Mourning Cake

I finally made my friend his coffee cake, at the urging of one of my fellow D&D party members, who said it was his ultimate dessert. Hopefully, this will help him, if any of us can actually get a hold of him, because he's kind of fallen off the map right now.

Coffee Cake
Another offering from allrecipes. I am obsessed with that site. Anyway, this is the original recipe, I did change it a bit though in the directions.

You will need, besides two days:

Cake

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk, as needed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Streusel Topping

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)

Cinnamon Butter Topping

•   2 tablespoons butter (more if desired)
•  Some of Streusel topping
  

Step One:
Prepare the Streusel topping first. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and cinnamon. Then cut in butter with a fork a bit at a time. Gradually add flour as needed to reach a crumbly consistency.

(*Here's a bit of editorializing though: although what I added first was 1/4 cup of flour, by the time I cut in a half of a stick of butter, it was NOT crumbling like the recipe said it would be. So, I took 1/4 scoop at a time and added more gradually. I cannot say for sure how much flour I added. I probably added in the neighborhood of 3-4 extra 1/4 scoops. I know, that's a big deviation from the recipe. But it finally started crumbling like it said. So, add gradually as you need, but start with at least 1/4 cup.)

When desired consistency is reach, put the bowl in the freezer overnight (or a couple of hours at least) so that when the Streusel topping is applied, it does not melt into the cake.

Step Two:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 8x8.5 (or a 9x13).

In another bowl, or in my case:

You get the idea.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter using another fork until mixture is like more coarse crumbs.

Step Three:
Crack an egg into a one cup measuring cup, add milk to make one cup. Add vanilla and mix.

Step Four:
Add gradually to dry ingredients bowl and mix well.  Spread it into greased pan.

Top with half of Streusal topping mixture. Bake 25-30 minutes or until center of cake is or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Step Five:
Mix half or less of Streusal topping with melted 2 tablespoons butter. Pour over cake. Apply rest of Streusel topping, if any left over.

Voila!

Tips

• I read in the comments on the original recipe page about freezing the Streusel, and I think it's a brilliant idea. It works really well.
• Next time, I'm going to add half the Streusel in the middle. 

So my D&D party and I are going to go and take the cake to his house later today. Hopefully it turns out well.

-A