Cinnamon Cake

Along with Ham Balls, cinnamon cake is another one of those recipes that I inherited after Mr. Kim Chee and I got together. I asked what his favorite food was for his first birthday we celebrated together, and cinnamon cake was what he picked. So I had his mom track down the recipe and it's been a staple at our house ever since.

Cinnamon cake is a very, very basic recipe. It starts with some flour in a large mixing bowl.

The flour is joined by a liberal sprinkling of sugar, as well as a pinch of salt.

A couple teaspoons of baking powder will help your cake rise.

Give your dry ingredients a good whisk, to make sure your baking powder is well incorporated.

Now come the wet ingredients. First is a cup of milk. If I have buttermilk left over from making Buttermilk Pancakes or Honey-Pepper Cornbread, I use that instead.

An egg and some vanilla join the milk.

That's sort of pretty, don't you think?

I started mixing and then realized I'd forgotten something important. Cinnamon!

The original recipe didn't have cinnamon in the batter, but it's cinnamon cake, right? Can't hurt to add more cinnamon when you've got the chance.

Once everything is well mixed, you can pour it into a greased cake pan. This recipe makes enough for an 8x8 square pan. It can easily be doubled to fill a regular sized cake pan.

There's one more step before the cake goes in the oven. Mix up some white sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Then sprinkle it over your unbaked cake.

Whoops, I lied. There's another step after that. Dice up half a stick of butter (I like to cut the stick into tablespoons, and then cut each tablespoon into sixths) and then top your cinnamon-sugar mixture with it.

The butter will cause little sinkholes in your cinnamon cake while it bakes.

Mr. Kim Chee loves his cinnamon cake warm, topped with more butter. He'd eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if he could. Give Cinnamon Cake a try. Maybe you'll find that you feel the same!

Recipe: Cinnamon Cake

2 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. baking powder

1 c. milk

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

2/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 c. (4 tbsp.) cold butter, diced

Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder) together in a mixing bowl.

To the dry ingredients, add milk, egg, vanilla, and cinnamon. Mix well.

Pour batter into a greased 8x8 cake pan.

Combine sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over top of the cake.

Dot evenly with cold butter.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Eat warm, topped with more butter if desired.