American Coffee Cake

This coffee cake comes from the cookbooks of Casstown Lostcreek Grange in Miami County, Ohio, the kind of farm-community recipe that has been pulling double duty as Sunday breakfast and after-church social fare for over a hundred years. The technique gives away its age and provenance: separated eggs whipped to stiff peaks before folding, a chunky cinnamon-sugar streusel topping, and a recipe yield that fills two square pans for feeding the whole family or the whole hall.

Beating the egg whites stiff before folding them into the batter is what gives this cake its tender, almost soufflé-like crumb. Most modern coffee cakes use whole eggs and produce a denser texture. Skip this step and you’ve made a generic quick bread.

The streusel topping is just butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon (no nuts or oats), and the simplicity is what allows it to crisp into a thin, crackly cinnamon shell rather than a thick crumble. Spread it before baking, not after.

Pro Tips

• Sift the flour with the leavening THREE times as the recipe says, this old-fashioned step incorporates air and produces a finer crumb than once-sifted flour
• The phrase ‘chop butter in with spoon’ means cutting cold butter into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon edge until it resembles coarse meal, like making biscuits
• Spread the topping evenly, dollops in clumps leave bare patches on the finished cake
• Test for doneness at 35 minutes, this Grange recipe runs to 45 minutes but ovens vary widely
• Serve warm with strong coffee for the most authentic Sunday-morning experience

Variations

• Stir 1 cup of fresh blueberries into the batter for a fruited version
• Add ½ cup of chopped pecans or walnuts to the streusel for a nutty crunch
• Drizzle the cooled cake with a thin powdered-sugar glaze for a sweeter finish