Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake

We put the offer in on the Hancock Street colonial Sunday night. Above asking but not crazy. We heard back Monday that there were two other offers -- Quincy is moving, has been moving, will keep moving. We sharpened the offer Tuesday. Then we waited. I did not write about it for three days because I could not. The waiting is the part I am worst at. I hold my breath without realizing I am holding it. Sean keeps working. Sean has always been better at this specific kind of patience. I think it comes from teaching -- you cannot rush a fifteen-year-old through a concept, you have to wait for the drop, so his patience is conditioned over years of being unable to move the work faster than the student. I do not have that conditioning. I have the oncology conditioning, which is the exact opposite, which is that time is not on our side and everything moves fast.

Thursday afternoon the realtor called. Our offer was accepted. I did not cry this time. I sat down on the kitchen floor and Liam came over and said "are you tired" and I said "a little" and he said "okay" and went back to his trucks. The inspection is scheduled for the fifteenth. We are not doing anything emotional until after the inspection. We have a rule now.

The advent calendar went up Wednesday -- the wooden one my mother bought for us the year Liam was born, with the little drawers. Liam opened December 1 with the focus of a surgeon. Inside was a small chocolate Santa. He ate it, then asked what December 2 would have. I said he would find out tomorrow. He accepted this. He is developing patience. I notice it. I am proud of it. I do not know where he got it. I am going to stop trying to figure out which parent to credit.

Liam's preschool pageant was Friday. It was forty minutes of three- and four-year-olds singing Christmas songs at three different tempos with maximum enthusiasm and minimal coordination. Liam was a shepherd. He wore a bathrobe. He sang every word of "Away in a Manger" at full volume and out of sync and held his little wooden staff at an angle that suggested authority. Sean filmed it. Maureen was there -- she drove down specifically -- and cried twice. I cried once. Nora ate a Cheerio and watched. We went to dinner afterward. The pageant was perfect.

Made soda bread for the first time this season on Saturday. Maureen's recipe, not the fancy one with raisins and caraway -- the plain one, flour, buttermilk, baking soda, salt, a little butter. The one she made my entire childhood, that sat on the counter in its towel, that got sliced at breakfast and dinner and three meals in between. I cut the cross on the top because Maureen cuts the cross. I do not believe in cross-cutting. I do believe in doing the thing my mother did so that my children watch me do the thing my mother did so that my grandchildren, someday, will know where it came from. Maureen called this "the most Irish explanation of a superstition" she had ever heard. I laughed. She laughed. The bread came out.

Maureen’s soda bread held us through Saturday, but by Sunday morning the wooden advent calendar was open to December 2 and Liam was already at the kitchen table waiting for something warm — and I wanted to give him that, something with a little more occasion to it, something he might someday remember slicing at a counter while his own kids watched. This Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake is the kind of recipe that earns a place in that rotation: simple enough that you’ll actually make it on a Tuesday, festive enough for the season, and sturdy enough to sit on the counter in a towel and get better as the morning goes on.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 55 minutes | Servings: 9

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup cherry preserves or cherry jam
1/4 cup powdered sugar, for glaze
1 to 2 teaspoons milk, for glaze

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Grease an 8x8-inch square baking pan and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt until evenly combined.
Combine the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or measuring cup, stir together the milk, melted butter, beaten egg, and vanilla extract.
Make the batter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined — a few small lumps are fine. Do not overmix.
Layer the batter and cherry swirl. Spread about two-thirds of the batter into the prepared pan. Drop the cherry preserves by spoonfuls evenly over the batter. Drop remaining batter over the preserves in small dollops, then use a butter knife to swirl the two together gently with 3 or 4 passes.
Bake. Place in the preheated oven and bake 38 to 42 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs and the top is golden.
Cool and glaze. Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes. Whisk the powdered sugar with 1 to 2 teaspoons of milk until you have a thin drizzleable glaze, then drizzle over the top. Slice into 9 squares and serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cherry Swirl Coffee Cake — The One You Make So Your Children Watch You Make It