Blueberry Coffee Cake

 I have been a little lax on my cooking everything from scratch goal in the last couple of months. The holidays happened and my motivation seemed to go out the window. Now with the year changing and my cupboards full of food I am making a concerted effort to make as many things as I can with the ingredients I already have. Normally I am great about this goal, but with a 4 and 6-year-old, my days are exhausting and honestly I just haven't had the energy. However, I also know that budgeting and cooking as many things as I can are major ways that I am able to be a stay at home mom. I love staying at home with my kids, so it's back to the kitchen I go this week. So today I spent the day making homemade turkey sausage, grilled chicken, and snacks for lunches for the next couple of weeks. Yesterday for New Years I made a great breakfast and dinner for very little money. For breakfast I tried a new recipe for Blueberry Coffee Cake from the January 2013 issue of Southern Living magazine.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes a total of 1 hour, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 10 servings. Since I now eat gluten free I substituted gluten free all-purpose flour for the wheat all-purpose flour used in the recipe. Since I didn't have turbinado sugar, I substituted regular granulated sugar and it worked fine. My total baking time was slightly longer than the recipe, approximately 35 minutes total. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

If you like not overly sweet coffee cake than this recipe is perfect. It is light on the sugar, which my family liked, but is still full of fruit. I really enjoy blueberry coffee cake and this recipe was easy to make gluten free, which I appreciated. It doesn't bake-up very high, it is more of a dense cake, than a high and light coffee cake. Either way it was great with a cup of coffee in the morning.

For the recipe go to Blueberry Coffee Cake. 

Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake

Today was my oldest son's first day of winter break. My two boys spent the day fighting over who could play with which action figure, while watching the same episode of their favorite cartoon for the 50th time. They have watched the show so many times that my oldest can recite the words, honestly, I probably could too. I made pancakes for lunch since the weather has turned nasty today. I love snow, just not the biting cold wind that has gone along with it for the entire day. It just felt like a breakfast for lunch kind of afternoon. This seems to be a pattern that I have been in for the last couple of weeks. Whenever I am stressed or I am not feeling up to par, I bake/make breakfast foods. There is something very home-like and comforting about baking a coffee cake or pancakes. It instantly makes you feel better about whatever is bothering you. This week I made a new recipe for Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake from the January 2013 issue of Family Circle magazine, which looked perfect for a cold winter morning.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 65 minutes of baking, 20 minutes of prep and makes 16 servings. I made a number of changes to this recipe. First, I made it gluten free since I can't eat gluten. For the flour I used a brand of gluten free all-purpose flour which uses coconut flour as the base, it works great in baking. Instead of a 9 inch pan I used a cake pan to bake the coffee cake. I prefer the shape of coffee cake done in a cake pan, I think it looks prettier on the plate. In order to ensure that the coffee cake didn't stick I cut a piece of parchment paper and then sprayed it with cooking spray. This method is a no fail and I use it with any type of cake or torte. Finally, I found that I had to tent my cake with foil to prevent over browning and added an additional 5 minutes to the baking time. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys devoured this coffee cake. It was very light and airy and was perfect with a cup of coffee in the afternoon. Since I used gluten free flour it was a little rich, I think in the future I would cut down on the butter to compensate. The streusel topping was the best part of this recipe and made for a delicious crunchy crust.

For the recipe go to Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake. (registration required)

Gluten Free Berry-Orange Coffee Cakes

I have a soft spot in my heart for coffee cake. When I was first learning to bake my mom gave me one of her old cookbooks and I discovered coffee cake. I think I must have made at least one coffee cake a month for about six months. I was in love. As I became more confident in my baking skills I tried harder coffee cake recipes and once I was in college I discovered the great flavor that rum can add. There is something so great about sitting down with a great cup of coffee and homemade coffee cake. Regardless of the time of the day it just feels right. Now when I first went gluten free I thought I would have to give up my beloved coffee cake. Then I decided I would just learn to bake differently. I tried approximately 4 coffee cake recipes that were horrible. I almost gave up. Then I decided to try one more recipe and it came out perfect. So now I am back to regularly baking coffee cake again. On Thanksgiving morning I tried a new recipe for Berry-Orange Coffee Cakes from the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine, which looked delicious and perfect for converting to gluten free.

