Jewish Coffee Cake

Nana, my father’s mother, obtained the recipe from a friend she used to visit in Door County, WI.  The first time I tasted this coffee cake I asked her for the recipe.  My grandmother died in the mid 70’s but I do still have good memoirs of her and as I said before certain recipes can help keep those memoirs alive.

I have made some change to the Jewish Coffee Cake since I first made it.  The changes made were to omit the 1 cup sour cream and 2 teaspoon vanilla and replace them with 1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt.  The best cinnamon I found to bake with is Vietnamese cinnamon.  The cinnamon is very fragrant and imparts a wonderful taste on baked goods.

I bake it in an angle food or Bundt cake pan.  After removing the coffeecake from the pan, find a pretty serving platter and sprinkle with a little powder sugar for a nice presentation. 

Jewish Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake Ingredients

1 package White Cake mix

1 package Instant Vanilla pudding (small package 0.8 oz)

4 eggs

½ cup of oil (I use olive oil)

1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt

Dry Mixture:

¾ cup of sugar

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

2 teaspoons of cocoa

¾ cup of broken pecans

Preheat the oven to 350^oF.

Mix the coffee cake ingredients about 5 minutes with electric mixer.  Grease angel food or Bundt Pan. 

Put a layer of the wet mixture in bottom of angle food pan and then take a teaspoon and sprinkle the dry mix over.  Then add another layer of the wet mixture; take your spoon and sprinkle more of the dry mix over it then add the last layer of wet mixture.  Now take the spoon and push the dry mix down into the cake gently.  If any of the dry mix is left on top and not mixed with the cake dough it will just sit there and will have to be removed so get it swirled into the cake batter the best you can.

Bake in the oven for 55 minutes.  Allow to cool, remove from pan and sprinkle with powder sugar.

Enjoy!