Recipe: North Texas Student Union Coffee Cake

I made some of this coffee cake for Mom last night to see if it was like the "real thing" that she loved when she was in college and she said from the looks of it, it was! So, thanks to my grandmother and her Bridgeport Methodist Cookbook, we now have the recipe....it also helps that I must have guessed right on a few of the vague instructions, like add vanilla....didn't say how much, just to add it!

So, here is the recipe for one and all....

North Texas Student Union Coffee Cake

Cake Ingredients:
4 cups flour
4 Tablespoons of Dry Milk
4 teaspoons of backing powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/3 cup of sugar
12-14 Tablespoons of shortening (I used the butter shortening because I had it open)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons of vanilla (I used the real vanilla, not imitation)
1 1/2 cups of water

Topping Ingredients:
1/2 stick of butter
3/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of flour
1 Tablespoon of cinnamon

Combine flour, milk, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

Add shortening and cut in as you would a pie crust.

Add eggs, water, vanilla, and beat (I used my paddle attachment on my kitchen aid and barely had to mix it, just mix until it is incorporated nicely.) The mixture will be fairly thick.

Pour into a greased (I greased my glass 13X9 baking dish with butter because I was out of Pam) baking dish.

Melt butter and pour or brush it on the top. Mix the sugar, flour, and cinnamon for the topping and layer on top and pat down a little. You can top with chopped pecans if you like.

Bake for about 55 minutes until a toothpick in the middle comes out fairly clean. This puffs up pretty tall, so it take a while. My instructions said to cook for 35 minutes but I found it needed a lot more, so just keep an eye on it.

This is a great cake for breakfast or a brunch. I am sure it is good with coffee as well but I don't drink coffee so I had it with milk!