People like cake. Now, I’m more of a cookie-and-brownie person myself, but even I understand that there’s a reason why we have birthday cake and not birthday brownies or birthday pie. People like cake.

There are all kinds of cakes out there – celebration cakes, breakfast cakes – and my personal favorite, ice cream cake – but the best cakes out there are the everyday cakes. Cakes that isn’t too drenched in too-sweet frosting so you can snack on it between meals, cake that you can offer someone for no reason at all.

I adapted this from an Ina Garten recipe, simply because I wanted to make the perfect crumb cake without making a trip to the store for ingredients. I had everything on the list for Ina’s cake except the blueberries, so a blueberry-less cake it would be.

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffee Cake

What you need:

Streusel
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

Cake
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (3/4 stick)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2/3 cup creme fraiche
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup fresh blueberries (optional)
Confectioners’ sugar for sprinkling

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch round baking pan.

2. For the streusel: Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Stir in the melted butter and then the flour. Mix well and set aside.

3. For the cake:  Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed for 4 to 5 minutes, until light. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs 1 at a time, then add the vanilla, lemon zest, and creme fraiche.

4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the batter until just combined. Fold in the blueberries and stir with a spatula to be sure the batter is completely mixed.

5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out with a knife. With your fingers,crumble the topping evenly over the batter. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.

Tagged as: breakfast cake, cake, cinnamon cake, Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake, coffee cake, crumb cake, dessert