Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I've actually made this recipe twice in the past few days. The recipe comes from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, a really wonderful book which is yet more proof that great desserts do not need to be packed with milk/butter/cream/eggs to taste good.

I chose to make coffee cake because I wanted something sweet that I already had all the ingredients to make. This recipe uses basic ingredients that are already in the fridge/pantry (or fridge/bookshelf, in my case) so it's very easy. These basic ingredients can also be a problem because it's too easy to make and eat this tasty dessert too often. Not only are the ingredients basic, but it's such an easy cake to make. Prep is maybe 10 minutes and it only takes 35 minutes to bake. So it is tempting to do a little baking all the time.

I first made the cake last Tuesday night on a whim. The problem was that I didn't have a proper cake pan so I had to make only half the recipe and use a tiny pan. Of course it still tasted great, just looks a bit sad in the picture.

When my parents came to visit on Saturday, I baked it again for them for their anniversary. This time I had a proper cake pan (thanks to them!) but I did get distracted talking to them and combined the crumb part too much so it no longer appeared crumbly. It was more like pouring strands of the topping on the cake rather than crumbs but still tasted just fine. I always know that a vegan recipe is good if my dad enjoys it and he did indeed like the cake.