Cherry Coffee Cake

My mother, Dolores Borel, served this hot with coffee.  My grandmother, Ruby, loved to embroider and applique quilt tops.  During the winter months we would “put up” a quilt in my mother’s living room–that being the largest and least used room in the house.  The quilting frames, handmade by my dad by tacking ticking to long boards, would be brought out to have the quilt top pinned to them then mounted onto four corner stands.  Chairs would be taken from the kitchen table and placed around the quilt.  We started quilting the outside edges, then as we finished sewing for as long as we could reach, the quilt sides would be turned so as to begin again.  When we stopped for a coffee break, everyone would look at each others stitches to compare who had the best.  We would enjoy our warm cake with coffee and tease one another about our sewing.  What happy memories to have of my grandmother.

By Pat Savoie, originally by Dolores Borel

For the cake:

3               cups  flour
1                tsp  baking powder
1                tsp  baking soda
1                cup  sugar
1               stick  butter
2               eggs — beaten
1                cup  sour cream
1                tsp  vanilla
1                can  Comstock Cherry Pie Filling

For the top:

1/4          cup  sugar
1/4          cup  butter

Method:

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs, sour cream, and vanilla then dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Spread 1/2 batter in greased and floured 9 x 13 pan.  (I floured my hands and pressed it into the bottom.)

Top with cherry pie filling.  Drop remaining batter by small spoonfuls over cherries.  (An alternate way is to flour a smooth surface and turn out remaning dough.  With floured hands press into a 9×13 shape.  Lift and place on top of cherries to the best of your abilities.)  Do not worry if it does not look beautiful at this stage.  Some cherries may show through.  It will all puff up and look nice when it cooks.

Combine cold butter and sugar with a pastry cutter until crumbly.  Sprinkle this streusel over the top of the dough.  Bake 325 for 30-40 minutes until cooked in the center and slightly browned. It’s best served hot.

If you like coffee cake, you may also like our Blueberry Coffee Cake Muffins, Blueberry Buttermilk Coffee Cake, Apple Coffee Cake, Rugelach or Jumbo Oatmeal Raisin Coconut Cookies.