Old-Fashioned German Coffee Cake

Week 342. Fall 2022. I am 39 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like cinnamon and falling leaves and this is my life. This is the life I built.

I went for a run this morning — the Saturday routine, the greenbelt, the river, the particular meditation of feet on a path and lungs filling and the body doing what it was told it couldn't do. The running group meets rain or shine.

Mason is 11 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 9 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made pot roast this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

That cinnamon in the air on Saturday morning wasn’t just a mood — it was this cake, the one that’s been sitting in my recipe box longer than my children have been alive. After a run and a week that felt like all the weeks, I wanted something that didn’t ask anything of me, something whose smell alone was enough to make a kitchen feel like home. This is that recipe: steady, old-fashioned, and exactly right for an ordinary morning you want to hold onto.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 38 min | Total Time: 58 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Streusel Topping:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and set aside.
Make the streusel. In a medium bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup flour, brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add cold butter cubes and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to work the mixture until it resembles coarse, clumpy crumbs. Refrigerate while you make the batter.
Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat softened butter and granulated sugar together with a hand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions. Mix in vanilla extract.
Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
Finish the batter. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream (begin and end with flour). Mix just until combined — do not overmix.
Assemble. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan. Remove streusel from refrigerator and scatter it evenly over the top, pressing it gently so it adheres.
Bake. Bake for 35–40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the streusel is golden. Begin checking at 35 minutes.
Cool and serve. Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature. Keeps well covered at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Old-Fashioned German Coffee Cake — The Kitchen That Holds Everything