Creative Coffee Cake

Who doesn't like coffee cake, am I right?  The richness of sour cream, the spice of cinnamon, the flaky, crumbly, streusel topping….mmmmmmm!

Well, I decided to get creative with a pretty simple recipe by merely adding a bit of coffee mate.  Yes, that's right, coffee mate into the coffee cake.  And what kind did I choose?  Pecan Praline.

Like, I said, all you have to do is add a little of the coffee mate, maybe a table spoon or two to your batter before you bake it.  I also added a little to the butter for my streusel, and instead of using pecans because Nick hates them, I picked a bunch of almonds out of a bag of trail mix I found in the cupboard and smashed them up with my rolling pin.

The result was a very moist cake with the essence of pecan, which made my house smell very festive.  Here is the recipe I used for the cake, but you can use any old recipe you favor.

Cake:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
ADD 2 tbsp Pecan Praline CoffeMate

Topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsbp melted butter
1 tsp Pecan Praline CoffeeMate
1 tbsp cinnamon
ADD 1/2 cup crushed almonds

Cream the butter and sugar, mix in sour cream and eggs.  Add vanilla and CoffeeMate.  Mix in flour and powder.  Pour into a greased pie pan and set aside.

For the topping, mix together all the ingredients until a crumble is formed.  Add more sugar if needed to get the right texture.  Sprinkle all over the top of the cake batter.  Bake at 350 for about 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.  It took me a little longer because I'm at such a high altitude, but just watch it close so it doesn't get burned.

And hey, if you can use the Pecan coffee mate, go ahead and try all the other seasonal and not so seasonal flavors out there!  I bet you can come up with some pretty tasty treats.