Maple whiskey, ground pecans, and a generous topping of crunchy streusel combine to give this fluffy coffee cake unbelievable flavor – a cozy treat for crisp fall mornings.
I adore coffee cake. Well, to be honest, I adore the sugary topping. Usually, the cake part itself is kind of uninspired – basically just a canvas for the delectable topping. But for this recipe, I added a layer of toasted ground pecans combined with streusel and maple whiskey which creates an oasis of flavor in the cake.
Grab a big cup of coffee and savor every bite!
| Maple Whiskey Coffee Cake | Print |
- STREUSEL:
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon white sugar, divided
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon flour, divided
- ¾ cup ground pecans (toasted first for best flavor)
- pinch salt
- ¼ cup maple flavored whiskey (or regular whiskey and ½ teaspoon maple flavoring)
- CAKE:
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- GLAZE (optional):
- 2 tablespoons maple-flavored whiskey
- ½ teaspoon maple flavoring
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- Make streusel. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of the sugar (reserve 1 T), the melted butter, cinnamon, ¼ cup of the flour (reserve 1 T), ground pecans, and salt. Stir until combined. Remove 1 cup of this mixture and put it in another small bowl. Add the reserved sugar and flour and the whiskey. (This will be the filling.) Stir until combined. Set both bowls aside.
- Heat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with an oil/flour baking spray, or lightly grease and flour pan. (Alternatively, you can use a Bundt pan. Make sure to spray or grease/flour it well.)
- In a large bowl, beat sugar and butter until light.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping the sides of the bowl often.
- Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with the buttermilk, using half of each mixture at a time, beginning with the dry ingredients and ending with the buttermilk. Beat just until well combined.
- Spread half of this mixture into prepared pan, bringing it all the way to the edge of the pan.
- Spread all of the whiskey filling onto the batter and top with the remaining cake batter, spooning it carefully over the filling and spreading gently.
- Sprinkle all of the streusel over the batter and bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick or wooden skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake. (If using a Bundt pan, test after 40 minutes.)
- Cool on a rack for 15-20 minutes before unlatching outer ring of pan.
- Whisk together the glaze ingredients. Adjust liquid or powdered sugar to achieve a glaze that's easy to drizzle or pipe onto warm cake.
Hints:
- Grind the toasted pecans in a coffee/spice grinder or food processor. Short bursts are best so it doesn’t turn into pecan butter. Small chunks are fine. If you don’t have a grinder/processor, simply chop the nuts finely.
- Can’t find maple flavored whiskey? (I’m SO sorry.) Use regular whiskey and 1/2 teaspoon of maple flavoring, like Mapleine. If you love maple, add a little more flavoring.
- Don’t want to use booze at all? (Eyebrows raised incredulously.) Substitute maple syrup and leave out the additional tablespoons of sugar and flour.
- Do you have maple sugar? I love baking with that stuff! Use it in place of white sugar in the streusel for additional flavor.
- You can also use a Bundt pan for this. You’ll just have to flip the cake over once it’s cooled to get the streusel on top.
Grind the pecans. (Toast them first for more flavor!)
Stir together the streusel ingredients
Add maple whiskey to half of the streusel mixture.
Spread half of the batter in the pan, then add all of the whiskey streusel filling.
Spread remaining batter over the filling and sprinkle streusel over the top.
Ready to bake!
Drizzle with maple whiskey icing if desired.
It really doesn’t take long to get this cake ready for the oven, and you can just imagine how good it smells, can’t you? Give it a try, and I’ll bet it will be a regular occurrence at your house. I mean, everyone likes whiskey for breakfast, right?
Lorinda
I know this is a ridiculous question since the whole point of this recipe is to have some whiskey for breakfast 😉 but what can you sub for the whiskey that would give this some nice flavor? The thought of whiskey turns my stomach.
Sissy! Nah. You could use maple syrup instead. Really, the only place you taste the actual whiskey is in the glaze, and a simple powdered sugar/water/Mapleine glaze would be fine.
I might try the whiskey, but I can definitely do maple syrup. I love the idea of that middle layer of flavor.
The ground pecans add a lot of flavor to the middle layer. I think between that and the syrup you’d be very satisfied!