Rippled Coffee Cake

I've told you before that when I first got out on my own, I wasn't much of a cook. But we had carry-in breakfasts at work quite often, so I had to get at least a couple rotations of dishes to take to those events.

I found this recipe in an early Quick Cooking magazine and tried it out on the work crowd. They loved it, so it became one of the early staples in my Bekah-cookbook.

I'd actually not made it at all recently until a friend at church asked if I had any coffee cake recipes. She was in charge of the kitchen at a women's retreat and wanted to serve coffee cake one of the mornings. She asked if I could make five of these for that event, and I did! All in one night.

These pictures were taken at the marathon session- hence the disposable baking pans. But apparently they still tasted good, because a few people asked for the recipe!

The Recipe:

1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


In a mixing bowl, combine dry cake mix, sour cream, eggs, and oil; beat well. Spread half the batter into a greased 9X13 baking pan. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over batter. Carefully spread remaining batter on top. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla; drizzle over warm cake.


I just use a generic cake mix. If possible, I try to buy 8 ounce tubs of sour cream so I can just dump it in without bothering to measure.
I dump all the cake ingredients in a bowl. Mix it up with a spatula. I don't mess with the electric mixer.

I will say that the crumb mixture for the middle makes a LOT. You risk being on sugar overload. While I normally pride myself on a well-packed cup of brown sugar, I don't pack this one as tightly. It's truly just too much sugar.

Mix it well so you don't get some straight cinnamon.

When I spread the first half of the batter in the bottom of the pan, I try to spread less than half of it in. Trust me. You will be glad when you get ready to do the top half.

Even it out to the corners...

Spread the crumb part as evenly as you can.

The worst part about this whole thing is trying to apply the top half of the batter without getting crumbs stuck in it. I try to put it on little by little and even it out. It helps if you have a little over half of the batter left to work with.

A few crumbs will poke through - but hopefully not too many!

While it bakes, you can get the icing ready. I dump it all in a bowl.

Mix it up. It will be brownish from the vanilla - unless you use clear vanilla. (I always use pure.)

Let the cake cool for just a few minutes...

Add the icing. It will tend to pool in the middle of the cake, which sinks down. I try to maneuver the pan a bit to let it run toward the edges before it hardens.