It’s Friday, so to end the week on an efficient note (and begin a weekend of wild inefficiency), here’s a recipe that can double as breakfast or dessert. The original Pillsbury recipe yields two round cakes, but I halved it and made it as written below, sans icing. I actually love icing, but I just plain forgot to make it and then discovered this cake didn’t really need it.
Here’s a link to the double version.
Whole Wheat Walnut Coffee Cake
Streusel:
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped (micro-toast for 2 minutes)
2 1/2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cake:
1 cup lightly spooned and swept whole wheat flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons lightly beaten egg (approximately)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Icing:
6 tablespoons powdered sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon water
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a shiny round 8 inch cake pan with flour added cooking spray.
Stir together walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Stir very thoroughly.
Add the soft (not melted!) butter to flour mixture and mash with a spoon, coating as much flour as possible. Using fingers or a pastry cutter, cut mixture until it is coarse and mealy like soft bread crumbs (I used fingers).
Mix together the milk, egg and vanilla. Add to flour mixture and stir (do not beat) until well mixed. It should look a bit like cream of wheat – not that smooth.
Spread about 2/3 batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle half of nut mixture over batter. Spread remaining batter over nuts, then top with remaining nut mixture.
Bake on center rack for 25-30 minutes or until done.
Cool a bit, then drizzle with icing. To make the icing, mix together the 6 tablespoons powdered sugar and about 1 tablespoon of water – just enough to get a smooth consistency. Spoon the icing over the coffee cake or, if the coffee cake is cool, put the icing in a zipper bag, snip a tiny hole off the end of the zipper bag and squeeze it out decoratively.
Anna
Hi Sara,
There is no coffee in the cake. It’s called coffee cake because one would typically have a piece with coffee (like Madeira cake — no Madeira, but you might have a slice with a glass of it).
Sara
Where is the coffee is this recipe?
Kathie
Delicious!
Anna
Hi Nona,
I certainly will! I’ve found some great whole wheat recipes and I should share them.
nona
I love this cake and make it just about every week. I love whole wheat cakes but haven’t found too many good ones on the internet. Please, please post more whole wheat cake recipes. Thanks!
katherine
Nice and easy coffee cake! And it’s really good. I used white whole wheat flour and omitted the icing. I didn’t think it needed it either.
Anna
Hi Leslie,
That just means that when you measure your flour, you need to fluff it up (which you should always do) then spoon it into the measuring cup without shaking it or packing it down. Spooning flour into the cup, as opposed to scooping the flour into the cup, gives you slightly less flour because the flour doesn’t pack down.
Leslie
this sounds GREAT, but i am a beginner at all of this, and i have a dumb question–what does it mean when you say the flour needs to be “spooned and swept?”
HeartofGlass
Only 3 tablespoons of butter in the whole thing, and whole wheat flour–this is right up my alley, healthy and yummy and filling! And nutty 😉
sharon
Healthy coffee cake? Ahh, just what I need! 🙂
Katrina
Yum! You know I love whole grains!
Cookie
I wanted to tell you that I got the idea of using Raspberries in cookies from you but I took a different approach. I used Brownie Mix to make really chocolatey cookies and then mixed the raspberries in before scooping them onto the baking sheet. They were SO good and my coworkers can’t get enough of them! 🙂
Hannah
Looks good! I love coffee cake. And whole wheat? Even better! I wonder if you could sub honey for the sugar in the inside………..
VeggieGirl
Those magic cookie bars sound fun; and that coffee cake!! Yum!!
Happy Friday, Anna!! 🙂