It’s time for Karen’s Killer Fixin’s! Over the years, I’ve filled two 4-inch, 3-ring binders with my own creations as well as recipes my family and friends were willing to share with me. I simply love to cook and want to share that love with my readers. So every Friday, I share one recipe I think you and your family might enjoy. It might be a main course recipe. A cookie or baked item. Candy. Salads. Whatever strikes my eye and fancy…which today is BERTA’S COFFEE CAKE!

I mentioned making this coffee cake on Facebook recently and had a request to share the recipe, so here it is. I can usually give coffee cake a miss, but not this one. It’s a moist and flavorful recipe, and been “in the family” four generations now with my grown children. So, who’s Berta, you ask? Berta was the cook at the college where my husband’s grandmother was a sorority housemother. My husband has lots of fond memories of visiting his grandmother at the sorority as a child, and Berta’s coffee cake was a favorite.

I hope you enjoy today’s Killer Fixin’s. Happy eating!

Karen

P.S. We’re at 180 recipes and counting with this posting. Hope you find some recipes you like. If this is your first visit, please check out past blogs for more Killer Fixin’s. In the right hand column menu, you can even look up past recipes by type. i.e. Desserts, Breads, Beef, Chicken, Soups, Author Specials, etc.

Karen’s Killer Fixin’s Blog

BERTA’S COFFEE CAKE
[Makes 9 x 12-inch cake]

NOTE: From Karen Docter’s personal family cookbook.

FILLING:
1 cup brown sugar
3 T. butter
2 T. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts (usually have walnuts handy, but pecans would work well, too.)

This makes a crumbly mixture similar in texture to the mixture you put on apple crisp. Mix and set aside.

CAKE BATTER:
½ cup butter
1-2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
5 eggs

Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Blend well.

3 ¼ cups flour
½ tsp. salt
1-7/8 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk

Sift dry ingredients together and add to cream mixture, alternately with milk.

Spray with pan coating one 9 x 12-inch pan. Pour thin layer of batter, sprinkle on filling, alternating layers until filling is on top. You won’t have a full layer of filling on top but that doesn’t matter. When all of the batter and filling is in the pan, take a knife and lightly cut/swirl the mixture so that the filling falls into more of the batter spaces. (Like making marble cake.)

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven, 30-40 minutes. You can test at 30 minutes with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, it’s done. If not, check again in 5-10 minutes more. Do not overcook.

This cake is scrumptious hot, cold, with melted butter, without butter, for breakfast, lunch, midnight snack. You may not even need to store it but if you can’t finish it off in one sitting…For storage: Let cool completely before covering with plastic wrap. Cake will dry out if placed in refrigerator without an airtight seal.