Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

I’ve been really enjoying being able to bake in the morning and take a cake to work that s fresh from the oven! I don’t think that there is anything better than cinnamon rolls hot from the oven, and this cake replicates those flavors, but in a less time-consuming coffee cake.

This cake doesn’t use the mixer at all, which is nice, but still makes a fair number of dishes to wash up.  I’m not exactly sure why you don’t add the butter in with the rest of the wet ingredients. This is fairly standard procedure for this method of baking, so if you want to add all the wet ingredients together and mix it with the flour at once, I imagine that you’d be ok. The brown sugar/cinnamon mixture that you use to create the swirl is fairly thick, so just do the nest you can to swirl it and I promise that it will look just fine.

The only thing that I would change next time is to make sure you peel off the parchment paper before glazing the cake. I left it with the paper and then glazed it and then…how do I get it off without messing up the glaze? Not so smart on my part! It was warm still, too, so fairly delicate but I got it off without clobbering it too much. I took it to work nice and warm it seemed to be very popular.

Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1-1/2 tablespoons flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9 inch pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate small bowl whisk together the egg, milk, and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix gently with a spatula until combined. Slowly add the melted butter and mix until just combined. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Make the cinnamon filling: mix the butter, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl. Drop by spoonfuls onto the cake batter. Using a knife, swirl the cinnamon filling around the cake batter to get a marbled effect.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

Make the glaze: mix the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla in a small bowl. Drizzle the glaze over the warm cake.

Recipe from Food Wanderings in Asia