Cowboy (Buttermilk) Coffee Cake

Why you’ll love this coffee cake recipe

• You have options! Buttermilk or milk mixed with lemon juice or vinegar and the choice to use butter, margarine, or shortening. 
• With so many options you may have everything you need to make this cake in your cabinets right now.
• It’s the perfect breakfast time treat.  

Ingredients

See recipe card for exact amount.

Ingredient Notes

flour – all purpose flour works great. 

butter, margarine or shortening – we use unsalted butter. Margarine, shortening or butter flavored shortening will also work in this recipe. 

buttermilk or sour milk – I like buttermilk, you can use sour milk if you have the stuff for it. 

brown sugar – light brown sugar is what we use, dark brown sugar will also work. 

eggs – large eggs. 

leavening agents – both baking powder and baking soda are used to help our coffee cake rise. 

spices – ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg give this cake great flavor. 

salt – just a bit, regular salt, sea salt or kosher salt will all work. 

nuts – a soft nut like pecans or walnuts are a great choice. 

How to make sour milk buttermilk substitute

Put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice OR vinegar for every 1 cup of milk to a measuring cup, add enough milk to equal 1 cup. Let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

For this specific recipe you will put 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice in at least a 2 cup measuring cup and fill it up with enough milk to equal 1 1/3 cups. 

How to make cowboy coffee cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350° and spray a 9″ X 13″ cake pan with cooking spray. 
2. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and salt. 
3. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, set aside 1/2 cup of crumbs. 
4. Add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg to the remaining crumb mixture and stir to combine. 
5. Mix the well-beaten eggs into the buttermilk. Dump the egg mixture into the dry mixture all at once and stir until well combined. 
6. Pour batter into prepared pan.
7. Add chopped nuts to the remaining crumbs and mix until combined. Sprinkle on top of cake batter and bake in a preheated oven 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Allow to cool a bit and serve warm. 

Tips

• Use cold butter or margarine. You don’t want the butter to be too warm when you cut it into the dry ingredients. 
• If you don’t have a pastry cutter there are several ways you can cut the butter into the flour. MasterClass has a great article that explains 5 ways to do this. This is the first thing I have made since I bought my pastry cutter and I found it was good to start the process and I finished it with my hands. Often times I find that the best kitchen tools I have are my hands.
• While the recipe in the cookbook calls for the cake to bake for 35-40 minutes we have found that our cake bakes in more like 25-30 minutes.

How to tell when cake is done

• The cake will spring back when touched and no indentation will remain.
• The edges will start to brown.
• A toothpick inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean.
• The edges of the cake will start to pull away from the sides of the pan.
• Your nose knows, it will start to smell fragrant. 

Storage

Store cake in an airtight container at room temperature. Just like any cake this is better the first few days and will start to dry out the longer you have it. It can be stored in the refrigerator if you prefer your cake to be chilled.