Don’t Forget About Breakfast {coffee cake}

I eat breakfast everyday. Sometimes more than once. Many of my meals contain the words “first” or “second” in front of them. For example, “for first breakfast I had a granola bar and then a couple hours later I had scrambled eggs for second breakfast.” In this case, the eggs shouldn’t be mistaken for first lunch.

So when I was contemplating what to cook for a friend who just had a new baby, it occurred to me that not only am I not much of a casserole person but I was sure she’d have more than enough dinners in her freezer to last her until her next child. Dinner gets a lot of cred when it comes to bringing over food for sick/mourning/recovering people but we forget that there are AT LEAST two other meals in the day that need attention. Supper be damned, I’m making breakfast.

Still adhering to the “you can freeze it” rule of dropping off food, I went straight to breakfast breads and sweets. And I got a little carried away. Let’s just say that they should be square on baked breakfast goodies through the holidays. I ended up making this coconut-raspberry banana bread, a blueberry cake and my mother-in-law’s holiday cream cheese coffee cake. And as a survivalist, I made enough to stock my freezer as well. Call me selfish if you want, I think I’m resourceful.

I’m glad I decided to share this one with you because the cream cheese coffee cake is definitely the best and the easiest. Although none of them is particularly hard. This recipe fills three 8″ square pans and I bought the disposable ones from the store for easy transport and freezing.

Here’s what you need:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

And for the topping:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• pinch of salt

This is what my counter looked like before the breakfast baking commenced.

Luckily you don’t need quite as much stuff for this recipe alone. Preheat your oven to 350°F. To get started, cream together the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, then add in the sugar and eggs and give it another spin.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the milk and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture and blend well. Then add the dry ingredients and mix for another three minutes until things are nice and smooth.

Pour the batter evenly among the three foil pans (that you have greased and floured) and prep the topping. In a small bowl, mix together (either by hand or with a couple forks) the butter, flour, brown sugar and pinch of salt.

Sprinkle that on top of the batter and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a tester comes out mostly clean.

Deliver one of these to a friend, put one in your freezer and eat the other one all by yourself.

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this is so gooey and ridiculous that I didn’t even put butter on top. That is, shall we say, out of character.

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