Lorraine Ewing of McCordsville has been baking her mom’s coffeecake recipe for years.
Submitted photo
Editor’s note: The Daily Reporter is featuring local recipes and the stories behind them. Here, McCordsville resident Lorraine Ewing shares a buttermilk coffee cake recipe. Ewing, a retired family and consumer sciences teacher for 33 years, is active in Hancock County 4-H as a member, leader and clothing superintendent.
“My mom, Shirley Callahan, made this recipe all her life,” Ewing writes. “I do not know where the recipe came from; it was on a recipe card in her handwriting, in her recipe box, for as long as I remember. In my childhood, she would make it for our family of seven every Christmas and New Years Day. As I grew up, she would make it to share with families moving into the neighborhood, gifts to neighbors, take to parties, pitch in dinners, etc. The ingredients were staple ingredients that she would always keep in supply.
I enjoy making this recipe for my family and friends. I have added walnuts or pecans to the topping. I have added blueberries or sliced peaches to the batter. It freezes well.
I also used this recipe in teaching for 25 years as a way for students to practice basic measuring skills, learning to make substitutions, following directions, plus have a tasty food to sample!”
Buttermilk coffeecake
3 cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 sticks butter
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
Sift flour and salt together into a large bowl. Add sugar and brown sugar into the same bowl. Add butter and cut butter into dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two knives until the butter is the size of peas. Remove one cup of these crumbs and mix two teaspoons of cinnamon to create a topping for the coffee cakes. Set aside. Stir baking soda into buttermilk and let stand for five minutes. Pour buttermilk mixture into the dry crumb mixture in the large bowl. Stir together just until dry ingredients are combined. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. Pour coffee cake mixture evenly into the two pans. Sprinkle dry topping mixture over the top of the batter in each pan. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
The Homemade Hometown Favorites cookbook is available for $10; proceeds benefit local organizations. For information, call Margie Clark at (317) 498-1549.
Submitted photo
At a glance
The Hancock County Extension Homemakers have these events on the horizon:
-“Beating the Winter Blues” will be highlighted in a presentation at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17 at Purdue Extension Office, 802 Apple St. Cost is $3. To register, call Debbie Elsbury at 317-697-0346 or email [email protected].
-Local homemakers will demonstrate how to make biscuits, bread, noodles and pie crust in a Heritage Cooking Class at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 9. The centennial project by Hancock County Extension Homemakers Association will cost $3 per person and will be held at the Sarah Burke Exhibit Hall at the Hancock County Fairgrounds, 620 Apple St., Greenfield. To register, email Debbie Elsbury, 317-697-03456, or [email protected].
