Woke up this morning and found out it was National Coffee Cake Day? Are you kidding me? There really is a National Coffee Cake Day? Who decided that? I mean, really, who sits around and makes up Coffee Cake Day, Ice Cream Day, Grilled Cheese Day? Okay, I’m not sure there really is an Ice Cream Day but I would vote for it!
So I am all about celebrating the holidays so I decided I would participate and bake a coffee cake. I started looking through my recipe book and came across my recipe for Pull-Apart Cake. Now, most people know this as Monkey Bread, but in our family it is just called Pull-Apart Cake. Love it! I first tried it when Temera was born and David’s Aunt and Uncle came to see the baby. They brought us a homemade Pull-Apart Cake. David’s Uncle is quite the baker and the cake was awesome. I just had to have the recipe. Luckily, our family doesn’t mind sharing things like this. I’ve been making it ever since. But… I haven’t made the cake in a while so since it was Coffee Cake Day I thought I would put on my baking hat and get to it.
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| My Super Secret Recipe Book |
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| The Famous Pull-Apart Cake Recipe |
I use my bread machine to make the dough. This is the same bread machine that we got as a wedding present from my co-workers 13 years ago when we got married. Unbelievably the thing is still going strong. When I got the machine I laughed and told me husband, “Who actually buys a bread machine as a gift?” But it turned out to be one of the best gifts we got.
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| Antique Bread Machine |
So… into the bread machine I put:
1 egg
7 oz. water
2 tbs. butter
1 tsp. salt
3 cups bread flour (yes, bread flour really does make a difference)
3 tbs. sugar
2 1/4 tsp. dry yeast (or 1 packet)
I set the bread machine to go through the dough cycle. On my machine it takes 90 minutes which gives me plenty of time to go do other things while the machine is doing the work for me.
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| Doesn’t look like cake. |
When the dough is ready, I take it out and kneed it again and then make small, golf sized balls out of the dough and stack them up in a pyramid. Then, I make the syrup.
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| Mmmmm…. Dough! |
In a small saucepan, combine the following ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.
Then, combine in a small bowl: 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
Roll each dough ball in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and layer them in a greased bundt pan. (I use Pam.) When all the dough balls are ready, pour the cooled syrup mixture over all the dough balls. Cover with a dry cloth and let rise in a warm place for 30 - 40 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (I also happen to throw in some mini chocolate chips - just ’cause I like a little more sugar in my cake.)
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| Before the syrup. |
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| After the syrup. |
Bake for 25 minutes until lightly browned. Loosen edges with a knife and turn pan upside down onto a plate. Drizzle remaining syrup over the bread.
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| Finished Masterpiece. |
You can either slice the cake and eat it with a fork… or you can do what we do and just tear into it with our hands and eat it piece by piece. So much more fun this way.
I love Coffee Cake Day!
