51 Dargie-Approved Recipes.

How to Make Sure Your Coffee Cake Can’t Escape.

I’m not big into deserts, but I’m a sucker for my mom’s Coffee Cake. So what does one do when one is craving said Coffee Cake? Yes, one calls their mom and asks, “Hey mom, do you have the recipe for that Coffee Cake you used to make?“

“I do, and so do you,” she replies. “Page 48 in the ’51 Dargie-Approved Recipes’ book I made everyone.“

Yes, we have a family recipe book filled with all the amazing foods we Dargies love, like Crunchy Coffee Cake on Page 48. So it’s off to the market I go to get some spices and shortening.

I’m not really a baker. I’m more of a cooker. I make things up in the kitchen when I cook, but you can’t do that when baking. Baking is all science, measurements, exact heat, and precise time. This type of “kitchening” is not easy for me because I tend towards culinary chaos rather than the strict laboratory rules required to bake.

How the heck do you “cream shortening and sugar?” YouTube to the rescue. Now, what about “cut in the butter?” Googled it. Refrigerate until needed.

Mix and incorporate, preheat the oven, grease the bottom of the pan (NOT THE SIDES). The emphasis is directly from the recipe. At one point in time, some Dargie greased the sides, and the Coffee Cake was able to escape and went feral. That cake was never seen again, but we heard stories of Coffee Cake related tragedies across the western provinces of Canada. DO NOT GREASE THE SIDES. You have been warned.

Pour in about a third of the cake mix, and add half of the topping to the middle. See, baking is confusing. If it’s in the middle, is it still the “topping?” The “top” of that layer…I guess it still works. Pour in the rest of the cake mix, add the rest of the topping (see, here it makes sense), and bake for 40- to 60-minutes depending on the oven.

At the 45-minute mark, I did the professional baking thing and stabbed the cake with a toothpick. We, Master Bakers, do this to remind our baked goods who’s in charge and to check for doneness. Ignoring the screams from the cake I calculated it needed 6 minutes and 37 seconds more until it was done.

I like to educate as much as entertain, so please know there is no coffee in Coffee Cake. The name comes from the Scandanavians of the 1600s, who used to eat this type of cake with their coffee. So, now you know. If the Scandanavians drank Yak Milk with this desert it would be called Yak Milk Cake.

Eating a warm slice of Coffee Cake brought back a rush of childhood memories. Speaking of memories, on page 49 is the recipe for my mom’s famous Chocolate Squares, but that will have to wait until we’ve eaten all the Coffee Cake.