Simple Cinnamon Cake

  • Simple Cinnamon Cake

    Oh, easy.  I love you.

    I especially love you when I have no time and energy to get all fancy in the kitchen, and yet I’m still compelled to bake something.  But not just anything… something good.  (Really good, let’s be honest.)

    I knew I wanted to bake a cake (we were moving soon and I wanted to get rid of the cute little cardboard cake pan that you can see in the picture above), and was running low on creativity.  I remembered the divine Cinnamon Donut Muffins from a while back and thought “what if I take the Donut and Muffin parts off the title and just call it a cake?”.  (Sometimes I can be deep and profound.)  Well anyways, it worked.  Really well.  This cake was all the things you want an easy cake to be: fluffy, donutty, and covered in butter and cinnamon sugar.  Loving.  It.

    Adapted from my Cinnamon Donut Muffin recipe…

    CAKE:

    2¼ cups all-purpose flour

    2 teaspoons baking powder

    1 teaspoon salt

    ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

    ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

    ¾ cup sugar

    1 large egg

    1 teaspoon vanilla

    1 cup whole milk

    TOPPING:

    6 tablespoons (¾ stick) butter, melted

    ½ cup sugar

    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar/”sugar in the raw” (optional)

    1. Preheat oven to 375°.  Grease two 8 or 9″ cake pans with nonstick spray.
    2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg together; set aside.
    3. In a separate large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (3 – 5 minutes).  Beat in egg and vanilla.  With mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 additions alternating with milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
    4. Scoop batter equally into cake pans and bake, rotating pan halfway through, for about 35 minutes (until a tester inserted into center comes out clean).  Remove from oven and poke holes across surface of cakes (using a wooden skewer if possible).
    5. TOPPING:  In a small bowl, melt butter.  In a medium bowl, mix sugars and cinnamon together.  Pour melted butter over cakes, allowing to seep into poked holes and down sides of cake in pans.  Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over top to coat.
    6. Allow to cool in pans.

    Tips:

    • Fresh nutmeg is the way to go.  Buy them in bulk (the little nutmeg balls) and grate them on the prickly edge of your cheese grater thing.
    • You can use a different kind of milk (like 2% or skim or almond) but know that the texture won’t be as rich and yummy.
    • The cinnamon… I love the stuff.  I use Vietnamese cinnamon, which is stronger and spicier, so I think you should try it too.
    • Extra mile version:   pour half of the batter into the pans, then sprinkle a liberal amount of cinnamon and sugar overtop.  Pour the rest of the batter over that layer, and bake as usual.  Wow.
    • Why the Turbinado sugar too?  It has a crunchier texture so you can see the sugar on the top of the cakes.  Crunchy and sweet.
    • These freeze really well, assuming you wrap them tightly.
    • Enjoy!

     

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    November 8th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: ,

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