When I think of any slow morning or big breakfast, the first thing that comes to my mind is coffee cake. Dense, crumbly and lightly sweet, coffee cake, also called crumb cake, is the pinnacle of baked goods, enjoyed with a cup of hot coffee.
Over fall break, I dug deep into the catacombs that are my mother’s family recipe boxes and found the coffee cake recipe of my childhood, created by my great-grandma June in the 1930s. Great-grandma June’s recipe reflected the finances of the Great Depression, but that’s how it is with coffee cake recipes, adapted at the hands of bakers over the centuries.
The origins of coffee cake are unknown, though countries like Germany, Austria and Denmark are among the countries thought to have created the scrumptious dessert. When coffee was introduced to Europe in the 1600s, the aforementioned countries quickly took up the pairing of coffee and their traditional sweet breads, which were full of spices and nuts.
When Dutch and Germans immigrated to the U.S., they brought with them their recipes for coffee cakes. Americans fell in love with this influx of new recipes, especially desserts, and coffee cake quickly exploded into a popular treat.
My family’s recipe was perfected in the DeLalio family farmhouse in Long Island, New York, during the Great Depression. Using few ingredients, but a whole lot of shortening, the five steps recipe was ridiculously easy, even for me.
I deviated just a bit from the recipe to make it a little more modern (sorry, Great-grandma June) by sneaking in some dashes of vanilla, replacing some granulated sugar for brown sugar and switching out some of the shortening with butter (because who on earth wants a cake with 1 ⅓ cups of shortening?). I also put my own stamp on the crumb creation by adding more cinnamon, and when it cooled, enough confectioners’ sugar to cover all of my baking sins.
A bite of the cake confirmed its success, with the rich, moist cake contrasting perfectly with a solid inch of spiced crumbs, all of it topped with the delicate sweetness of the confectioners’ sugar. I’d managed to create what my mother calls a “dream-bite,” everything eaten in perfect balance through a single bite.
DeLalio Crumb Cake (circa 1934)
4 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar (I modified with 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white)
1 ⅓ teaspoons salt
1 ¼ cups shortening (can be substituted with melted butter according to preference. I used half shortening and half melted butter)
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
3 teaspoons cinnamon (add more to taste)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
Mix the first 4 ingredients. Set aside 3 cups of the mixture for crumb topping. Add baking powder to the remaining mixture. Add eggs and milk and mix until smooth. Pour into a greased 13-by-9-inch pan.
Add cinnamon and butter to 3 cups of crumb mixture. Spread crumbs evenly over batter. Bake at 325 F for about 30 minutes. Mix cinnamon with confectioners’ sugar and sprinkle on top.
