Eggnog coffee cake

Eggnog coffee cake with a cinnamon-nut swirl and topping is only lightly sweet, making it perfect for breakfast.

I'm wrapping up eggnog week with a total winner: eggnog coffee cake -- no coffee required.

By now, you've made a batch of easy homemade eggnog and perhaps even turned it into some eggnog cookies. If you haven't yet completely boozed it up and glugged it all down, you can now use it in this moist, delicious coffee cake.

While I like sweet treats and desserts, I prefer my baked goods a little on the less-sweet side (some I even prefer savory). This eggnog coffee cake fits the bill, making it ideal not only for breakfast but also as an afternoon snack or a pretty after-dinner dessert.

(Don't you just love versatility?)

But I'm highly recommending it for breakfast, especially your Christmas morning breakfast, which is rapidly approaching and deserves a pretty, delicious cake.

As you can see from the photos, I made mini coffee cakes, using a wicked cute mini bundt cake pan that made six individual cakes. But the recipe also makes one large cake, using a 9-inch bundt or plain tube pan.

And if you prefer more of a streusel-like topping, chop the pecans finely, rather than leaving them in fairly large pieces, as I did, before you put the topping mixture in the pan. And -- surprise! -- it has a layer of that crunchy, cinnamon-sugar nut mixture in the center of the cake as well as on the top.

Do you have a Christmas morning breakfast tradition or would you be willing to give this eggnog coffee cake a whirl? Leave a comment: The Ninj wants to know.

Eggnog Coffee Cake

(adapted from Berkeley Farms)
Makes one cake in a 9-inch tube or bundt pan (or six 1-cup mini cakes)


Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup homemade eggnog
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-- For the topping and center layer --
1 1/4 cups pecans, broken into pieces or finely chopped
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside. In another small bowl, mix together the pecans, remaining sugar and cinnamon; set this aside as well.

With a mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, eggnog and vanilla (be careful -- it may splash). Add the flour mixture a little at a time and mix until combined. Place half of the topping mixture in the bottom of a greased bundt or tube pan (or mini pans, if you're using them). Spoon half of the batter over that layer, then add the remaining topping mixture on top of the batter. Spoon in the remaining batter.

Bake about 50 minutes to one hour (start checking at 50) or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean (for mini cakes, start checking at about 35 minutes -- they will take less time to bake). As with all bundt cakes, cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before unmolding, then cool completely.

---

www.yankeekitchenninja.com
-- print recipe --