If you like coffee cake, you’re going to want to try this old fashioned Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake recipe. This vintage recipe is worth the effort.
Coffee cake is one of those things. It’s comforting and familiar and perfect for breakfast. This one, made from a recipe from the 1930s, has a dense crumb and an irresistible buttery cinnamon sugar topping.
No, it’s not that impossibly fluffy and almost-dessert-sweet coffee cake from the grocery store. But it doesn’t want to be. It’s a totally different coffee cake — one that stands up to the fork without squishing into oblivion and that can be eaten by hand without crumbling all over. And it’s really great with a hot, steaming cup of coffee.
It is coffee cake after all.
Making this, I wasn’t sure if the vintage sensibilities would make it a winner for us. But it was. Hugely.
I whipped it up for a brunch with friends last weekend where the cake quickly vanished. Seriously, not a trace was left behind. Good sign, right? And it was so good that I baked another just for our family.
Back to the brunch for a second. Though I adore brunch, I don’t have people over (or go out) for it nearly enough. So I was thrilled to have a little one at my house. The brunch menu was simple — bagels and lox with all the fixings, scrambled eggs, berry and pineapple fruit salad and this Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake.
In the course of the conversation, I shared that this was a vintage recipe — something dug out of my great collection of early 20th-century cookery books, pamphlets and recipe cards.
This recipe comes from the third edition of All About Home Baking, published in 1936 (the original was published in 1933) by the General Foods Corporation, a now-defunct company whose products (Calumut baking powder, Post cereals, Maxwell House Coffee and General Foods International Coffees, to name a few) live on. I bought this hardcover book off eBay a while back.
My friend asked about my interest in vintage recipes, which really got me thinking about why I have been so into pre-1960s cookery. I made this conscious decision to reclaim lost cooking techniques because I feel like as the reliance on prepared, prepackage and shortcut based cooking has grown, we’ve lost some of the skill and technique that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used in the kitchen.
To them, making a quick coffee cake for breakfast or brunch or whatever was just that. It was simple, uncomplicated and easy.
And when I find a winner — like this coffee cake — I love to share it.
All told, this recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Coffee Cake takes about 30 minutes to make — maybe 40, if you include the cooling time. And most of that time is totally hands-off (making the dough for the cake takes maybe 5 minutes).
Be warned, instead of a batter this really makes a crumbly dough. Don’t worry if it doesn’t form a ball — you just need all the ingredients to have come together before you press it into a pan with floured hands.
And don’t change a thing about the buttery cinnamon-sugar topping. It’s the best part. (Aren’t topping always the best part?)
You can do this. Dust off that cake pan this weekend and give this Cinnamon-Sugar Coffee Cake recipe a try.
Yield: 8 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
recipe from All About Home Baking, 1936
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
6 tbsp butter
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
Topping:
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 9-inch cake pan all over the inside with a little butter.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter using a pastry cutter or two knives.
In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and milk until light and frothy.
Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir well until all combined. The dough will be somewhat stiff, but keep stirring until everything is incorporated.
Transfer the dough to the prepared pan. Using floured hands, gently pat it down into one even layer.
Brush the top of the coffee cake with melted butter. Then, stir together the sugar, flour and cinnamon for the topping. Sprinkle all over the top of the coffee cake.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out cleanly. Let cool for five minutes in the pan. Then, gently loosen the sides with a butter knife. Turn out onto a plate and then turn back onto a serving plate.
What Are Vintage Cakes? Vintage cakes are vintage or “retro” because they've been around (and around and around) for centuries. They're known for their frilly, over-piped design and can be traced back to the French Rococo style of the 1700s – an age known for its ornate and gilded designs.
Food historians agree that the tradition of coffee cake originated in Northern Central Europe sometime in the 17th century, marrying the introduction of coffee to Europe with an already-rich history of cake and pastry-baking.
American Coffee cake evolved from other sweet dishes from Vienna. In the 17th century, Northern/Central Europeans are thought to have come up with the idea of eating sweet cakes while drinking coffee.
Aunt Jemima is no longer producing this product due to challenges competing with other products in local supermarkets which resulted in declining sales.
Vintage cakes are made with buttercream frosting using traditional piping techniques that your Gran used to make. Think buttercream swirls, lace, basketweave and frills. Mix it all together in a variety of colours, patterns and shapes and you get this delightful on-trend current style.
Vintage cakes are usually made with buttercream frosting using traditional piping techniques such as swirls, shrills, drop loops, shells, lace, basketweave and frills. Use the detailed piping guide to achieve that elegant Victorian age design.
Coffee cake and regular cake are made with the same ingredients like flour, sugar, eggs, and butter and a leavening agent like baking powder. The difference is that instead of frosting on top, coffee cakes have crumble or streusel. Just like a cake, it can also have glaze or icing.
A buckle is a funny name for an old fashioned fruit studded coffee cake. Like many other desserts in the extended cobbler family buckles take their name from their appearance—grunts grunt as they cook, slumps slump when served, buckles—you guessed it—buckle.
Pointedly, the recipes in the Cake section were leavened with chemicals, while all the baked goods in the Coffee Cakes were raised with yeast and usually topped with chopped almonds, cinnamon, and sugar, and aptly named 'Kaffee Kuchen' and three others as simply 'Coffee Cake.
In general, coffee cake lasts a few days to a week — though it's typically at its softest and sweetest right after it's made. Melted butter is key for moist coffee cake, but this dessert tends to get drier over time.
What is the shelf life of the cake? The cake remains fresh for 14 days from date of shipment when stored on the kitchen counter or in the refrigerator. Refrigeration does not add to the shelf life of the cake. All cakes freeze beautifully for up to twelve months, either whole or sliced.
Accused of engaging in racial stereotyping, it was rebranded from Aunt Jemima to Pearl Milling Company by its current owner, PepsiCo, in 2021. It was a prime example of the risks companies can face in brand marketing.
In June 2021, amidst heightened racial unrest in the United States, the Aunt Jemima brand name was discontinued by its current owner, PepsiCo, with all products rebranded to Pearl Milling Company, the name of the company that produced the original pancake mix product.
Pinnacle Foods Inc. is voluntarily recalling all “Best By” dates of Aunt Jemima Frozen Pancakes, Frozen Waffles & Frozen French Toast Slices distributed nationally in the United States and one product into Mexico because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.
After briefly becoming wildly popular again in the 1970s and '80s, the cake style made its way onto our For You pages in recent years, thanks to Japanese and South Korean bakeries that garnered a cult following amid pandemic-induced boredom.
This is a cake breaker. This is from the 1950s. This is actually used to cut angel food cake or sponge cake because if you use a regular knife and you cut down on it, it pushes the cake down because it's so delicate and soft.
A spoiled cake that has gone bad will have an “off” odor, something a little sour or musky. If your cake has changed colors in any way, it may be on its way out the door. You can especially see this when your cheese cake frosting starts to get yellowed at the outer parts.
The world's oldest known cake, baked during the reign of Pepi II in Egypt between BCE 2251 and 2157. Alimentarium, Vevey, Switzerland. The Egyptians gave us the world's oldest known cake–and also the world's oldest Tupperware as it happens.
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Introduction: My name is Prof. Nancy Dach, I am a lively, joyous, courageous, lovely, tender, charming, open person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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