Weekend Cooking: Wycliffe Hotel Coffee Cake

I love when you can make recipes that are featured in novels! Last Saturday I sat down and devoured the three short story collection, A Home for Christmas by M.K. McClintock. Set in the American West in the days leading up to Christmas, this collection is full of heartwarming moments, and food. In the story Teton Christmas, the hotelier makes a well-loved coffee cake. When I got to the end of the book and found the recipe for this cake, I had to make it for Weekend Cooking and coordinate it with my review of the collection (which posts Monday 11/24).

Wycliffe Hotel Coffee Cake
Serves approx. 15-20 people (depending on slice size)

Ingredients:
2 ⅓ cups flour
¾ cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup coconut flakes
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups non-fat milk
2 ½ cups fresh blackberries, raspberries, or huckleberries

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 13” baking pan and flour it.

2) Combine ⅓ cup flour, ¼ cup butter, coconut, brown sugar, and cinnamon – set aside. This is your coffee cake topping.

3) Sift flour with baking powder and salt into a small bowl – set aside.

4) Beat ½ cup butter until fluffy. Gradually add 1 cup sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each.

5) Mix dry mixture into the wet, alternating with adding milk in three steps.

6) Fold in the berries.

7) Pour into pan, sprinkle with topping mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.

I had no idea what exactly this cake was supposed to look like. I envisioned something tall and crumbly – sort of like an Entenmann’s, but with berries (I used raspberries and blackberries in mine). My pan might have been larger than 13” (the above photo is only half of the cake) – so maybe that is why mine came out more like bars rather than cake. Flavor is still really good and the cake is moist and tender. I’m not a huge coconut fan, but it tasted good in this cake.  I think I don't typically like how dry coconut flakes can be, but with the brown sugar it baked in nicely.  The topping sort of melted down into the top of the cake, maybe next time I would add it after it has started to cook some? Any suggestions? I took it to work last week and they devoured it – so it must be good, regardless of how it was supposed to come out.

Side note: I don’t know if you have ever used Pam for Baking – but I love it and use it all the time in place of the grease and flour method.  Just quicker and it smells SO amazing.

All attributions for this recipe are owed to M.K. McClintock and A Home for Christmas.

 

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Any post remotely related to cooking can participate.

 

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