Quick Coffee Cake

The other day I had an unexpected phone call from a friend. She was passing through on her way to a wedding and wanted to stop in for a quick cup of coffee so she could see the kids. In theory this would have been a great thing, except I knew I didn't have anything to feed her. I could do the coffee part, but really needed some cookies or cake to offer my guest.

I tried standing in front of my refrigerator trying to "will" a cheesecake to magically appear inside. It just didn't happen. Just as I was thinking about offering her coffee and teddy grahams, I remembered seeing a recipe for "Quick Coffee Cake" in my  Fannie Farmer cookbook. (I had tried making this once before and somehow forgot the baking powder – I am going to take a wild guess that I had one of my children hanging on me as I was putting the ingredients together.)

Luckily, this time I remembered the baking powder and was able to pop everything in the oven before she showed up!

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups white flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a square cake pan.

Step 1:
Mix the 1 cup sugar, the flour and the baking powder in a large bowl.

Step 2:
Work in the butter with your fingers or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg and milk and blend. Spoon into the pan.

Step 3:
Sprinkle the sugar-cinnamon mixture evenly over the top. Bake for 20 minutes. (I used 2 tablespoons sugar instead of 1.)

Thanks for Reading!
Daniele

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