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.

Apple Cider Pecan Coffee Cake w/Apple Cider Icing

Pumpkin pie, hot cocoa, apples, and apple cider are all Fall favorites. Well, at least they're my favorites. I wish I could say that I lovingly make homemade hot spiced apple cider from freshly juiced apples...but I can't. The truth is that I buy instant hot apple cider just like I buy instant hot cocoa. I use the Alpine Spiced Apple Cider. You can usually find it next to the hot cocoa at the grocery store. This coffee cake is inspired by my husband's apple cider pancakes: it's yummy and not too sweet, which is just how I like my coffee cake. The key here is to not reconstitute the spiced cider mix. In other words, don't add water; just add the mix directly to the dry ingredients.

Peanut Butter Coffee Cake w/Chocolate Swirl

Baked goodies with peanut butter are totally awesome! I love peanut butter cupcakes, peanut butter frosting, and peanut butter cookies. It was time to take a break from the Fall baking and make something with peanut butter...just because. The chocolate swirl is really just sugar mixed with cocoa powder. Instead of cinnamon sugar, think of it as chocolate sugar.

Brown Sugar Swirl Coffee Cake w/Brown Sugar Icing

I've always liked a simple brown sugar streusel topping on a coffee cake. It's kind of hard to have a streusel topping on a bundt cake, so I thought I would move the streusel to the center and make a swirl. The icing is my second brown sugar icing recipe. For this one, I used dark brown sugar because I think it has a richer flavor than light brown sugar, but go ahead and use whichever one you have.

Buttermilk Vanilla Coffee Cake w/Pumpkin Spice Icing

The cake itself is a very basic vanilla buttermilk coffee cake. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it can be the basis for many coffee cake creations. Perhaps I'll give it it's own post. At any rate, I wanted the pumpkin flavor to come from the icing instead of the cake. This would be a wonderful treat to have with that pumpkin spice latte you've been craving.

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!

Good Morning Carrot Coffee Cake w/Cream Cheese Icing

This coffee cake is based on the Morning Glory muffins, which have lots of healthy stuff...at least that's what I tell myself. Yes, the ingredients list is long. But, honestly, the bulk of the prep work is shredding the carrot and the apple and mashing the banana. Some may say, "This is really a carrot cake posing as a coffee cake." And? ☺

Spiced Chai Latte Coffee Cake w/Honey Icing

Fall is my favorite time of year and with it comes pumpkin spice lattes and warm chai tea in the cool afternoons...with a generous slice of coffee cake. Coffee cakes are also good for the BFD menu, or breakfast for dinner. For this coffee cake, I used the Oregon Chai Tea Latte Mix. Whichever brand you use, make sure that it's already concentrated, or you'll have to do it yourself. In this case, I reduced the amount of water by half.

Pineapple Coffee Cake w/Macadamia Coconut Topping and Orange Icing

If I had called this coffee cake the Hawaiian Coffee Cake, then that would have sounded like such a cliche. I mean really just because it has pineapple, macadamia nuts, and coconut doesn't necessarily make it Hawaiian, does it? And besides, it's not like Hawaiian Coffee Cake is any easier to say than Pineapple Coffee Cake with Macadamia Coconut Topping and Orange Icing. ☺

Lemon Berry Coffee Cake w/Lemon Curd Icing

It's mid-summer and I realized that I needed more lemony recipes. Lemons, berries, and buttermilk just scream "summer". OK, maybe not so much the buttermilk, but all three of them are perfect in a summer coffee cake. In spite of the fancy lemon curd, this is not a delicate cake. The words "old-fashioned", "country" and "picnic cake" come to mind when describing this cake. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

Apple Cornbread Coffee Cake w/Honey Icing

It's almost a requirement at our house to slather butter and honey on the cornbread. When I came across the recipe for a peach cornbread coffee cake, I knew I wanted to try it. But, I'm not a huge peach fan. I mean, I can take 'em or leave 'em, and I definitely didn't want to used canned pie filling. The result: sauteed apples as a substitute for the peaches. I like apples and I like cornbread. I hope you will, too. 

Buttermilk Banana Coffee Cake w/Maple Icing

I like bananas, but when it comes to banana in baked goods, I admit that I only make them so as to placate my conscience by not throwing away really ripe bananas. This time, I deliberately saved a banana to make a coffee cake. All kidding aside, a mashed banana makes for a moist cake. The key is a really ripe banana. As you look at it you should be thinking to yourself, "If I don't use it today, I'm gonna toss it tomorrow."

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.