My Favorite Coffee Cake Recipe

I think that there are a million and one different ways to make coffee/crumb cake out there. Growing up making coffee cake was a really big treat only reserved for mornings where we had no where to rush off to. It meant putting on my child-sized Little Mermaid apron on and getting up on a stool to help my mom with stirring, cracking open eggs, and whatever other good little sous chefs do. Then waiting a painstaking 45 minutes for the cake to bake and cool off enough to be eaten. I remember watching it on the counter and taking off pieces of the crumb topping because I'd be so hungry I just wanted something!

Now I can obviously make coffee cake whenever I want to, but I still tend to save it for those days when I've got time to be lazy. I throw on a classical CD or three, make a cup of tea, and sit on the couch and relax while my apartment fills with the smell of cake and brown sugar. So if that wasn't tempting enough, here's the recipe I use these days. Different from my mom's, but just as good (if not better).

For the cake:
- 1 1/3 cup Bisquick (I like using this instead of flour, which requires a different recipe, because I like the taste of the cake better)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp room temperature/softened butter (don't melt it, adding the cold milk will harden it up and it won't displace properly)
- 1 egg (also, if you melt the butter it might cook parts of the egg)
- 3/4 cup of milk
- tsp vanilla

For the crumb topping:
- 1 stick (8 tbsp) of butter
- 8 tbsp of room temperature/softened flour
- 4 tbsp of sugar
- 4 tbsp of brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your 8x8 square pan.
2. Mix cake ingredients together and poor in the pan.
3. Mix together crumb topping with a fork. Make sure the butter is not too melted otherwise you will have a really hard time spreading it around. (I admit to doing this a lot because I always decide last minute to make this and have to defrost the butter in the microwave. But using your hands is a mess...although delicious!)
4. Top the cake with your crumbs and bake for about 30 minutes. In a 9x9 pan it may take only 20-25.
5. Let cool a little bit and serve!