The Very Adaptable Coffee Cake This recipe is the warm, hearty coffee cake recipe you always want because it always suits whatever is in your kitchen.

This coffee cake is going to try and do the impossible. It’s going to try to be the warm, hearty coffee cake recipe you always want because it always suits the contents of your kitchen. There is a lot to know about substitutions and I’ll be writing about them in the future but for now, I’d really like to get this, my first adaptable online so I can stop editing around on it and get on with writing about thickening agents and such.

If you are not sure about whether or not to substitute cornstarch for flour and your mother-in-law is coming, stick with flour and sugar this time. Pour your creativity into your purée and your choice of chopped fruit or stick with the extremely yummy and Autumnal Harvest Breakfast Coffee Cake recipe.

There are a million options for making this cake. I have not tried all of them. It would be a real help if you wanted to tell me about the ingredients you used to make this cake - whether it turned out, or not, and what, if anything, you would do differently. Write to me, won’t you?

A Note About Harmonizing Spices

The Harvest Breakfast Coffee Cake calls for chopped apples and pumpkin puree. Spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger harmonize to the Autumn season.

But, what if it were summer and you had a giant zucchini from your garden? Chop it instead of the apples, puree some carrots, keep the cinnamon, use more ginger and add mace.

You see?

Getting Started

Gather your ingredients and preheat your oven to 180° C. or 350° F.

Dry Ingredients

Weight Ingredient Examples
300 g. Thickening Agent Flour, Cocoa, Cornstarch (partial), Nut flours
200 g. Sweetening Agent Sugar, Brown sugar, Coconut sugar, Stevia (2-4 tsp)
10 g. Backing powder  
5 g. Baking Soda The soda will do more if you are using yogurt.
4 g. Salt  
10 g. Herbs and Spices Harmonize with your fruit or vegetable

Using a wire whisk combine these ingredients together so that the baking powder, baking soda and salt are distributed into the flour and sugar.

Wet Ingredients

Weight Ingredient Examples
125 ml Oil All one kind or mix and match
125 g. Yogurt (optional)  
4 Large Eggs Not sure of your egg size? Just weigh out 20-25 g. of egg and you’re good.
485 g. Fruit or Vegetable pureé What’s in the house?
450 g. Fruit or Vegetable (chopped) What’s in the house?
100 g. Dried Fruit What’s in the house? Or optional
100 g. Nuts What’s in the house? Or optional

Stir the wet ingredients in to the dry ones until a nice thick dough forms.

Pour the dough into a 9x13 baking pan or two loaf pans and bake for about 45 min. Check to see if the cake is done when a knife comes out clean.