Vanilla Buttermilk Coffee Cake w/Brown Sugar Bacon Topping & Maple Icing

It's been a while since my last post - a long while, and for that I'm sorry. I had run out of inspiration and other things were going on at home. But I'm back and I'm back with bacon! I don't want to tell you how to run your kitchen, but I recommend cooking the bacon beforehand like perhaps the night before. Since I used an entire 12oz. package of bacon (yes you read that correctly), I baked it in the oven so it wouldn't take forever to cook. An entire package of bacon might seem excessive, but when you consider how much bacon shrinks during cooking you see why I used that much. Feel free to adjust the amount of bacon.

Maple Walnut Spice Coffee Cake w/Maple Icing

Fall is absolutely my most favorite season. Besides pumpkin, my other favorite fall flavors are maple and spices - especially cinnamon. This time of year, I also use pumpkin pie spice in my baking. If you don't have pumpkin pie spice then go ahead and use cinnamon with nutmeg or allspice if you've got it. This time I used pure maple syrup in the icing, folks. However, since real maple syrup is a little pricey, I used maple extract in the cake. And really, there's nothing stopping you from drizzling extra maple syrup on top of this coffee cake!

Lemon-Lime Coffee Cake

Lemon-lime sodas are okay. I can take them or leave them...usually I leave them. I do, however, like lemon and lime pastries - like lemon bars or key lime pie. I cannot promise that this coffee cake will taste like either lemon bars or key lime pie, but I will say that it is a scrumptious breakfast or afternoon treat. If you want more lemon flavor in your cake, then try adding 1 teaspoon of lemon extract.

Breakfast Berry Granola Coffee Cake

Nothin' says "summertime" quite like berries. Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries - I love them all. I wanted to make a berry coffee cake for two reasons: (1) I just bought a gorgeous Fiestaware© 9x13 rectangular baker, and (2) our family went berry picking over the weekend. Here is one way to combine two breakfast favorites: berries and granola.