Gram’s Butter Coffee Cake

Gram’s Butter Coffee Cake

I was thinking about my grandmother a lot this week. She would have turned 107 last Sunday. She lived with us the whole time I was growing up and she's like a second mother to me.

Ooh, you're going to like this.

Gram loved to cook, and I acquired most of her recipes and notes. Some day I hope to do a little cookbook in honor of her. One thing Gram liked to cook was this butter coffee cake and it was always one of my favorites. It often accompanied Sunday brunch.

What do you remember about weekends from your childhood? A lot of things come to mind for me. When I was real young, I remember Saturday morning cartoons. When I was older, my weekends revolved around my friends. I remember getting together with my high school friends for our ‘poker games’ which involved more laughing and goofing around than poker. Often a set of darts was involved, but I don’t have room to explain how that worked. Our poker games were sometimes hard on sliding glass doors, but were always fun.

Another memory from my childhood, is the memory of big brunches on Sunday’s after Mass. Eggs and/or pancakes and/or french toast along with bacon, sausage or ham often graced the table. On of my favorite treats was this butter coffee cake.

I was never one for eating a lot of sweets but I always had a weakness for this coffee cake. Gram would make this often and I usually had several pieces of it.

1/2 lb. butter
3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 eggs

1/2 cup (approx.) milk 

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation

Mix salt, flour, baking powder, and sugar with the butter until the mixture becomes crumb size. Remove 2 cups of this mixture and reserve.

Add the three eggs, unbeaten, to the remaining mixture. Add enough milk to make a heavy cake batter. Add vanilla, mix well and put into a greased cake pan.

Sprinkle the 2 cups of reserved mixture over top. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Serving

Here's to you, Gram. Happy belated birthday.

This coffee cake is a great way to finish off a nice brunch. It is not too sweet and goes great with French Roast coffee.

Serve this coffee cake after eggs over easy, thick sliced ham  carved off the bone, fresh baked bread, toasted and spread with butter and a fine Veneto Prosecco sparkling wine from Italy. 

If you would also like some coffee, that's ok. Have the wine with the ham and eggs and the Starbucks with your coffee cake.