Coffee cake with Crown Maple and bacon

I am an avid cake eater, as we know, yet not a lover of baking complicated cakes that take you all day to prepare. Because, well, they disappear much faster than that, don’t they?

This coffee – as in, made with actual coffee – cake is still stunning and special but also deliciously easy.

Use your favorite bundt pan for this cake – the nooks and crannies are wonderful for catching all the bits of the maple glaze. Pour liberally – the more dark amber syrup, the better. I used Crown Maple, my favorite, from Maldava Farms right here in New York.

We are sort of a little past the trend of “bacon on everything!“* though I am not quite sure why… you can never have enough of it, and the addition of savory flavor gives this coffee cake that little bit extra and lifts it to being acceptable for breakfast, which is something I think we can all celebrate.

p.s. {if you agree, please, vote for this recipe this month on the Crown Maple website and social media!}

Note: *if you do not eat bacon, it is easy to omit from the recipe. You can substitute in toasted pecans as a topping or even use both.

Coffee cake with maple and bacon

You’ll need:

• 100 g unsalted butter, melted
• 2/3 cups raw sugar (you can substitute in 1/2 cup maple sugar)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
• 2/3 cup AP flour
• 1/2 t vanilla extract
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 T ground coffee (dissolved in 1 T of hot water)
• Crown Maple Dark Amber syrup
• crispy fried uncured maple smoked bacon, diced

1. Preheat oven to 325F.

2. Cool the melted butter slightly. Strain the coffee through a filter, cheesecloth or just a paper towel.

Whisk together all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.

3. Grease your bundt pan well and pour in the batter (it will be thick). Shake the pan a bit to spread the batter out evenly.

4. Bake for  45-50 minutes until the cake is set and baked through in the middle. It will be very airy.

Let cool – about two-thirds of the way – before inverting (use this time to cook the bacon!)

Using a pastry brush, glaze the still warm cake with plenty of maple syrup and top with crispy bacon.