I'm making my first daring bakers entry tomorrow and it's horribly complicated and I can't post it for a few weeks yet so I thought some nice simple muffins would be good for today. I love coffee cake and I couldn't really think of what the English equivalent would be.

This recipe is best suited to large muffins or in actual cake form (in a 9 x 9 pan). I made regular sized muffins and it was a bit harder to get the streusel to stay on top. For you non Americans coffee cake isn't made with coffee but rather something to have with your coffee. It's basically an excuse to eat cake for breakfast!

Coffee Cake Streusel Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 cup plain flour

60g unsalted butter cubed (cold)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

60g unsalted butter at room temperature

1 3/4 cup plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour cream (I used 1 cup buttermilk)

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

1. Make the streusel topping. In a small bowl mix together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Make crumbs by cutting in the cubed butter. Sprinkle the butter in and using 2 knifes cut across the bowl until the crumbs form (I needed a few more cubes to get mine crumbly). Place in the fridge until ready to use.

Crumbs should be a little smaller than this otherwise they'll sink to the bottom during cooking

2. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C and line muffin tray with paper liners or grease. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated. Pour the flour mixture in and beat on low until combined.

3. Fill each cup and sprinkle streusel on top and bake 15-20 minutes for regular sized muffins and 20-25 minutes for jumbo muffins.

An alternative would be to gently fold in the streusel topping with a spatula to the batter. The muffins would turn out marbeled with brown sugar.

Coffee Cake is something that my mom would serve if her friends came over or with the other mothers at school for PTA meetings.