CLASSIC COFFEECAKE

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (325 for a glass pan). Lightly coat 8-inch round or square pan with vegetable oil spray. Set aside.

In large bowl, beat butter several minutes with electric mixer at high speed. Add sugar to taste and beat several minutes longer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each, then beat in vanilla.

In second bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda, mixing them together with a whisk. Add dry ingredients in three installments to the butter mixture, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. After each addition, mix from bottom of bowl, just enough to blend. Don't overmix. Transfer batter to prepared pan, spreading it evenly.

Mix together brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts, if using, and sprinkle this on top before baking.

Bake in middle of preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick or sharp knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving.

Makes about 6 servings

VARIATIONS:

CARAMEL-NUT-CRUSTED COFFEECAKE:
Make the preceding recipe, but melt the following into the sprayed pan before pouring in cake batter: 2 tablespoons butter, 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar (sprinkled into melted butter), 2/3 cup chopped pecans (sprinkled onto brown sugar). Invert baked cake onto a plate after it has cooled. Scrape onto it any topping that may have stayed in the pan.

BUTTERMILK-RHUBARB COFFEECAKE:
Before making the batter, toss the following together in a small bowl: 2 cups chopped rhubarb (1/4-inch pieces), 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour. Let rhubarb mixture stand while you prepare batter but increase sugar in batter to 2/3 cup and fold rhubarb mixture in with the last installment of dry ingredients. Bake cake 30 to 40 minutes.

BURIED TREASURE COFFEECAKE:
For a bigger cake, double the Classic Coffeecake recipe above and use a standard-size bundt or tube pan. Instead of sprinkling the topping on top, put it in the center of the cake. To do this, after misting the bundt or tube pan, spoon in half the batter, then sprinkle in the topping (now a filling) and spoon on the rest of the batter. You can also add up to 1/2 cup of any or all of the following to the filling: Semisweet chocolate chips, chopped almonds or walnuts, sliced dried fruit, shredded unsweetened coconut, jam or marmalade (spooned in, blob by blob). Bake this larger cake in preheated 350-degree oven 45 to 50 minutes. Let it cool completely before removing cake from pan. Then rap pan sharply and invert cake onto a plate (if using a bundt pan) or pull out the tube and gently lift cake off and onto a plate (if using a tube pan). Cool another 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

TO MAKE AHEAD:
Classic Coffeecake can be made up to two weeks in advance and frozen. The trick is to wrap it airtight 1 hour after it comes out of the oven so the freshness is retained. Remove it from the pan and encase it generously in several layers of plastic wrap. Then slide the entire cake into a heavy-duty resealable plastic freezer bag. Press all the air out of the bag before sealing it, and store it in the freezer until the night before you plan to serve it. Let it defrost, still wrapped, at room temperature overnight. Then in the morning, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F, remove the plastic, wrap the cake in foil and place it in the oven for 30 minutes, or until heated through. (The amount of time will vary with the cake variation selected below.) Slices are also delicious lightly toasted in a toaster oven. Your choice.

Makes 12 to 16 servings
From: Mollie Katzen
Source: the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; April 19, 2006