Christmas Coffee Cake

First off, Merry Christmas to all my readers. I hope your day is lovely, and your year is even better. May your year be stress-free, full of love and contain lots of hugs.

On to the food- For the first time, we decided to have brunch rather than dinner with the family for Christmas. Since we're all up early anyway, why not all be together? It's much less stressful this way and we all get to enjoy each other's company. Grandma, Niece and Niece's SO joined Daughter, Husband and me for brunch in the morning. We opened gifts, drank mimosas with fresh OJ (4 trees right outside, you gotta' love Phoenix in winter), and ate till we dropped. It was a lovely day, low stress, easy food and plenty of hugs for everyone. There was even a hoola-hoop competition after brunch (Grandma rocked!)

I know it's a cardinal sin to try a new recipe on company, but today it worked out beautifully. With quiche tarts and fruit salad, we needed something else. I found a box of Gluten Free Pantry Coffee Cake mix in the cabinet and we gave it a try. After tweaking it a little, it turned out magnificent. The cake was moist and fluffy with a crunchy sweet topping I remember from my gluten-eating days. I felt as if I were cheating-it was that good. Even my husband, who would rather not eat GF if he doesn't have to, ended up eating 3 pieces and commenting on how great it was. Trust me, make this cake and nobody will know it's GF or I'm your monkey's uncle...(is that the right way to say that?) Anyway, you'll love it.


Christmas Coffee Cake
For the box recipe, you'll need:
1 egg/ 1 yolk
3/4 cup Yogurt or Buttermilk (I used regular milk, didn't have rice milk)
Butter (just a few tablespoons)
Gluten Free Vanilla
Gluten Free Pantry Coffee Cake Mix

My additions were:
1 cup chopped Trader Joe's candied pecans
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp sugar

8 inch Spring Form pan

Just make the cake according to the directions. Add my additions to the topping mix and follow the directions from there. In just a few minutes, you've got a wonderful coffee cake to bring to a tea with friends or have with your honey when you have coffee in the morning. The best thing about this cake is that I made it the night before and it was still moist and fluffy the next day. Crazy in the GF world, right?

Enjoy!