Hobee's Coffee Cake

TOPPING
5 tb Sugar, granulated
2 tb Butter
1/2 ts Cinnamon, ground

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, resift sift flour
with baking power, baking soda, salt and about 1 cup of sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, sour cream and vanilla. Add egg
mixture to flour mixture and beat until smooth.

Oil a 9-inch square baking pan (you can also use an 8 inch square pan, or
anything of similar surface area, if you increase the baking time by about
5 minutes).

Spread the batter in the pan. If you are using fruit or nuts, scatter them
over the batter and stir a little bit so that they stay in the top layer.

In a small bowl, mix about 5 T sugar with the butter and cinnamon with a
sturdy fork, until they are blended and resemble cornmeal (i.e., you should
have a mixture of fine crumbs, not a smooth mixture). Sprinkle topping over
batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a clean toothpick inserted in the
center of the cake comes out dry. Cool slightly; serve warm or at room
temperature. Don’t ruin it by serving it with salted butter.

NOTES:

* Coffee cake from “Hobee’s Haven” restaurant here in Silicon Valley
(usually just called “Hobee’s”) serves a lot of brunch food, and as far as
I can tell they always include a piece of their coffee cake with each
order. Frankly, I don’t care for breakfast, nor do I approve of places at
which the only kind of tea you can order reeks of orange and cinnamon…
but the coffee cake is pretty good. This is their recipe, printed in an
advertising flyer for the shopping center they inhabit; it’s quite easy.

* All ingredients and bowls should be a room temperature before you start;
this is particularly true for the butter.

: Difficulty: easy.
: Time: 10-15 minutes preparation, 20-30 minutes baking.
: Precision: measure the ingredients.

: Jeffrey Mogul
: Digital Equipment Corporation, Palo Alto, California, USA
: decwrl!mogul