A friend texted me yesterday at about 5:00 asking if I wanted to do a cake to have at the gathering at my house this morning for our friend who's birthday was today or whether I wanted her to do one. A) The texting friend generally makes the cakes in our ex-pat group, and, although I know she likes blessing people this way, I wanted to take that task from her this time. B) I wanted to bless the friend who's birthday it was (we'd had a celebration for her this past weekend, but you gotta have something on your birthday, right?). So, I said I'd make a coffee cake.
At about 10:00 last night when I was completely wiped out from my day and the kids still weren't asleep, I seriously questioned my decision. A little late to call or text and say, "Actually, I'd rather you make something." :-l Plus, I still wanted to be a blessing to everyone.
I'd already made the decision that I wanted to serve something make-ahead. Me and baked breakfast on a timetable don't mix. That's why it's so important to me to have baked goods in the freezer from mornings when I do have time to make them. Otherwise, we'd be eating cereal every morning (never mind that we did this morning, anyway).
So, I went to the Breakfast>>Make Ahead/Overnight file on my computer (geeky, I know, but it works for me), and opened two recipes: Overnight Coffee Cake and Baked Oatmeal. I'd served baked oatmeal at a gathering at my house not too long ago, plus, I didn't have any raisins (although I'd like to try it with chocolate chips, so I will be making it soon, anyway), so I decided on the Overnight Coffee Cake.
Problem: it calls for shortening, and A) I'm trying to cut hydrogenated fats out of our diet and B) the shortening I have is bad, anyway (don't know why I haven't just thrown it away). A quick google tells me I can substitute butter, so we're back on track.
The original recipe just has the ingredients listed in a random order and says "mix them together." I can't do that! That's not proper baking etiquette! So I "fixed" the recipe and made it as listed below (I'd done that when I'd made it previously, but I hadn't noted it in the recipe).
Fortunately, it went together more quickly, probably, than it's taken to write about it (or even read about it), and I covered it with foil and stuck it in the refrigerator. Took it out about 7:00 this morning and put it in the oven about 7:45. Other than my funky oven baking it lopsided due to a variance in temperature, it came out perfectly, everyone was blessed, and I even have enough left over to send downstairs to a neighbor who's dishes I need to return.
So...I guess it was worth it after all. :-P
• 1 C butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 C buttermilk (or 1 C milk+1/2 t lemon juice or vinegar)
• 2 C flour
• 1/2 C oats
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1 t cinnamon
1. Cream butter and sugars.
2. Add eggs and mix.
3. Add milk and mix
4. Stir together dry ingredients.
5. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Mix until combined.
6. Spread into greased 9 x 13 pan.
7. Stir together additional brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over top of batter.
8. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
9. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
This is, of course, from a SL thread way back when. Like, way back before I started copying the usernames to go with recipes so I could credit them. I did a search, and I can't find it, so it must have been from before they switched to the new system, and I never can remember how to search the archives, so my apologies to the original poster. If you happen to see this and want to claim it, please do. :-)
10/8/24
3 weeks ago
7 comments:
Thank you!! This sounds like a perfect breakfast for Faith's birthday tomorrow! Wahoo! What a wonderful surprise it will be for her.
Yay! I'm glad I went ahead and posted it. Enjoy!
We made it and it was yummy! Two things though: it was a little greasy (kids mentioned being able to see the oil residue on their plates) and a bit crumbly. I don't know what I did that made it a bit greasy... but the crumbly is probably due to the fact that I used rice milk instead of cow's milk. We don't keep 'regular' milk here anymore.
I also had to adjust and transfer the batter into the stoneware pan prior to cooking. Since stones can't go straight from the fridge to the oven.
Any help for me?
It was a winner!! Thanks for sharing it!
I have a couple of ideas.
- I changed the amount from 2/3 C of shortening to 1 C of butter, because I didn't want to have to figure out the conversion, and it was easier to just use two sticks. :-P So, you could cut that back a little, although the 1 C worked for me both times (see below, though).
- I am using a white wheat flour. I've found that white wheat sometimes "absorbs" the oil better than regular wheat. So you could try using a different flour, if you want to keep the butter the same.
- I upped the oats to 1 C when I made the cake again for a visit the next day. It worked fine. More grains might help.
- No help about the stoneware. I'd probably just leave it in the mixing bowl in the fridge and then pour/spread in the morning, which it sounds like you did.
Ok, thanks for these suggestions. I appreciate them since this will probably become a tradtion on birthday mornings! Just think, you'll be a part of our birthdays until the end of time. ;-)
Ah, the big bulk I ordered was white wheat, but I haven't opened the buckets yet. I'm finishing the hard red I had. Thanks.
Hi Cara! David told me about your blog, and I am so excited about it... I am sick of looking for recipes and finding great ones with ingredients that are not available to me! Quick question... do you think the coffee cake recipe would work with instant oats? That is all we have been able to find here. Also, are you able to find whitewheat flour at the grocery store? I have been stuck with plain old white!
Emily, I'm so glad I stumbled across your comment. Looks like the homebase junk filter is eating my e-mail notifications. Again. I'm sure J & B are going to be happy to hear from me about this. Again. :-P
Yes! Every recipe on the blog is either made using quick-cooking oats at the listed amount or it will have the quick-cooking amount in parentheses labeled as such. The only plain oats I can find are imported Bob's Red Mill and super-expensive, so I just buy the cans of quick-cooking ones. I know they're not as healthy, but I do what I can. It's probably the same as what you get. It seems that they mostly sell the same stuff regionally.
And, yes, I get the white wheat flour here. It's marketed as "whole wheat," but it's not truly. It's better than white, though. I can't remember the brand, and I don't have any of the bags right now (I empty them into bins with lids). I'll look next time I'm at the store, though. If not with the regular flour, check the "diet" section, since that's the only reason most people use wheat around here. :-/
I'm happy that you've found my blog. One of the main reasons I started it was to bless people living overseas with recipes that they could actually make. I need to figure out a way to get the link to more people who could use it.
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