This recipe has 15 ingredients. It takes 25 minutes of baking time, 10 minutes of prep and makes 15 cakes. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store. When baking gluten free I always use muffin tin liners. Gluten free muffins tend to stick to the pan easier than their gluten counterparts. My favorite gluten free all-purpose flour uses coconut flour as a base and that it what I used in this recipe. I decided to use slightly less ginger than the recipe suggested, probably approximately one tablespoon instead of two. My two kids aren't big fans of walnuts so I left them off of the top of the cakes as well as the orange peel. Finally, since I made these cakes gluten free I found the baking time to be 5 minutes longer than the recipe suggest. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

These cakes were very popular on Thanksgiving morning. I left off the glaze on my servings, but put them on my boys cakes. They were flakier than regular wheat muffins, but had a great soft taste. My two in-laws were in town for the week and both thought that these cakes were delicious. If you like ginger you could use the full amount suggested by the recipe or you can reduce the amount like I did. Overall, a great gluten free baking recipe.

For the recipe go to Berry-Orange Coffee Cakes. (registration required)

Lemon Raspberry Coffeecake

Don't you love how school starts and then everyone in the house gets sick? Well, that has been my week so far. My oldest started school last Monday and this morning we all woke-up sick. Love how that works. In order to make myself feel better I baked blueberry biscuits for dinner. They did make me feel better, so I say my cooking medicine must work. Growing up whenever I got sick my mom would cook and bake whatever I wanted. This was especially great when I started to feel better and I was allowed to eat brownies for breakfast to get me to eat. Granted most of the time I hadn't eaten for days and my mom was just trying to get me to eat something regardless of if it was healthy. I just remember lots of ice cream breakfasts, which were pretty great. Today my son ate nothing all day until I baked blueberry biscuits. I sat there watching him eat and thought of my mom and ice cream for breakfast. I love how food can evoke such powerful memories. Before I got sick last week I made another recipe which I think of in relation to my mom, coffeecake. She loved baking and eating pretty much any variety of coffeecake, so I was interested when Better Homes and Gardens had a recipe for Lemon-Raspberry Coffeecake in the April issue.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes 60 minutes of total time (plus cooling), 15 minutes of which is active and makes 10 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients, most of them I already had in my pantry cupboard. For the raspberries I used fresh since they were easy to find and I prefer them to frozen when they are in season. I am horrible about remembering to set out my cream cheese to soften so I take the easy way out and zap it in the microwave for a couple of seconds. I did not put parchment on the bottom of my pan like the recipe suggested. I know every baker but me swears by this method. I prefer to just use baking spray and I have never had a problem with any baked goods not coming out of the pan. My total baking time was slightly longer than the 30 minutes suggested by the recipe. I also turned my pan halfway through the baking time. Finally, I chose not to top the cake with powdered sugar, I thought it was great the way that it was. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was very pleased by how great this coffeecake came out looking. It was beautiful and it tasted just as great. Even my husband who doesn't like cake had a slice, which is saying a lot. I really like that the coffeecake has a nice taste from the cream cheese without being too rich or sweet. The raspberries are sweet and provide a nice taste and texture to the recipe. Overall, a recipe that I would definitely make again.

For the recipe go to Lemon-Raspberry Coffeecake.

America's Test Kitchen's Sour Cream Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar-Pecan Streusel

I love sweets, but my husband tends to go for salty snacks, so if I make a cake it sits until half of it gets thrown away. Coffee cake is one thing that we can both agree on, but I tend to make the same recipe over and over. This Easter I tried a new recipe from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.

I made this recipe before everything else on my Easter menu so that it had time to cool completely, even so it crumbled when sliced. I would, therefore, recommend letting the coffee cake sit for a decent amount of time to ensure even cutting. The ingredients for this recipe are basic and were easy to find at any grocery store.  The prep was more time consuming than similar recipes, with multiples appliances needed. For a normal day this would be fine, but since it was a big holiday meal, it did create quite a bit of a mess. The one change that I made to the recipe was to bake it in a bunt rather than a tube pan. I prefer the look on the table of the bunt shape for holiday gatherings.

This was a quality coffee cake. The streusel filling gives the cake a unique quality and it isn't overly sweet. I would make this recipe again, just probably not for a holiday meal, since it creates a bit of a mess.


The recipe can be found on page 441 of The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook. The book can be purchased on Amazon.