Coffee cake is a wonderful sweet treat to have with coffee (or without), so I was pleased to find a hundred-year-old recipe for Coffee Cake. The cake turned out well. It was moist and tender with a nice cinnamon and sugar topping.
Here’s the original recipe:
And, there’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Coffee Cake
Cake
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons shortening, melted
1 cup milk
Topping Mixture
3 teaspoons flour + additional, if needed
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar + additional, if needed
3 tablespoons shortening
Preheat oven to 375° F. Put all of the cake ingredients in a mixing bowl. Beat to combine. Put batter in a greased and floured 9-inch square cake pan.
In a separate bowl, place the flour cinnamon, and sugar. Stir to combine. Add the shortening, and mix together until the texture is crumbly. It may helpful to use your hands to get the shortening mixed in. (When I made the recipe I added more flour and sugar than called for in the original recipe, to make it more crumbly).
Spread the topping mixture over the top of the cake. Bake for 30 – 35 minutes, or until a wooden pick comes out clean.
A Hundred Years Ago 
Ah, now you’ve gone and disappointed my husband. He loves coffee cake. But it has to contain coffee! 😉
I also thought that a coffee cake had at least a hint of coffee. But I guess it’s about accompanying the coffee
I didn’t mean to be a mythbuster, but Coffee Cake generally doesn’t include coffee. Rather coffee cake is supposed to go well with coffee.
I’ve eaten cakes with mocha (coffee) frosting, but I don’t think that I’ve ever had a cake that contained actual coffee.
Really? Isn’t, for instance, coffee and walnut cake a thing? It’s a real coffee-shop favourite here.
I’ve never heard of coffee and walnut cake, but it sounds delightful.
It IS. A true British standard: https://www.nigella.com/recipes/coffee-and-walnut-layer-cake
Coffee cake: a staple of midwestern kitchens for decades. When “come by for coffee” was a standing invitation and “coffee klatch” still was in our vocabulary, this sort of coffee cake was a necessity.
That was my experience too growing up in the heartland of Indiana!
There apparently was regional variation in the popularity of Coffee Cake. When I was growing up in Pennsylvania, we occasionally made coffee cake, but didn’t have it very often. It sounds like Coffee Cake was made more frequently in the midwest.
I haven’t heard the term “coffee klatch” in many years, but it brings back warm memories.
Growing up, especially in the summer, my mother always had coffee cake handy for when the neighbors came over (there was always someone drinking coffee at the kitchen table). Us kids only were allowed to have it on Sundays – if there was any leftover. Monday was when she baked a new one!
Hopefully there was still some Coffee Cake on Sunday. 🙂
I love coffee cake and was curious about the Dr. Price baking powder. Turns out he was the grandfather of the actor : ) Also will be trying this recipe, the small size will be just right!
Fascinating – I never would have put it together that Dr. Price was Vincent Price’s grandfather. Your comment led me to google “Dr. Price baking powder”, and I was even more surprised to discover that the doctor and the actor shared the same first name. I think that you’ll like the recipe. The Coffee Cake has a nice taste.
This looks so good! I can almost smell the cinnamon. It looks a lot like a recipe I made from a Bisquick box years ago…
There probably are a lot of similarities. The Bisquick would have already contained a leavening agent, so you may not have needed to add baking power.
Probably so. Very good, as I remember.
Your comment reminds me of Impossible Pies that my mother used to make. They were made with Bisquick. The Bisquick was combined with other ingredients, but it sank to the bottom and made a crust.
Yes, I remember those!
I’ve made coffeecakes that are very similar. They always disappear quickly.
The one I made for this post is rapidly disapearing. 🙂
Afternoon tea and cake 😋
Tea works . . . hmm, I wonder if the cake should be called Tea Cake. 🙂
I like coffee cake. It’s such an easy thing to whip together in a hurry.
Coffee cakes are much easier to make than frosted cakes. 🙂
Coffee cakes are a big hit around here. The baking of the cake is just as delightful.
I agree – it’s fun to make coffee cakes.