My mom used to wake us up on special occasions with the smell of baking cinnamon and sugar wafting through the air. Let me tell you, there is no better way to wake up than to smell this cake baking in the oven. This recipe was used for my grandmother’s birthday breakfast, and although my mom says that this was the only thing she knew how to cook, it has certainly stood up to the test of time. The cake is buttery and fluffy and is surrounded by a layer of cinnamon and sugar that gets perfectly toasted on the top. Whether you bake this as a celebration for the end of Passover and the beginning of your reentry into the leavened world, or as a wake-up treat for a friend’s birthday, slice it while it’s still warm and serve with a cup of steaming coffee to start your day off sweet.
Coffee Cake

Ingredients

1 cup yogurt or sour cream
1 tsp baking soda
1 stick butter, room
temperature but not melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
chopped walnuts-optional
Instructions:
Grease a round pie pan (or a 9×13 pan) and preheat the oven at 350. Mix the yogurt or sour cream with the baking soda and let it sit. Cream the butter with one cup of sugar. Add the sour cream mixture to the butter and sugar, and then add two eggs and beat in. Add the flour and the baking powder and mix well. Stir in the vanilla. Mix a half cup sugar, cinnamon and chopped walnuts in a separate bowl.
Pour half of the batter into the pan, and then sprinkle with half of the sugar mix. Pour in the second half of the batter and pat the second half of the sugar on top.
Bake for 45 minutes until fully cooked in the middle. Enjoy!