On a rainy day, like many days in DC, there isn’t much better than a hot cup of coffee and a rich piece of coffee cake.  It’s very soothing.  So soothing that it may just make up for the horrible upsetting loses you’ve experienced in you March Madness brackets over the last few days.  Sorry.  I’m projecting.

But seriously, this is really good.

A normal coffee cake is fine, but it’s Spring now so I wanted to throw just a bit of citrus in it.  It is an easy change and adds some lift to the final product.  It’s awesome without it though also.

Orange Coffee Cake (adapted from How To Cook Everything ^[1])

Batter:
- 2 Cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 Cup sugar
- 1 Teaspoon cinnamon
- 5 Tablespoons melted butter
- Pinch of salt
- 1 large egg
- Zest from one orange (probably about 1 Tablespoon)
- 1/2 Cup milk
- 1/4 Cup orange juice

Topping:
- 1 Cup brown sugar (I used light)
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 4 Tablespoons flour
- 1 Teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 Cup chopped pecans or walnuts

(NOTE: I increased the amount of topping in this recipe.  The original had 3/4 Cup brown sugar, 3 Tablespoons butter and 3 Tablespoons flour.  I did this because I like the topping a lot. Adjust accordingly for your tastes.)

I like to make the topping first which is as easy as mixing all of the topping ingredients together.

After you mash in your butter, you will end up with a crumbly mix that will melt perfectly in your cake.

Then get the zest off of an orange.  As always, you don’t want the white pithy part, just the bright orange layer.  About 1 Tablespoon is enough, but go crazy if you can get more off your orange.

The batter is equally easy.  Mix together your dry ingredients (including the zest) and then mush in your butter with a fork until it is evenly distributed.  If you have a mixer that should be easy.  Then add in your egg, followed by your other liquids.

In a 9 by 9 baking dish you want to pour in about half of your batter, followed by half of your topping, followed by the rest of your batter and then the rest of your topping.

The batter is pretty thick and it is kind of hard to spread your second layer of batter over the middle topping layer.  Be sure to leave enough batter for that layer.  I messed that up.

It looks fine from the top.

As you can see from the side view though, my layers are not exactly even.  Don’t  stress about this too much though.  It’s just coffee cake.

Bake this for about 30-35 minutes at 375.  A toothpick should come out cleanly from the center.

Let this cool for at least 5 minutes before chopping into it.

A big slice of this and a cup of joe is an awesome way to recover from a busted bracket.

The one think I will say about this dish is that it doesn’t keep that well.  It is best right away and is still good for a day or two.  After that though, it gets pretty mushy and doesn’t really have the same texture.  It might be possible to bring it back to life by putting it back in the oven for 5 minutes or so, but ideally, you would just eat it right away!

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