Toffee Pecan Coffee Cake

I’ve had Britain on the mind lately.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know this is not an unusual occurrence.

I’m a big fan of all things British: Scones. English chocolate. Harry Potter. Sherlock. Downton Abbey (see above) and other, real English country estates. Free art museums with glorious collections. And of course, the accent. (Does anyone else sometimes get the strong urge to just start speaking in a British accent to random people? Or their cats? … Just me? Okay, then.)

My current British obsession combines nearly all of the things above: THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE-OFF. Oh yes. (Minus Harry, Sherlock, and the National Gallery–can’t win ’em all. Although, maybe they’ll have to create cakes inspired by works of art for the season finale, and Benedict Cumberbatch will cameo as a guest judge for some inexplicable reason… hey, a girl can dream.)

The Great British Bake Off is seriously awesome. A reality show where the contestants are not only incredibly talented non-professional bakers but also all actually care about each other? Dry and witty comedienne hosts? Decidedly pro-UK interludes with food historians? A judge named, I am not kidding you, MARY BERRY!? TV does not get better than this, people. Especially when you’re a baker yourself and occasionally realize you know more than the contestants (case in point: kouign-amann, best pastry ever–how had NONE of them ever heard of it before!?).

So what does GBBO, as the Brits call/hashtag it, have to do with this coffee cake? (Coffee cake is not exactly British, after all.)

Toffee! That’s how I’m bringing this full circle. (Yeah, it’s a stretch, because turns out what we in the US refer to as “English toffee” is not really anything like what toffee is in the UK. Whatever, just go with it, I really just wanted an excuse to talk about the Great British Bake Off.) I’m not the biggest fan of toffee–it’s definitely more of an English confection than American–but when you douse it in brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon, it is definitely OK by me.

One of my curator pals, a fellow baker, recently told me about this recipe and I had to give it a try once she described it. And I am so glad I did. I adapted it a bit on the go (adding toffee bits and cinnamon to the batter itself) and it is pretty amazing.

If you want to make your own British connection, you can always sub your side of coffee for tea. In the meantime, I’ll be spending my Sunday catching up on past GBBO seasons with this coffee cake at my side.

Whiteout Cake

Turns out life without homework is pretty… well… boring.

I’m okay with boring, though, most of the time. It’s refreshing to have nothing to do and nowhere to be on a weekend. Suddenly brunch is easier to impulsively make happen, I feel no guilt about going out shopping for hours on end, and I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a lot of TV I need to catch up on after two years of grad school.

To be honest, I have always been into the stuff that most people find boring. I almost always choose vanilla over chocolate, for example–that age-old indicator of your boringness level when judging ice cream flavors–and I love a good day at home when I don’t have to leave my apartment.

I will say, though, even for my introverted self, those sorts of days have their limits. There’s only so much Call the Midwife or Leftovers a girl can handle in 24 hours (take your pick between too many babies or too many unanswered questions). As I wondered what the heck I was going to do with myself for the holiday weekend that might, perhaps, get me off the couch, I remembered that baking stuff, taking photos of it, and writing odd little posts about them publicly for the whole internet to see is kinda my thing.

So here we are! I was going to make cupcakes. I really was. But I loaned my one cupcake tin to a friend last week (side note: what kind of food blogger only has ONE muffin tin to her name!?). Thus, a full-out cake it was. Well, a cake and two dozen mini cupcakes.

This Whiteout Cake is from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, and is a sweet, light, subtle vanilla cake with white-chocolate buttercream. The whole thing is quiet and reliable but super delicious.

So rather than celebrating the last day it’s socially acceptable to wear white pants–which admittedly would be a better connection to why I made an all-white cake for no reason this weekend–let’s say instead that this is a cake for celebrating boredom. Because as much as I love a quiet day, I’ll also admit I’m a bit of a workaholic, so spending a day doing nothing does not come easily to me. So here’s to me embracing boredom–what better way to get started than with cake?

In other news, does anyone in the Milwaukee area want a cake? ‘Cause if so, I have a whole one, minus one slice, with your name on it…