Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake

It's Secret Recipe Club time again, and this month I was assigned to Rebkah's delightful blog Making Miracles.  And Rebekah does indeed make miracles.  Rebekah began her blog several years ago to share her experiences through surrogacy, a journey which enabled her to bring four beautiful girls into the world for couples who desparately wanted babies but were unable to do so without help.  If that's not miraculous I don't know what is.  Since then Rebekah's blog has continued to share stories of her own son, her day to day family life, and of course recipes from her kitchen.

I found lots of dishes I wanted to make and share with you:  Bacon, Egg & Potato Breakfast Tacos (who wouldn't want to start the day with those);  as a salmon addict, I cant wait to try this Molasses Glazed Salmon;  the Shrimp Lemon Pepper Linguine is totally my kind of dish;  and I've lost count of the number of times I've made these insanely good Roasted Brussels Sprouts in the last month.  But feeling, as I did, the need for cake today, it was Rebekah's Cinnamon Coffee Cake that won out.

Rebekah adapted this recipe from another source, and I too made a few minor changes.  Like Rebekah, I halved the recipe.  I used brown sugar instead of white in the topping, and I replaced sour cream in the recipe with Greek-style natural yoghurt.  Also like Rebekah, I only did two layers to the cake instead of three, because really I'm just a bit lazy and didn't want to be fussing round with it.

This cake turned out to be deliciously moist and flavourful, soft and tender on the inside with a delightfully crunchy exterior.  This was the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon cuppa, and would also be a great cake to take on a picnic.  My only regret ... that I couldn't actually sit down with Rebekah and have a natter about her life and her travels over a good brew and a piece of this cake ... maybe one day.

Cinnamon Walnut Coffee Cake Recipe
Adapted from recipe from Making Miracles
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

For filling & topping:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

For cake:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup natural Greek-style yoghurt

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Lightly grease a 20cm (8 inch) springform or loose-bottomed cake tin, and line the base with non-stick baking paper.

Combine filling and topping ingredients together in a small bowl, and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until fluffy. Add the vanilla, then add the eggs one at time, beating well after each addition.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the yoghurt to butter, sugar and egg mixture, beating after each addition just enough to combine.

Spoon half the batter into the prepared cake tin and sprinkle with 1/2 of the filling mixture. Spread with the remaining cake batter, and top with the remaining filling mixture.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes or until centre is done.

Allow cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Hope you enjoy this cake as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.

An InLinkz Link-up