No--We Are Not Eating More Cake

I think some of you at church yesterday heard me say that my kitchen was closed until further notice. There was much cooking here at the farm over the last few weeks and I am cooked out. I declared it closed. And I meant it.

Except, that today it's my turn to provide a dessert for our monthly meal delivery to the Hospice House. And on Wednesday I am scheduled to do supper for the kids program at church. So much for "kitchen closed." I decided that "easy" was the next best thing to "closed."

I had planned to make a Honey Bun Cake yesterday afternoon. I already had cake mix on the shelf. Then when I began to pull out the rest of the ingredients and utensils, I discovered I didn't have a 9x13-inch foil pan. These meals are packaged so that no dishes have to be returned. This is a totally appropriate time to use disposables.

Now, we live six miles from the closest grocery store. I stood in the middle of the kitchen for a few minutes trying to think of some way to avoid making a trip into town. Then it dawned on me. In my rummage through the junk drawer last week, not only did I find Ellen's frosting recipe, I also saw a copy of the little red cookbook I put together right after we were married. Recipes gathered from everyone in the family years ago. I remembered Aunt Betty's coffee cake recipe was in there. (It's her chocolate pound cake recipe I use, too.) 

It also called for cake mix, which was already sitting out on the counter. And I knew I had a couple of round cake boards in the cabinet, so I could pack the cake for delivery. I checked for the rest of the ingredients and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that I had enough eggs.

I have no clue why this was called "Jewish" coffee cake. I googled that name and saw similar recipes. They made reference to old family recipes from Eastern Europe, and someone's recipe came from her mom who worked at a Jewish nursing home years ago. My Aunt Betty was Southern Baptist. I doubt she ever wondered about the name. It was just one of those recipes that got passed around from friend to friend. All they needed to know is that it was good cake.

It has been ages since I baked this. But I used to make it when I needed to take food to a friend in need. It can be dessert, or put it with a cup of coffee and call it breakfast!

JEWISH COFFEE CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup sour cream
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Filling:  3/4 cup sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons cocoa, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 cup chopped nuts.

Mix filling ingredients. Set aside.

Mix cake ingredients together. Beat well with hand mixer. Put half batter into well-greased Bundt pan. Sprinkle sugar mixture over batter. Spread rest of the batter over the top. Swirl with a knife.

Bake at 350 degrees (preheated) for 55 minutes. (I dusted it with powdered sugar after it cooled.)


You don't know how hard it was to keep from cutting this cake so I could have a photo of the inside. You'll just have to imagine the cinnamon/cocoa/nut swirl running through the center.