Grandma Hazel's Jewish Coffee Cake

I'm finally back from my extended vacation that took me to the far corners of the US (Maine and Southern California) and ready to share my latest exploits in the kitchen!

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My Grandma Hazel was Catholic, not Jewish, so I have no idea why she would have had a recipe for a Jewish coffee cake.  But she did, and I found it by chance while going through my mom's recipe book on our visit home.  And of course, I had to make it!

I really loved how this came out.  It was full of fruits and nuts and made a great snack.  It didn't last long, either.  My stepdad ate about half of the cake by himself.  Plus, I got warm fuzzies when I was making it, as I do any time I make one of my Grandma's recipes.

Jewish Coffee Cake
(recipe courtesy of my Grandma Hazel)

1 cup sugar

Baking in my mom's kitchen :)

2 eggs

½ cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

2 cups flour

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped dates

1 small bottle maraschino cherries

½ cup walnuts

 1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Cream together the sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla.  Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  

Pour ½ of the batter into a greased angel food pan.  Cover batter with the fruit mixture- raisins, chopped dates, cherries and ½ of the walnuts. Sprinkle ½ of the sugar and cinnamon over the fruit.  Pour the rest of the batter over the fruit and sprinkle the remainder of the sugar, cinnamon and nuts over the top.  Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.

The angel food pan makes it easy to remove from the pan.  It tastes great served warm, with a cup of tea. I don't know how Jewish this coffee cake it, but it is definitely yummy!

I'm glad that Fall is on the way, I just wish we had the cool Fall temperatures that I am used to.  The forecast here in the Bay Area is in the 90's for the rest of the week.  But even with the HOT temperatures, I am looking forward to cooking with apples and pumpkins!

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