, then take out of the pan and serve.