Copycat Starbuck's Classic Coffee Cake

Coffee cakes don't get the same respect as, say, a three-tier, buttercream frosted cake or a flourless chocolate torte or a cream cheese encased carrot cake. I just think that's wrong because a cinnamon laced coffee cake

 with a streusel topping  fresh from the oven is one of the best uses of butter, eggs, and sugar that I know of. It may explain why I have so many coffee cakes on my blog and why I still have a number of dog-eared recipes torn out of magazines and newspapers waiting to be tested.

Having volunteered to bake for the annual meeting of a volunteer group I belong to, I decided to try something new. Among the many bookmarks on my laptop I found this copycat recipe for Starbuck's classic coffee cake. Reading through the ingredients, I knew this was the kind of cake I needed to bake and hurry out of the house--3 sticks of butter! 

I decided to double the topping as was suggested and use half to create a ribbon of cinnamon streusel through the cake to augment the streusel on top of the cake. You can never have too many crumbs on a coffee cake after all. This cake yields 18 good-sized pieces.

• Topping
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Batter
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon saltshopping list
• 1/3 cup half and half
• 
  
• OPTIONAL:  To get that ribbon of cinnamon through your cake, double recipe for the topping topping and reserve half (minus nuts if you like). Spread half of the batter in the prepared pan--batter is thick, sprinkle half of doubled recipe over that making sure to cover entire cake,hen spread the rest of the batter and top the cake with the other half of the topping mixture. 
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Make topping by combining 1 cup flour with brown sugar, a stick of softened butter and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a medium bowl. Mixture should have the consistency of moist sand. Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans.
• In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup butter, 3/4 cup light brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
• In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add this dry mixture to the moist ingredients a little bit at a time. Add half n half and mix well.
• Spoon the batter into a 9 x 13-inch baking pan that has been buttered and dusted with a light coating of flour.
• 
  
• Sprinkle the crumb topping over the batter. Be sure the topping completely covers the batter.
• Bake cake for 50 minutes, or until the edges just begin to turn light brown. Cool and slice into 8 pieces.
• ***********************************************************
• TASTE NOTES
• I was convinced that this cake was going to be a dismal failure. There was no mention in the recipe of the fact that the batter is very, very thick. So thick, in fact, that I had to spread it on the bottom of the pan and drop it, like biscuits, over the middle layer of streusel. Imagine my delight when it baked up perfectly after 50 minutes. My half of a piece--I cannot post about something I haven't tasted--made me want to open up a quart of milk and take a spoon to the entire pan. This coffee cake is not for the faint of heart. It is a rich tasting, buttery cake with a bit of sweet crunchiness in each bite. It is going to be hard to say good-bye, but I might just give up dinner tomorrow night and have a whole piece. It's that good. Make it soon!