Coffee Cake

I have this coffee cake recipe. It was given to me about 20 years ago by a family friend who has since passed away. I would imagine it is at least 20 years older than that, maybe more. Apparently, coffee cake evolved from Kuchen--German cakes that started out in the 17th century as breads and became sweeter in the 20th Century. The crumbly topping came from Struesel, another German treat. I'm going to guess it evolved during simpler times when people still believed in coffee and cake as a civilized part of life.

It's a very simple recipe of flour, an egg, baking powder,sugar, butter. It has a brown sugar, butter and cinnamon crumbly topping. It doesn't have fleur de sel in it. You don't use baker's sugar. It wouldn't taste good with scharfenberger chocolate chips. It is just a simple cake, best enjoyed by someone who isn't in a hurry and still likes to eat cake off a simple china plate while sipping their coffee or tea.

Growing up where I did, eating coffee cake was not for special occasions. It was just like breathing, or sweeping the kitchen or picking some tomatoes, zucchini and onions from the garden for lunch to go with the sweet corn dad just brought in. That was just life.

Now that I live in Los Angeles, I find myself looking for that organic farmers' market where I can see my long lost vegetables again. And maybe that's why for years I have sought out cafes, where I can sit and have a simple pastry and coffee and read and write. It all feels like being back in the kitchen with mom where brown sugar, butter and eggs were the ingredients of life.