A Multigrain Coffee Cake That Reminds Me of Grandma’s House
cinnamon, pecan, coffee & cocoa filling and struesel crumb topping
A Multigrain Coffee Cake That Reminds Me of Grandma’s House
My grandma, Gammy, was notorious for burning water.
I didn’t grow up perched on a kitchen counter licking batter off whisks.
For breakfast, Gammy liked a good old dirty martini.
I liked hot coffee cake with cold butter.
She always kept a box of Aunt Jemima coffee cake mix in the pantry. Just add an egg and milk straight into the bag, squish it until it turns into batter, top with cinnamon streusel, and bake.
I was hypnotized watching it rise and bubble in the toaster oven. I couldn’t wait to slather it with cold butter and wash it down with a big glass of milk. I’d eat the whole damn box.
After a quick Google search, it looks like Kylie Jenner is leading the march to bring that coffee cake mix masterpiece back to life. So there’s that.
Needless to say, my passion for food came from eating, not from passed-down cooking traditions.
That’s a slippery slope when you factor in emotional eating. It also helps explain how I’ve collectively gained and lost over a thousand pounds in my lifetime. I’ll unpack that story in another post.
When I bake now, I want each recipe to tease all the senses. Some of the strongest memories we carry live in smell and taste.
From the domed crumb, to the seeded crunchy streusel, to the aromatic cinnamon-coffee filling, to the fluffy grain-studded batter, this cake does what food should do. It creates new memories, rooted in old ones. Just like Grandma’s house.
The Filling and the Top
This recipe uses my gluten-free Blanco MuFin base.
I fold quinoa and toasted oats into the batter, layer in an aromatic filling of ground pecans, cocoa powder, good cinnamon, and coffee, then finish it with a seeded crumble for texture and balance.
I always keep a big batch of streusel base in the freezer. Just butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Feel free to double or triple the recipe below.
You can pull it straight from the freezer and turn it into a crumble for apple pies, MuFins, cookies, even roasted spaghetti squash.
It saves time and removes friction. Two things home cooks need more of.
